There has always been some cheating on tests.


Maybe you hung out with a different crowd than I did. All my study was out
of Engineering classes and ARRL Handbook and License manual for the regs. I
was taught the code from a CW op who officiated my Novice exam. We didn't
proceed until I could do on the air QSOs in front of him on the club
station. And by the way, everyone that I studied and did code practice
with, got ham tickets. Even a Mexican kid who barely spoke English. Those
that bitched and moaned and threw tantrums over it, didn't want to after
all. Glad not to have them.

You are correct that "weeder" tests can't be 100% effective. But if you
think that they don't have an impact, then why test at all? If nothing is
100% effective then game is up? No more testing then? They went that route
with CB and they couldn't even give people a litteracy test. I.E. getting
them to sign a paper stating they would abide by the rules. FCC gave up on
it and let it go fallow. The result was dealing dope and scoring hookers in
between hetrodynes, pornographic tirades and general orgies of funny noises,
wailing and knashing of teeth of the damned. The rest were chased from the
band.

Maybe you can think of some test or hoop besides CW to discourage the
people
that act out like morons because they lack self-control.

Sure. A psychology test...

So, essentially a pseudoscientific approach? Ridiculous. Lets keep it all
above board. Although Psychology is a fascinating study, there are aspects
that can lead one astray. If my previous post was a psychology test, I
might have failed you.

The whole Psychology idea reminds me of the Russian fake spyware scanner
that pops up and tells you that you're infected and you will have to send
$50 and download the cleaner to fix you up. You the pay the money, install
the program and you're hooked up with endless spyware and adware until you
can't boot up anymore and wipe your hard drive and reinstall Windows. No
Thanks. You should know that answer cuts both ways senior. Even if you're
buying the Psych.

All you have to do is make it difficult for those with short attention spans
and little patience. Then follow up with peer pressure. But you have to
ignore the tantrums and crying jags and reinforce good behavior. Until
parents and governments realize that fact, society will continue to go
fallow. Peer pressure is what happens when people begin imitating one
another. That is how whole groups go nuts. It is how great teams succeed.
It doesn't happen overnight. It is the result of people pushing the
envelope and others tolerating or encouraging it to the point where the
behavior becomes commonplace and acceptable and encouraged. I never spent
any time on Westcars. Glad I never spent time in Nazi Germany either.

We don't have a code test anymore so it is a moot point. It is left to peer
pressure and the skills tests. I will still use Morse Code because it is
useful. It won't be useful if no one knows how to do it. It is even more
useful because other people who use it aren't anything like your 75m phone
Westcars people. This is all the proof I need that it works. But I guess
you don't have that proof, do you?

Scott wrote:

Except the Russians. They were still using tube gear in their military
back in the mid 80s. Not susecptible to EMP (electromagnetic pulse)
from a nuke going off.

I forgot about EMP. And I guess that is a quite valid reason for using
tubes in emergency gear. I do remember that EMP was one of the things
discussed for ham emergency gear.

I'm sure that our (US) military protects for EMP, but I doubt it is by
using tube equipment. Likely something more modern. Fancy Shielding?
Perhaps you know the technology currently used?

Bob wrote:

I also find that it's much easier and cheaper to go
QRO with valves than it is with semiconductors.

Yes tubes are still quite valid in ham amps.

TV sweep tubes powered many of my HF amplifiers over the years!

Remember those sweep tube KW amps? What was it, 6 tubes in parallel?

I think my old Swan 350 (nicknamed Swan 3-drifty for good reason) used
sweep tubes. Kept within specs they lasted a long time but they didn't
seem to take much out of resonance abuse.

And my Heath mono-banders, wasn't that a sweep compactron?

Yes I was a sweep tube fan also...

Believe me, I've tried most of them, [Rice Boxes]

You've tried *most* of hundreds of models and brands? That seems to be
another unsupportable exaggeration.

We also have a lot of QRP operators (mostly
under 1 Watt) that simply won't be heard by those equipped with the Asian
black boxes!

Now you're being funny. Cause you can't be serious, can you...

wrote:

There are several reasons you don't see much manufactured tube gear,
such as a "modern" version of the TS-520S.

The first reason is cost.

Agreed. Tranceivers of today are generally much less costly (and have
many more features) than the tube gear of the past. Progress is good.

The second reason is size.

Agreed. My 100W mobile rig sits on my dashboard. Try that with the
tube gear of the past. Progress is good.

The third and most important reason is that tubes have
become electro-politically incorrect.

Tubes are electro-politically incorrect?? Now that is funny. The
conspiracy theory? Black helicopters.... 8-O

As a case in point, look at the Elecraft K2...
it blew away much more expensive rigs in many performance criteria.

How many tubes do they use to get this performance?

But with almost no advertising over 6000 have been sold.

Have you contacted them and suggested your 7360 tube front end idea
for use in the next model of the K2? How long do you think it would
take for them to stop laughing...

"AJ Lake" wrote in message
...
Scott wrote:

Except the Russians. They were still using tube gear in their military
back in the mid 80s. Not susecptible to EMP (electromagnetic pulse)
from a nuke going off.

I forgot about EMP. And I guess that is a quite valid reason for using
tubes in emergency gear. I do remember that EMP was one of the things
discussed for ham emergency gear.

I'm sure that our (US) military protects for EMP, but I doubt it is by
using tube equipment. Likely something more modern. Fancy Shielding?
Perhaps you know the technology currently used?

