RadioBanter - View Single Post

Mike Coslo · October 20th 07, 03:56 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

wrote in news:1192669855.352467.256260
@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com:

On Oct 17, 2:51?am, Phil Kane wrote:
On Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:14:05 EDT, wrote:
What was intimidating was the fact that the Examiner was The Man From
FCC, who had sole power to say "You passed" or "You failed".

It was the applicant who determined if the result was passing or
failing. The examiner merely reported the results.

Bwaahaaahaaa! I walked right into that one, Phil!

However, didn't the examiner have to use at least some judgement as to
whether an applicant's Morse Code copy was 'legible', and whether his/
her sending was OK?

Going back before my time, when the exams involved writing essays,
drawing diagrams and showing how an answer was derived, didn't the
examiner have some judgement as to whether the applicant had properly
answered a question?

--

The way I recall it, the examiner I met wasn't so much trying to
intimidate as to simply let you know that this licensing stuff was
serious business.

This kind of got me to thinking. Perhaps the judgement part is one of the
reasons that essays went away. In a related situation, the first time I
took my driving test, I went before a steely eyed Examiner, a state
policeman by the name of Nix. I aced the written part of the test, and
aced the driving test too. Then on the way back to the building where
they were headquartered, he suddenly yelled out STOP NOW! I did so
immediately, thinking there might be an emergency situation; after which
he looked at me, grinned, and said "Congratulations, YOU flunked!" When I
asked what I did wrong, He said "You didn't use your turn signal." My
test was already over, and I did everything asked, and yet I couldn't do
a thing about it.

I am a big supporter of the tests the way they are now.

- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -