In article , Mike Coslo
writes:
N2EY wrote:
But back in 1968, when I was at the FCC office for the General, the
examiner
said "why not try the Advanced while you're here?" (Could not do Extra
because
back then it had a 2 year experience requirement).
Question 1:
Were you discriminated against by such a rule?
No!
Since you lived through
such a thing, your input would be worthwhile.
My view, then and now, was that experience was part of the qualifications. Of
course, someone could just toss the license in a drawer for two years and do
nothing with it, but such was not the case with anyone I knew.
The day the Advanced license arrived, I sat down and calculated when the 2
years would be up, based on the effective date of the license. On the first
exam day when it would have been OK to take the test, I was back at the FCC
office to get the Extra.
So I took it and passed easily even though I had not studied for it at all.
I
was 14 and it was the summer between 8th and 9th grades. Not a big deal
even
then because I knew of 12 year old Extras back then.
I do believe there is a "toughness effect" that is related to how much
trouble a person may have had at the time. They remember that it was
fairly hard for them then, so it remained difficult, even though the
person learned much more over the years. And since they know a lot now,
the old test must have been tough.
I did not think any of the tests - written or code - were that difficult. They
required one to know a little radio and some basic code skills, that's all.
Kind of like when I went back to my old elementary school a year or so
ago. I remembered how big the place was, and how big a deal it was to
walk from one end of the school to the other. If I hadn't gone back and
seen just how small the place was, my perception would have been forever
skewed as to it's size and how intimidating it was to a little kid such
as I was.
I had the same experience going back to my high school after not having been
there for more than 25 years. How small it appeared! And I'm about the same
size I was in those days.
73 de Jim, N2EY
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