Forty years ago today, October 12, 1967, FCC issued a Novice license
to a 13-year-old kid in the 7th grade. The license arrived two days
later, and the kid (me) went on the amateur bands for the first time
October 14, 1967.

Since then, I've has had three amateur radio callsigns, six
"permanent" QTHs, a long list of rigs, antennas, parts and test
equipment, awards earned, articles published, and tens of thousands of
QSOs. Many things in amateur radio are different now than they were
then, many things are the same.

One thing that hasn't changed is that ham radio is sure a lot of fun.

Doesn't seem like 40 years, though.

What do others remember?

73 de Jim, N2EY

wrote

Doesn't seem like 40 years, though.

What do others remember?

:-) When a teen, my novice license arrived Friday the 13th, September 1963.
My first QSO was that night on 80m on 3706 Kc with a fellow in Schoharie,
NY. That was my only crystal. With crystals, we had to learn to listen all
over our 50 Kc available band of 3700 - 3750.

My friend Gary and I went down to the FCC office in Manhattan to take the
General exam just a few days before they were going to impose a $4 fee.
Ouch! We had a deadline to meet! We couldn't afford to pay $4! Well, we both
passed, and Gary called his mom to tell her the good news. Once we arrived
back to his house it was apparent that his mother told a neighbor the good
news because, as we walked by the neighbor's house, she exclaimed to us, "So
now you're Captains!?"

Howard N7SO

Howard Lester wrote:
wrote

Doesn't seem like 40 years, though.

What do others remember?

:-) When a teen, my novice license arrived Friday the 13th, September 1963.
My first QSO was that night on 80m on 3706 Kc with a fellow in Schoharie,
NY. That was my only crystal. With crystals, we had to learn to listen all
over our 50 Kc available band of 3700 - 3750.

I was also first licensed in 1963 and I think I had three crystals, but
one was 3706. That must have been a common frequency for a surplus xtal.

I do remember listening the whole band for a call from a CQ. You picked
the closest frequency you had a crystal for. I also remember that it
was somewhat common for QRM to pop up because the station transmitting
had a limited selection of crystals and didn't always listen on the
frequency that they were about to transmit.

But it sure was fun.

I met a fellow novice on 80 meters and he traveled to Knoxville to take
his General exam on the same day I did. We met there. He was so
nervous that he literally could not fill out the FCC-610 form. But
somehow he managed to calm himself enough to pass the CW test. Perhaps
it was the CW that did it. By then we were routinely chatting at speeds
more than the required 13 wpm.

My friend Gary and I went down to the FCC office in Manhattan to take the
General exam just a few days before they were going to impose a $4 fee.
Ouch! We had a deadline to meet! We couldn't afford to pay $4! Well, we both
passed, and Gary called his mom to tell her the good news. Once we arrived
back to his house it was apparent that his mother told a neighbor the good
news because, as we walked by the neighbor's house, she exclaimed to us, "So
now you're Captains!?"

I took the General with a friend, too. He was very good at theory. I
was very good at code. Somehow he managed to squeak by the code test,
but he failed the theory test. I think that he got one answer off on
the answer sheet and was putting down his answers for the wrong number;
there's no way he could have failed that theory test.

I'm about to teach a Technician class beginning at the end of the month.
Times have changed. No longer is the entry license the Novice and one
must use the one-year term to build up code speed for the General.
Instead I'll be trying to figure out how to teach both concepts and the
question pool. It will be interesting. (I don't think I've taught a
license class in the past two decades.)

But the fun remains in the hobby. Some things change and some things
remain the same. Thanks for the memories.

Happy... emm... license day... Jim )

I was born in1967 so less history here. Didnt get my license until I was 26
years old in 1993. I recall my first contact like it was yesterday. Sitting
at my desk with a my new license and an FT480 on the FM calling frequency
wondering what I should do next.

I'm on my fourth callsign, from two countries. Planning another move so
number 5 on its way.

Many things in amateur radio change. But the basics will always be the same.

--
Jack VK2CJC / MM0AXL
FISTS #9666
CW Ops QRP Club #753
Mid North Coast Amateur Radio Group
www.mncarg.org

In ups.com
wrote:

What do others remember?

