In article om, "Dee D.
Flint" writes:

"N2EY" wrote in message
. com...

Oddly enough, in the years following "incentive licensing", the number
of US hams grew like mad after having been flat through most of the
1960s.

Go figure - they upped the requirements and ham radio grew...

73 de Jim, N2EY

The why is actually quite simple. The potential ham viewed it as being able
to take the trip into ham radio in small, manageable, bitesize chunks
instead of having to swallow the entire steak in one gulp. That perception
is what caused the growth whether or not it represented reality.

Excellent point! And it explains the appeal of the old Novice, becaue it made
the first step less of a stretch.

And of course anyone who wanted to take bigger bites could do it.

73 de Jim, N2EY

"N2EY" wrote in message
...
In article om, "Dee D.
Flint" writes:

"N2EY" wrote in message
. com...

Oddly enough, in the years following "incentive licensing", the number
of US hams grew like mad after having been flat through most of the
1960s.

Go figure - they upped the requirements and ham radio grew...

73 de Jim, N2EY

The why is actually quite simple. The potential ham viewed it as being
able
to take the trip into ham radio in small, manageable, bitesize chunks
instead of having to swallow the entire steak in one gulp. That
perception
is what caused the growth whether or not it represented reality.

Excellent point! And it explains the appeal of the old Novice, becaue it
made
the first step less of a stretch.

And of course anyone who wanted to take bigger bites could do it.

73 de Jim, N2EY



Oh balderdash. The 70s brought Dick Bash and multiple guess, and no cw
sending, and easier tests, and Volunteer Examiners. Balderdash.

Dan/W4NTI

Dan/W4NTI wrote:


Oh balderdash. The 70s brought Dick Bash and multiple guess, and no cw
sending, and easier tests, and Volunteer Examiners. Balderdash.

BalderBash?

- Mike KB3EIA -

In article . net, "Dan/W4NTI"
w4nti@get rid of this mindspring.com writes:

"N2EY" wrote in message
...
In article om, "Dee D.
Flint" writes:

"N2EY" wrote in message
. com...

Oddly enough, in the years following "incentive licensing", the number
of US hams grew like mad after having been flat through most of the
1960s.

Go figure - they upped the requirements and ham radio grew...

73 de Jim, N2EY

The why is actually quite simple. The potential ham viewed it as being
able
to take the trip into ham radio in small, manageable, bitesize chunks
instead of having to swallow the entire steak in one gulp. That
perception
is what caused the growth whether or not it represented reality.

Excellent point! And it explains the appeal of the old Novice, becaue it
made
the first step less of a stretch.

And of course anyone who wanted to take bigger bites could do it.

73 de Jim, N2EY

Oh balderdash.

No, it's true. The number of US hams stalled at around a quarter million for
most of the '60s. Then it started to grow again about 1969.

The greatest period of growth was from 1929 to 1935, when the number of US hams
almost tripled in about 5 years.

The second greatest period of growth was from 1951 to 1962, when the number of
US hams increased 2-1/2 times (from about 100K to 250K)

The 70s brought Dick Bash and multiple guess, and no cw
sending, and easier tests, and Volunteer Examiners.

Timeline:

1960: FCC eliminates the last "draw a diagram" and essay questions from the
writtens and goes to full multiple choice.

1967: Novice becomes two years and loses 2m 'phone, Advanced reopened to new
issues.

1968: First set of subband restrictions due to IL

1969: Second set of subband restrictions due to IL

Early 1970s: First Bash books appear.

1977: Code sending test waived

1984: VE system takes over license testing: Q&A pools published.

Balderdash.

Well, of the items you mentioned, only the Bash books and the end of sending
tests occurred in the 1970s.

Since the actual tests used before 1984 are not available, who is to say if
they were "harder" or "easier"?

73 de Jim, N2EY

"N2EY" wrote

|
| Since the actual tests used before 1984 are not available, who is to
say if
| they were "harder" or "easier"?
|

Those of us who took them.

The material today is somewhat more difficult, since it covers a much
broader range of technology than the 1960's stuff.

73, de Hans, K0HB

"KØHB" wrote in message link.net...
"N2EY" wrote

|
| Since the actual tests used before 1984 are not available, who is to
say if
| they were "harder" or "easier"?
|

Those of us who took them.

The material today is somewhat more difficult, since it covers a much
broader range of technology than the 1960's stuff.

73, de Hans, K0HB

That should be obvious.

In article . net, "KØHB"
writes:

"N2EY" wrote

|
| Since the actual tests used before 1984 are not available, who is to
say if
| they were "harder" or "easier"?
|

Those of us who took them.

Like me.

The material today is somewhat more difficult, since it covers a much
broader range of technology than the 1960's stuff.

That's not necessarily true.

A broad range of material covered at a basic level may or may not be as
"difficult" as a narrower range of material covered in more depth.

And how material is tested has a large effect on the perceived difficulty.

