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