I remember a QST cover with an image of the sun labled "Cycle 19 - The
Declining Years".

And now, here we are at the nadir of Cycle 23.

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN

"Steve Bonine" wrote

I was also first licensed in 1963 and I think I had three crystals, but
one was 3706. That must have been a common frequency for a surplus xtal.

Gosh, Steve - I wonder if we worked each other. My antenna was so poor that,
when I used an EICO VFO as a transmitter hooked up to a 100 ft random
receiving antenna (with no matching system whatsoever) -- the EICO did
better! With it, I worked 14 states including Oklahoma (from the NYC area).
(Then I got an "OO" card in the mail, chastising me for using a VFO as a
novice. I guess "OO" stands for "OH-OH!")

The Johnson Challenger was, on 80m, hooked up to a 40m vertical dipole
hanging from the roof ledge of an 8 story apartment roof. Yep, it was right
up against the brick wall. I was on the 5th floor. What a moron... ;-) See,
I couldn't find any 40m crystals, so I got one for 80, and.... But that
Challenger could actually load a 40m antenna on 80.

Thus the license class "novice."

Howard

Some stories from those days:

My first rig was a single 6V6GT in the grid-plate circuit, running
maybe 10 W with one xtal on 3726 kHz. Dummy load was a Christmas tree
bulb, the big 7-1/2 watt kind. Antenna was a wire out to the crabapple
tree. Ground was the radiator pipe. J-37 key and knife-switch TR.
Antenna-current indicator was a pilot lamp in series with the lead-
in.

But the power supply was from an old Philco TV. Big power transformer,
5U4, cap and chokes. Good for at least 400 mills and I wasn't drawing
even 40.

Only parts bought new were the knife switch, the xtal and the 6V6GT.
Everything else was scavenged from the trash or acquired second hand.

Still have the key and the 6V6GT.

---

Another mentioned the cost of exams and nervousness at the FCC office.
I was lucky in that the FCC office was just a subway ride away. But a
school kid had to wait for summer or the rare school holiday that
wasn't a Federal holiday, because FCC exams were only given Monday
through Wednesday mornings. And the $9 cost was a big deal, too.

The first time I went for the General, early summer 1968, I flunked
the code because the examiner couldn't read my "Palmer Method"
longhand well enough to find the required 65 consecutive correct
characters. But he did find 25, so he let me take the written exam and
I wound up with a simultaneous Novice/Tech, which was OK back then.
WN3 call on HF and WA3 on VHF.

So I went home and taught myself to block-print, and listened to W1AW
until I could copy the 18 wpm bulletins solid from one end to the
other. Also saved up every spare penny to get the $9 exam fee. Went
back to FCC in midsummer and passed 13 wpm no problem.

As I was about to leave, the FCC examiner said "why don't you try
Advanced while you're here?" Though I hadn't prepared for it, there
was no way a 14 year old kid would say no to The Man From FCC, so I
tried it - and passed.

Two years later I was back for the Extra. But that's another story..

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

73 de Jim, N2EY

wrote

As I was about to leave, the FCC examiner said "why don't you try
Advanced while you're here?" Though I hadn't prepared for it, there
was no way a 14 year old kid would say no to The Man From FCC, so I
tried it - and passed.

That white shirt and tie was pretty intimidating, wasn't it? I think it was
in 1968 that I went to the NYC office for my Advanced. I knew I failed...
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.

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

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

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

Howard N7SO

Howard Lester wrote:

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

One of the most rewarding experiences of my ham radio career was serving
as reader for a blind ham who was taking her Extra exam in Chicago, just
before the FCC stopped administering them. She wanted to take the exam
from the FCC. She passed. I felt a tiny part of her pride.

I suppose that the VE system is a positive and reasonable step for the
hobby. It sure is easier to convince class attendees to come to a VE
session than to travel to the nearest FCC examination location, so it's
obvious that we get more new hams with the VE system than having the FCC
administer the tests. Not to mention all the tax dollars that we're
saving. But the new hams are missing a memory that all of us old timers
have of being intimidated by the FCC exam process, and that's just a
tiny bit sad.

Times change.

73, Steve KB9X

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