Hi, Phil; Good story. Since you were an examiner, I thought I'd pass this along. I took my 2nd Class Telegraph examination in Oklahoma City in 1978. My mother had to drive me from Enid, OK because I didn't have a driver's license. There were probably 70 people standing in the hallway waiting for their ham tests when the examiner came out and shouted "Is the candidated for the 2nd Class Radiotelegraph examination here?" The crowd fell silent and I had to walk past all of them to go into the examination room alone with the examiner. He fired up the CW test then left the room. The test finished, I put my pencil down and waited. No examiner. I didn't know what to do. I waited a short time, maybe three minutes, then I heard a knock on the door. I got up and answered it. The examiner had locked himself out of the examination room. I made a comment that something like this could be considered funny. Mr. Stoneface said, "No, <pause> it couldn't." He took the exam with him when I finished it and promptly lost it. I wrote several letters asking the FCC to find the results of my examination but none of these produced any results. I finally sent in a renewal or request for another examination where there was a field asking what other licenses I held. I wrote, "I have no idea, the examiner lost my test." About a month later (for a total of about 11 months), I got the results of my test, I had passed.
Rick, AA5S On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 10:57 PM, Phil Kane <k2...@kanafi.org> wrote: > On 6/29/2011 8:48 PM, WILLIS COOKE wrote: > > > For that matter, it would be pretty hard to head copy and then > > write a full minute with no errors to pass the FCC code test. > > Head copy is pretty much a ham radio thing. > > Starting in the late 1960s I was one of the FCC code examiners in San > Francisco. One day an "old timer" coast station operator came > up for the Radiotelegraph First Class code test - 25 wpm - > where a "mill" could be used. He said that he wanted "the > First" before he retired. He set it up, and just before I > started the tape he asked whether it was OK to smoke during the > test. In those days, no problem. He put on the "cans" and said > "start the tape". He reached into his pocket, took out a > cigarette. Then he reached into another pocket, and pulled out > a book of matches, lit the cigarette, put the extinguished > match in an ashtray, dropped the matchbook on the floor, bent > down to pick it up, put it back in his pocket, sat back for a > few seconds, and then started typing like a madman about > halfway into the 5 minute tape - perfect copy. When the tape > was finished, he turned to me and said "didn't think I could do > it, did you, sonny?! > > Something I will never forget. > > -- 73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane > Elecraft K2/100 s/n 5402 > > Retired and loving every minute of it > Work was getting in the way of my hobbies > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > -- Rick McClelland, AA5S Fort Collins, CO ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
