RadioBanter - View Single Post - 05-235

November 22nd 05, 05:42 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.policy

wrote:

There were "Q&A" books on tests-and-answers for radio
and electricity back in the ancient history days of
the 1950s. Hardbound, not the best quality paper,
roughly the size of a Reader's Digest Condensed Book.

There was no hue and cry over those "Q&A" books then.
Gene Hubbel's "H and H Electronics" store in Rockford
Illinois had the amateur radio test editions for sale.
Both partners were pre-WW2 hams, Gene (SK) had W9ERU
then, later W7DI after moving to Arizona in retirement.
Gene was a morseman and had a couple certificates for
passing greater than 60 WPM using morse and a "mill."

The questions in those books were 'typical' of what one would expect on
the test. What you got on the test would be similar, but not exactly
like in the Q&A guides, and it wasn't all multiple choice either, there
were problems that had to be actually worked out.

Dick Bash and his schools came later. Why he got
bashed so harshly is still curious to me. It might
have been that his school/book logo had two four-
letter words in it? :-)

Bash would hang outside the door of the examining office and catch hams
as they came out. He would ask them to write down all the questions they
could remember. The FCC only had several different exams on each
element. Bash then compiled a book of the exact questions that could
appear on any of the exam sheets along with the answers. That made it a
simple memorizing exercise to pass the test. Many hams, and rightly so,
looked at that as cheating, just as it would be in school or college.