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

N2EY wrote:
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.

Well, if I had to make a choice, I would rather the person taking the
exam know the material! 8^)


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.



I have to say that I don't find as much difference between the older
tests and the newer tests as I thought there would be. I was kind of
under the impression (but skeptical) that the older tests were a
regular "hazing" compared to the easy tests we take today.

Thanks much for your research, Jim!

- Mike KB3EIA -

"N2EY" wrote in message
...
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.

Data point: The General written I took for Technician in 1958 included 5
"draw a diagram of X" questions. The General study guide from ARRL at the
time included 14 diagrams that might an applicant might be asked to draw.
I memorized all 14 diagarms.

(SNIP)

Cheers,
Bill K2UNK

In article , Mike Coslo
writes:

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.

Well, if I had to make a choice, I would rather the person taking the
exam know the material! 8^)

That's always been the intent!

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.

I have to say that I don't find as much difference between the older
tests and the newer tests as I thought there would be. I was kind of
under the impression (but skeptical) that the older tests were a
regular "hazing" compared to the easy tests we take today.

There are three main differences:

1) The old tests covered a few subjects in depth while the new ones cover a lot
of subjects in much less detail.

2) A person taking the old tests did not know exactly what would be on the
tests, just general areas of knowledge. A person taking today's tests has
access to the exact questions and answers that will be on the test. For
example, we knew there would be questions on Ohm's Law in DC circuits, but we
didn't know how many or what they would look like.

3) The old tests were given at relatively few locations and at times that were
quite inconvenient for most people. The new tests are much more accessible.

End result is that we tended to "overlearn" .

73 de Jim, N2EY



Thanks much for your research, Jim!

In article .net, "Bill Sohl"
writes:

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

Data point: The General written I took for Technician in 1958 included 5
"draw a diagram of X" questions. The General study guide from ARRL at the
time included 14 diagrams that might an applicant might be asked to draw.
I memorized all 14 diagarms.

Read the original post down a little farther, Bill, and you'll see that FCC
changed the format around 1960. So your 1958 experience meshes perfectly with
the above history. Thanks for the info.

73 de Jim, N2EY

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"



Back in 1976 when I took the general written at the FCC field office, I
remember that
question was on it. The circuit looked a lot like an IF stage of an
early transistor radio,
which also used neutralization.

So of the other questions required knowledge of a few different points
of knowledge
to get right. "You have a linear which uses B+ of 800V. For use with
SSB, what is
the max current your ampmeter on the finals will show?" You had to know
1) The FCC
dictated input "plate" power for power limits for hams, 2) What the
power limit was
for SSB, 3) and how to factor in PEP averaging. And 4) how to calculate
plate power.
Knew everything except I was hazy on how to do #3. SSB voice is full of
short bursts
of higher power; however an analog amp meter's needle isn't responsive
enough to show
those spikes. So does this lack of response compensate for the FCC
permitting SSB
spikes up to 2KW, where CW is limited to 1KW (back then in the good 'ol
days)?
I made the choice to assume that this is true, and selected 1.25 amps
for the answer. No
way of knowing if I got it right or not, but I did pass (though by a
thin margin of one excess
correct answer). Embarrising as I was an EE student in college at the
time. :-) I did
ace the code test, which I had not expected to do so well on. Sometimes
wonder if
they gave me an all dit suffix (ISE) because I did so well on code.. :-)
I did ace my restructured
upgrade to "extra lite" a few years ago.

Data point: The General written I took for Technician in 1958 included 5
"draw a diagram of X" questions. The General study guide from ARRL at the
time included 14 diagrams that might an applicant might be asked to draw.
I memorized all 14 diagarms.



That means that the exam grader needed to know the material as well.
Someone of that
skill level costs more to hire than someone who just uses an answer key
to a multiple
choice test.

"Robert Casey" wrote in message
...
Data point: The General written I took for Technician in 1958 included 5
"draw a diagram of X" questions. The General study guide from ARRL at
the
time included 14 diagrams that might an applicant might be asked to draw.
I memorized all 14 diagarms.

That means that the exam grader needed to know the material.
as well. Someone of that skill level costs more to hire than
someone who just uses an answer key to a multiple
choice test.

In 1958, the exam grader was always an FCC official...not a ham.
Even when you took the test administered by a ham,
it was not graded by the ham, the test was
sent pack to the FCC who graded it.

Cheers,
Bill K2UNK

In article , Robert Casey
writes:

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"

Back in 1976 when I took the general written at the FCC field office, I
remember that question was on it. The circuit looked a lot like an IF stage
of an
early transistor radio, which also used neutralization.

I recall a similar question in 1968.

So of the other questions required knowledge of a few different points
of knowledge to get right. "You have a linear which uses B+ of 800V.
For use with SSB, what is the max current your ampmeter on the finals will
show?"

You had to know
1) The FCC dictated input "plate" power for power limits for hams,

And that the amateur rules of the time dictated that hams measure
plate/collector power input, not transmitter output.

2) What the power limit was for SSB,

And the band in use

3) and how to factor in PEP averaging.

And

4) how to calculate plate power.

Yup - all in *one* little multiple choice question!

Knew everything except I was hazy on how to do #3. SSB voice is full of
short bursts
of higher power; however an analog amp meter's needle isn't responsive
enough to show
those spikes. So does this lack of response compensate for the FCC
permitting SSB
spikes up to 2KW, where CW is limited to 1KW (back then in the good 'ol
days)?

The rule was 2 kW peak, which worked out to 1 kW average, according to the
rules.

I made the choice to assume that this is true, and selected 1.25 amps
for the answer. No
way of knowing if I got it right or not, but I did pass (though by a
thin margin of one excess
correct answer). Embarrising as I was an EE student in college at the
time. :-)

Which is why FCC makes all applicants take the test, regardless of their
"professional" status.

I did
ace the code test, which I had not expected to do so well on. Sometimes
wonder if
they gave me an all dit suffix (ISE) because I did so well on code.. :-)
I did ace my restructured upgrade to "extra lite" a few years ago.

And what did you think of the written tests then?

73 de Jim, N2EY