D. Stussy wrote:

On Sun, 31 Aug 2003, N2EY wrote:


In article ,
(Jason Hsu) writes:



I found this comment on eham.net:
"I hold the OLD ADVANCED license and it is a matter of prestidge. I
had to have 13 wpm to get to this level and now they want to do away
with ALL CW? Keep at least the 5 wpm.
It is too easy to pass a written exam. The code kept the CB crowd from
gaining acess to our bands. "


The fact of the matter is that simply having an Advanced is not proof of code
speed. Since 1990, medical waivers were available for 13 and 20 wpm.



Although true, the fact of a waiver is in the FCC's database (there's a field
for it). As an excuse not to upgrade to extra, it's probably one of the lamest
ideas around. Upon upgrade, one will still have the "prior class held" field
that will say advanced, so with the combination of these two data fields, we
will know that a person once held an advanced class license WITHOUT the medical
waiver and thus officially passed the 13wpm code element. [Whether or not the
person actually took the test or just paid for his license will generally never
be known!]

To me, the statement is more typical of some advanced class sourpuss who failed
to take advantage of the transitional rule back in 2000 and obtain credit for
the easier element 4B than the current element 4. Granted that was only for a
3.5 month window...

What surprises me is this: There are still some people (the August 30 session
I did had two such people) who are coming in for their pre-87-tech to general
no test upgrades, 3+ years after the rules change went into effect....



Is this for real? Are there REALLY people with Advanced licenses who
refuse to upgrade to Amateur Extra SIMPLY because they feel the need
to prove they passed the 13 wpm exam?


There are some misguided folks who think that, but in fact it's not a proof of
code speed any more than my Extra is proof of 20 per.



When it is known that a medical waiver wasn't used, it is (for pre April 19,
2000 extras).



Oh good! I got my extra on April 15, 2000 so I beat that deadline. :-)