In Desert Storm they were breaking out KWM-2a to replace radios that were
getting nailed from static in the blowing sand.

"JB" wrote:

There has always been some cheating on tests.
Maybe you hung out with a different crowd than I did.

I hang out in the real world. Some people do cheat.

You are correct that "weeder" tests can't be 100% effective. But if you
think that they don't have an impact, then why test at all?

Weeder tests keep failures out for *no reason*.
Relevant tests keep failures out for a *good reason*.

Although Psychology is a fascinating study, there are aspects...

I was being funny with the psychology testing thing. I didn't think
you'd really take me seriously.

We don't have a code test anymore so it is a moot point.

I still have a code test: If you don't know CW we don't QSO.

It won't be useful if no one knows how to do it.

Making people learn code just so you will have someone to talk to is a
bad reason.

"AJ Lake" wrote in message
...
Bob wrote:

I also find that it's much easier and cheaper to go
QRO with valves than it is with semiconductors.

Yes tubes are still quite valid in ham amps.

TV sweep tubes powered many of my HF amplifiers over the years!

Remember those sweep tube KW amps? What was it, 6 tubes in parallel?

I think my old Swan 350 (nicknamed Swan 3-drifty for good reason) used
sweep tubes. Kept within specs they lasted a long time but they didn't
seem to take much out of resonance abuse.

And my Heath mono-banders, wasn't that a sweep compactron?
Yup

Yes I was a sweep tube fan also...

At one point, sweep tubes were available cheaply at TV shops so the designs
were at the edge of meltdown. It was neat to have a 350w pep radio, but
that was asking way too much. I saw a lot of Swans and others that would
break into oscillation with the least provocation. I knew one guy who was a
regular customer of the Radio Shack Lifetime tubes. Give me a set of
6146s any day. Conservative designs yet economical. I can always follow up
with 811s for more power. Those guys are still cheap and seem to last
forever. If you have to plug it in the wall anyway, might just as well be
tubes.

wrote:

Consider all the testing that doctors and lawyers go through to get
their licenses. Yet there are still some doctors and lawyers who are
"bad apples".

Exactly. Passing a license test does not prevent bad behavior.

Most of all, note that the bad behavior you cite was all on voice, not
CW/Morse Code. The bad apples may have passed a code test at one time
or another, but they weren't *using* the mode!

Exactly. Passing a code test does not prevent bad behavior.

The exam procedure varied over time, and by the mid-1950s the person
giving both code and written tests had to be an FCC licensed amateur
or commercial operator. But it was all on the honor system.

Not quite correct. I suppose even historians get it wrong sometimes.
Course I knew the mail order license procedure pretty well since I did
it twice, once for Novice and again for Tech.

The following could give the mail order code test:
An Extra, Advanced, or General Class licensee, or
a Commercial Radiotelegraph Operators licensee, or
a Government employee of a manually operated radio telegraph station.

And as I said before *any* adult (at least 21 then) licensed or not
could give the written exam.

What Bash did was to ask people leaving the exam sessions to recall
whatever they could about the questions.

Another piece of history I lived. I used Bash for my Advanced.

Then budget cuts in the early 1980s forced FCC to
create the VE system, and the Q&A became public.
Which put Bash out of business.

Interesting how what was called cheating then is now a legit exam...

Now, why were hams so well-behaved compared to cbers,

Because the hams had to ID? If people know who you are many act
better. And if they didn't ID no one would talk to them. Some did
bootleg though with false calls. I'll admit to bootlegging on CW
before my Novice ticket came. My buddies name was Kent, so I used
K7ENT. It wasn't issued yet so no harm no foul...

"JB" wrote:

At one point, sweep tubes were available cheaply at TV shops so the designs
were at the edge of meltdown.

I worked in a TV shop after high school for gas money. Sweep tubes
were very expensive as tubes went in those days. But I got mine and
most of the rest of my ham parts from old discarded TV sets.

Swans and others that would break into oscillation

My Swan was drifty as I said. It was a heat problem with the VFO coil
compartment. The osc was solid state, the only transistor in the whole
rig. I solved it by building an external VFO.

I knew one guy who was a
regular customer of the Radio Shack Lifetime tubes.

In the 50s there was a tube company called Major Brand Tubes. They
were mail order and had a lifetime tube guarantee. Their tubes seldom
lasted more than a month in a TV, and they were good to their word.
Send them the old tube and they sent you a new one free, you paid
postage of course. Well after 5 or so replacements most people finally
gave up. A real racket.

Give me a set of 6146s any day.

I built a single tube 6146 transmitter. I used a voltage quadrupler
direct from the 110V for the high voltage (no HV transformer needed).
It was a simple high powered xtal controlled oscillator. I used it as
a Novice. I don't remember the exact power input now, but it was
probably around 50 watts. I just had to be careful which way I plugged
it in the wall socket. Wrong way and fireworks...

AJ Lake wrote:

I'm sure that our (US) military protects for EMP

No it doesn't and never has. The Russian plans for preemptive strikes
included high air bursts over major centres of population to cripple
communications. The Soviets /knew/ that the USA was entirely vulnerable to
EMP, and still is.

Perhaps you know the technology currently used?

Yes. We Brits have military communications equipment to deal with EMP -
it's /all/ valve based. Trying to protect semiconductor gear against EMP
is like trying to protect telephone equipment against lightning - entirely
futile!

Bob