Doug:
I was just the opposite of you in basic training in San Diego. (July of
1958) I was able to copy solid 35WPM with a pencil, thanks to a vocational
course in high school that taught basic and advanced electronics and an
instructor that allowed us to work on our ability to copy code for 30
minutes a day. I took the exam for my Novice license in Nov 1956 during my
first year of vocational school and then upgraded to General in March 1957.
We also had to pass the 3rd Radio Telephone the first year and the 2nd Radio
Telephone in our last year. The FCC tests were are final exams. (No
pressure at all...LOL)
I wanted to make sure that I went to ET school instead of RM school so I
intentionally missed every question on the CW recognition exam. I didn't go
to ET school but lucked out and was assigned to AT school at Millington, TN.
I might note that because the instruction was so good in my high school
vocational courses that I never had to study in AT school until we got into
radar principals in the final few weeks. I aced AT "A" School.
I don't know where you went to basic but I was back in San Diego last year
and all that is left of the boot camp there is the adminstrative buildings
and the training destroyer escort USS Neversail. All the barracks and
classrooms have been torn down and the grinders are now covered with brand
new low income housing.
One other note, when I was discharged I went to work for Federal Electric
Corp in Paramus, NJ as a Field Engineer and my entry electronics exam for
employment was waived because of my Navy electronics training.
73
Jim Younce K4ZM exK4LXU
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