IOW, it's possible to write a test on an entire book that is "easier" than a
different test written on just one chapter. Unless the actual tests and methods
are available for comparison, such claimes are TMDAIPORTM

73 de Jim, N2EY

"KØHB" wrote in message
ink.net...

"N2EY" wrote

|
| Since the actual tests used before 1984 are not available, who is to
say if
| they were "harder" or "easier"?
|

Those of us who took them.

The material today is somewhat more difficult, since it covers a much
broader range of technology than the 1960's stuff.

Hans is correct. The late 50's Tech was the same as General.
Additionally, there were plenty of smaple tests around via AMECO
and other study guides even before Bash.

Cheers,
Bill K2UNK

You just brought back some memories, Bill. Way back in the early '60s I
had a couple of those Ameco Study Guides.

I took some of those early tests (the ones before 1984) but I find it
hard to remember their level of difficulty sufficiently to make a
reasonable comparison. I took the first of them as a pre-teen, a few in
the mid-70s, and then re-took the whole smear in 1988.

While I remember that the tests for Novice and General were of the
multiple guess kind in the '60s (albeit at an FCC Field Office), I could
swear that I remember that drawn circuit diagrams were required at least
for the Extra written exam, if not the Advanced. This from the study
guides that I had for the tests.

Of course, it's absolutely true that a test can be made harder by the
depth that the test goes into, but breadth can also make for a hard
test. What I remember of the tests I went through back in the 60s was
flying through them all, acing the Novice and missing 2 questions on the
General.

Code has never been a problem for me. The only problem I would have with
a 5 wpm test is that it's too slow. For me, the 13 wpm is too slow. I
find 15 wpm a slow minimum comfortable speed, with 25 at optimum. This
is for me, and I realize that others don't find it so and never will.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bill Sohl wrote:
"KØHB" wrote in message
ink.net...

"N2EY" wrote

|
| Since the actual tests used before 1984 are not available, who is to
say if
| they were "harder" or "easier"?
|

Those of us who took them.

The material today is somewhat more difficult, since it covers a much
broader range of technology than the 1960's stuff.


Hans is correct. The late 50's Tech was the same as General.
Additionally, there were plenty of smaple tests around via AMECO
and other study guides even before Bash.

Cheers,
Bill K2UNK





--
73 from Glenn - KG5UC

In article , Glenn
writes:

While I remember that the tests for Novice and General were of the
multiple guess kind in the '60s (albeit at an FCC Field Office), I could
swear that I remember that drawn circuit diagrams were required at least
for the Extra written exam, if not the Advanced. This from the study
guides that I had for the tests.

I have the ARRL License Manuals with copyright dates for 1947, 1951, 1953,
1962, and 1971. They detail the exact process of getting a license in those
times, both by mail and at FCC exam points.

Some facts:

- The Novice was always multiple-choice only. All of the manuals describe the
Novice written test as "about 20 questions"

- The 1953 and earlier manuals describe the higher-class written tests as
requiring the drawing of a few diagrams. The 1962 manual says that all exams
are multiple choice.

- The 1953 and earlier manuals say that some questions are neither multiple
choice nor diagrams, but require the examinee to solve a problem and show the
calculations used.

- The 1962 manual says that the written exams are all multiple choice.

QST for July 1960, page 54. "FCC Written Exam Procedure Changing" . This
article describes the new FCC answer sheet that will go into use "in a few
months". It shows the new answer sheet and describes how the "draw a diagram"
questions will be replaced by questions about a diagram, such as "what should
be done to neutralize this circuit"

Three noteworthy points:

1) the old multiple choice exams offered 5 choices, not the current 4, making
a correct answer by guessing slightly less likely.

2) the article says that the number of diagram questions will be increased
when the new exam method is implemented. And so it was, at least for General -
compare the following tallies of required diagrams in the LMs:

1953 LM: General has 8 diagrams in its study guide, all schematics, Extra has
28 schematic and 3 block diagrams in its study guide.

1962 LM: General has 50 diagrams in its study guide, all schematics, Extra
has 17 schematic and 3 block diagrams in its study guide.

One of the reasons for the higher number of diagrams in the '62 LM is the
inclusion of multiple diagrams in one question, such as 8 filter diagrams being

the answer to a single question.

3) No exact date is given for the transition - the article says "in a few
months", and it's clear that FCC would use up the old exams before starting the

new ones.

While the old General exams were probably quickly used up, there were very few
getting Extras back then, and the supply of Extra exams at some FCC offices may
have lasted quite a while.

Reason for the change: To speed up and simplify marking of the exams! By making
them all multiple choice, the person marking the test did not have to
understand the material at all, just the procedure.

In both 1953 and 1962, the Advanced test was not given, and hams had to
upgrade from General to Extra in a single step. However, there were no
additional operating privileges granted with an Extra, and only about 2% of US
hams in 1962 were Extras. The Advanced was reopened to new issues in 1967.

73 de Jim, N2EY