On Oct 13, 9:29?pm, "Howard Lester" wrote:

That white shirt and tie was pretty intimidating, wasn't it?

Not at all. Not to me, anyway.

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".
And if you failed, it was a 30 day minimum wait until you could try
again, plus another $9 fee.


but the man in the white shirt went over my answer sheet and
casually said,
"You passed." "I DID!?" was my trembling response....
"Yeah." Oh. I
walked out of the exam room, went down the hall, threw my pencil
in the air
over my back and kept going.

I think I had a built-in advantage.

As a kid in school, taking tests was something I was used to, at least
weekly. One or two more tests was no big thing in itself.

Once the two-year experience requirement was met, I went for Extra.
Late summer 1970, same FCC office, same examiner. I was by far the
youngest person in the crowded waiting room that day. When The Man
opened the exam room door at 8 AM sharp and asked for anyone taking
the Extra, I was the only one trying for it.

He led me to the code test table and proceeded to open a locked filing
cabinet and take out the little code machine and the paper tapes it
used that contained The Actual Test. Plus 'phones, a legal pad and #2
pencil.

That little code machine used different-sized drive rollers to change
speeds, btw, and there was a stack of test tapes for it.

I got the standard instructions: Test is five minutes of code,
examiner must find 100 consecutive correct legible characters (which
amounts to 1 minute at 20 wpm) to pass, when the code stops put the
pencil down immediately or you fail.

Examiner asks if I'm ready, I manage a "yes" and put on the cans. He
says "Go!" and starts the machine.

I started right off copying in block letters. The code is loud and
clear and machine made, easier than copying off the air. After a bit I
settle down and start to think that it's easy - I'm getting every
letter!

I see out of the corner of my eye that The Man is looking out the
window, then over at me, Then he comes around and looks over my
shoulder as I copy. Bends down to get a better look.

Then he walks around the table and shuts off the machine, even though
the code has only been going for less than two minutes.

I look up, startled. I'd heard they always gave you the full five
minutes....

"That was easy, huh kid?" asks The Man.

"Uh, yeah..." is all I can manage.

"It should be" says The Man. "That was only 13. Here's 20"

And he swapped drive spindles on the code machine and started it
again.

Yes, I passed.

Now exams are given in people's living rooms....

Nothing new about that. I took the Novice tests in K3NYT's dining
room. Spring-summer 1967.

Tomorrow it will be 40 years since the license arrived in the
mail...

Which makes it today..

Congratulations, Jim. It's quite a "club" we belong to.

Yup. But consider how few we are.

There were about 250,000 US hams back then. If we lost just 1% of
those licensed then per year, only about 167,000 of us are left, out
of over 655,000 US hams today.

If we lost 2% per year, only about 111,000 of us are left.

73 de Jim, N2EY