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Old February 22nd 05, 05:11 PM
 
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Alun L. Palmer wrote:
wrote in news:1109065656.859950.28030
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:


Alun L. Palmer wrote:
wrote in news:1109009984.323422.143080
@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:

snip


5wpm isn't very fast, but why is it required to operate phone?


A couple of reasons:

For the same reason hams have to pass written *theory* tests to
use *manufactured* rigs with no critical tuneup adjustments.

For the same reason hams have to pass written tests on VHF/UHF to
operate HF, high-power RF exposure questions to operate QRP, etc.

And because code is a big part of amateur radio, and a ham who

doesn't
know any just isn't fully qualified.

73 de Jim, N2EY


I think we can agree to differ on that last point.


Perhaps.

Do you agree that Morse code is a big part of amateur radio? Not that
it needs a test, but just that it is a big part of today's amateur
radio, particularly on HF?

As a matter of fact, even directly after passing the US 20wpm test I
couldn't have passed the UK 12wpm test.


Perhaps. But I thought we were discussing *US* code test requirements.

5wpm is not too difficult, especially the way it is tested in the US,

but
until recently it only gave access to the 'novice' subbands in the

US, all
of which except for 10m didn't allow phone. From my PoV, it would

only have
given me 10m at that time. I never took 5.


Since 1990 it has been possible to get an Extra (or any other
HF-privileges amateur radio license) with just the 5 wpm code test and
a waiver. 15 years - hardly "recently".

I probably could have passed 5 when I came to the US, but I simply

didn't
realise how much easier the tests were here. Thinking it would have

been as
hard as a UK test I didn't bother to take it.


The test procedures here aren't secret. Never were.

I was operating above 30MHz
on a 610A permit, and when the 'no code' licence was introduced I

decided
to get a US call. Having 'aced' the Novice and I think dropped one

question
in the Tech paper, I was given the General paper, for which I hadn't

looked
at the syllabus or question pool atall, and I passed that. Ditto the
Advanced, but they didn't have a spare Extra paper. None of this

really
surprised me, as the UK B licence had the same theory as the A

licence, and
I have an EE degree anyway, but it surprised the VEs.


Why should it? The US writtens were *never* very hard - if you knew a
little radio and some regs.

Back in 1968 I went for General at the FCC office in early summer. Did
not pass 13 wpm code because the examiner couldn't read my longhand.
Got credit for 5 wpm, took the written (which was same as General back
then), walked out with a Tech. Could not use the new privs until the
actual license arrived in the mail, though.

Went home, taught myself Signal-Corps-method block printing and more
practice until I could do 18 wpm W1AW bulletins solid. Went back and
passed 13 wpm code easily, sending and receiving.

Then the examiner says "why not try Advanced while you're here?". Now
in those days the Advanced was supposedly the toughest of the writtens,
with all sorts of math and circuits and such. But one did not say No to
The Man, so I tried, with zero preparation. Passed easily and wound up
with Advanced instead of General.

That was back before question pools, Bash books and computerized
practice tests. Didn't have an EE back then either - I was 14 years old
and it was the summer between 8th and 9th grades.

Two years later I went back to get the Extra. Would have been sooner
but in those days you had to have two years experience as General or
Advanced to even *try* the Extra.

This gave me 12 months to pass 13wpm if I didn't want to have to take

the
General and Advanced theory again. With the help of computer software

and
slow Morse transmissions I did it in six months.


Bingo.

How long do you think it would have taken to get to 5 wpm, tested the
way the USA does?

Note that Mike got there
in that amount of time from scratch even with hearing problems, and

it took
me that long when I wasn't starting from the beginning, and there's

no
problem with my hearing. Also, I had a relay of all the VEs sending

code on
2m five nights a week. They saw it a a challenge to teach me code. I

almost
passed 20, but I had to come back a couple of months later.

To get up to 13wpm meant copying whole characters instead of dits and

dahs,
no matter how easy the type of test. OK, so that's gone, but that

means the
remaining Element 1 doesn't test the ability to copy complete

characters,
so on the one hand it's relatively easy, but on the other hand it's
pointless.


Not at all.

If the code uses Farnsworth spacing, you copy characters, not dits and
dahs. This isn't anything new - W1AW has been sending code practice
that way since at least 1966 (first time I heard it, anyway).

Why preserve a test that doesn't test an adequate level of a
skill as a requirement for access to a particular part of the

spectrum,
when there's no requirement to use that skill anyway?


Same reason for written tests. Do the writtens guarantee that all who
pass can design/build/modify/repair/operate all amateur equipment they
are authorized to use? Or do they test basic knowledge?

5 wpm is basic Morse skill, that's all.

Why is it too much to ask?

Tradition? That's a
weak reason, but it seems to be the only one. Sure, 40% of HF may be

CW,
but I can (and do) operate 100% phone .


And my HF operation is 99% CW on 80/40/20, with 100 watts or less
output, yet I had to learn all kinds of stuff about high power, 'phone
modes, RTTY, SSTV, other HF bands, VHF/UHF, etc. Most of that knowledge
I've never needed, and some of it (like band edges) has changed since I
took the test. So why did I have to learn all that in the first place,
just to operate a QRP rig on 7015 CW?

73 de Jim, N2EY

 
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