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#11
November 22nd 05, 01:33 AM
posted to rec.radio.amateur.policy
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An English Teacher
Bill Sohl wrote:
wrote in message oups.com... wrote: Before Restructuring took effect in 2000, the Extra code test rate was 20 WPM. Unless a medical waiver was obtained, in which case the Extra could be had for a code test of as little as 5 wpm. The "modern" Extra class license was added in the 1951 restructuring that also added the Novice and Technician class licenses. The code test speed for the Extra was set at 20 wpm at that time. That's kinda funny. The "modern" Extra is, therefore, 54 years old. Yep. Introduced as part of the restructuring of 1951. How long did the pre-modern Extra exist before 1951. For a few years in the mid-1920s, there was an amateur license called the "Amateur Extra First Grade" IIRC. It required more testing than the standard amateur license, and allowed certain additional privileges. It wasn't very popular because the additional privileges were about 200 meter operation, and the exodus to the short waves had already begun. That was before FCC and even FRC. Or even better, how long did radio as a practical medium exist before 1951. Well, that depends on what you mean by "a practical medium". But a half-century is about right. What does that have to do with the license class? Heil, quit being the snotty lil kid trying to turn tables. That makes YOU look dumb. I took all the test elements for a First 'Phone 49 years ago. I've seen the test elements for an Extra of that time. Where? Back then those test elements were only given by FCC examiners. They were not legally available to folks like you (outside of FCC). The legality of the availability of actual test info has never been proven either way. Bash made the info available and was never challenged. The FCC let it all go by which isn't proof absolute that it may or may not have been legal, but the absence of action ultimately made it legal over the long haul. We're talking about two different things, Bill. Len claims to have seen a 1957 version of the test for Extra, and says it wasn't as hard as the First 'Phone of that time. While it is not absolutely impossible for him to have seen that exam, it is highly improbable that he ever saw that exam, because it was simply not available to people who neither worked for FCC nor took the amateur exams. FCC kept the tests under lock and key. One can only imagine the reaction of an FCC examiner in 1957 if someone asked to see the Extra class written test just to see how hard it was. I wish Phil Kane, K2ASP, would weigh in on this. Now to Dick Bash... Bash did his thing in the early 1970s - more than a decade after Len's supposed look at the Extra test of 1957. He never got a look at the written tests, though. What he did was to ask people who had just taken the tests what was on them, and paid for any useful information they could recall. He essentially reverse-engineered the tests without actually seeing them. His books were not the exact tests but were very, very close, with only trivial differences. Yes, FCC did not go after him legally. And the whole issue became moot a few years later (early 1980s) when FCC made the test contents public. The plain simple fact is that at least some of those who took and passed both the First 'Phone and the Amateur Extra say the Extra was harder. I've not heard of anyone who took and passed both exams say the First 'Phone was harder. 73 de Jim, N2EY |
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