"Jim Hampton" wrote in message ...
Jim,

I had a 2nd class radiotelegraph license back in 1967. One needed to be 21
(I was still a teenager) plus have sufficient service time to qualify for
the 1st (I forget, but it seems it was one year at sea running
communications under the supervision of a 1st telegraph). The second was 20
words per minute and the 1st was 25 words per minute. From what I have
heard, the 25 was sufficient to get you a not too good paying job on the
slow side circuits whilst you had to be 100% copy and reliable at 30 to get
the good jobs on the main circuits. Of course, this would pre-date 1967 by
quite a few years

Phil Kane has posted that there was a *shortage* of licensed
radiotelegraph ops for the maritime services during the Vietnam
conflict. Supplies going to VN went mostly by ship, all of which were
US flag vessels....

Any connection to incentive licensing is pure speculation.

From what I recall, back in the 60s you tended to hear the newcomers at 5 to
10 words per minute, a minor number in the 13 to 20 range, a number in the
30 word per minute range, and a surprising number in the 40 plus word per
minute range. I did run into one guy that I had a problem with until he
realized I wasn't the guy he was used to hearing at KG6NAC and finally
slowed down to about 50 (which was really pushing limits for me at that
time). I originally called cq at about 40 to 45 and he responded at around
60. Fortunately, I got most of his call but that was a bit much.

It's still that way today. 'tother night I had a nice QRQ ragchew with
a French amateur on the low end of 80. Had the bug weight waay back!

I recall a post sometime back where a veteran described a code test
for US Navy "A" school, circa 1958. The test was to receive, on a
standard Navy mill, 5 letter groups at 24 wpm. For a solid hour.
Maximum of 3 errors in the entire hour.

73 de Jim, N2EY