You were a general at age 10?

"Litzendraht" wrote in message
ups.com...
Well,

I'm 61

Novice License 1955

General License 1956

Extra Class Permit 2003

Fred, I was a General at 11, a couple of weeks before my 12th birthday.

John

Litzendraht wrote:

Fred, I was a General at 11, a couple of weeks before my 12th birthday.

John

75 Learning to fix radios at 11. Carrer in electronics. Ham ticket 1959.
John K3OPC

59. Novice in 1959 (12), general 1960 (13), FCC first with CW endorsement 1961.

Grew up in NJ, with monthly trips down to NYC's "Radio Row" on Cortlandt Street,
and the many surplus electronics stores along US 1 in northern NJ. Hauled many a
BC-348 and BC-454 home on the train, to my Dad's dismay. (Although he did even
help me put up a 50-foot telescoping steel mast in our back yard. 8 )

Worked through high schools repairing tv's in a local shop, and operating mostly
from the local high school station (WA2GVV, with a DX-160 and HQ-170A), YMCA
(K2YNT), and local Civil Defense office.

Drafted out of college in 1966, so went down and emlisted as an MOS 05 radio
operator, but wound up in OCS instead of Ft. Monmouth.

Gave up operating around 1992, when I figured new call sign policies, incentive
licensing and USEnet had killed ham radio, but still keep my cw skills up by
listening on a 2C and an R-8500.

-- Larry (ex WA2QCM)

pltrgyst wrote:
general 1960 (13), FCC first with CW endorsement 1961.


Larry, that's quite an accomplishment. Exams in those days were
taken in person at an FCC field office. No answers were published. You
were strickly on your own. And the First Class ticket was really
something to be proud of.

John

On 4 Feb 2006 18:57:22 -0800, "Litzendraht" wrote:

pltrgyst wrote:
general 1960 (13), FCC first with CW endorsement 1961.

Larry, that's quite an accomplishment. Exams in those days were
taken in person at an FCC field office. No answers were published. You
were strickly on your own. And the First Class ticket was really
something to be proud of.

Thanks, but it didn't seem like a big deal. Several of my friends did the same
thing -- we had the two very active local clubs I mentioned, and the FCC testing
office in NYC was only 45 minutes away by train on our frequent shopping
expeditions.

The first did come in handy years later when I was working for RCA and they had
their big strike, and hundreds of us non-radio/tv station employees filled in.
8 Other than that, I never used it for employment.

I don't miss the redundancy of short QSOs, but I did love cw.

-- Larry

pltrgyst wrote:
On 4 Feb 2006 18:57:22 -0800, "Litzendraht" wrote:

pltrgyst wrote:
general 1960 (13), FCC first with CW endorsement 1961.

Larry, that's quite an accomplishment. Exams in those days were
taken in person at an FCC field office. No answers were published. You
were strickly on your own. And the First Class ticket was really
something to be proud of.

Thanks, but it didn't seem like a big deal. Several of my friends did the same
thing -- we had the two very active local clubs I mentioned, and the FCC testing
office in NYC was only 45 minutes away by train on our frequent shopping
expeditions.
Other than that, I never used it for employment.


I really wasn't referring to the 1st class ticket as an aid to
employment (although it was a viaible credit in those days). I'm just
saying that you should have been as proud as a peacock when you left
the FCC office. And I'm sure you were!

I can't even relate my elation at passing the General in 1956 when I
was still 11. And the examiner even complimented me on my code ability.
"Son, where did you learn the code?."

"Well, I've been a Novice almost a year now and I've had plenty of
practice."

John

Grew up in NJ, with monthly trips down to NYC's "Radio Row" on Cortlandt Street

Ah, the memories! I grew up in Florida and went to college in the midwest,
but worked one summer for the Holmdel Bell Labs in New Jersey, and I still
remember my one trip to NYC's Radio Row! (FWIW, I turned 65 last week.)

--
--Myron A. Calhoun.
Five boxes preserve our freedoms: soap, ballot, witness, jury, and cartridge
PhD EE (retired). "Barbershop" tenor. CDL(PTXS). W0PBV. (785) 539-4448
NRA Life Member and Certified Instructor (Home Firearm Safety, Rifle, Pistol)