Brer Ed Vance wrote to Brer Roy Witt about Re: Resurrected:

 RW>> My 2nd Elmer was a friend of a friend, who gave me the
 RW>> incentive to take the test for a Novice ticket, c1970 - WN6ABE
 RW>> was a one year license with no renewal available, per FCC rules
 RW>> at the time.

 EV> Brer Roy,

 EV> My Novice License had the same One Year rule.

Did you upgrade before the one year expiration or did you skip the upgrade
and wait intil later to do that.

 EV> In the late 1950's the FCC was going to come and give a exam session
 EV> in my locality (KY) a few weeks after the Dayton HamVention was held.

 EV> I took the Technician Test at Dayton to preserve my Call Sign, since
 EV> my code speed was around 10 WPM then, but I wasn't sure about passing
 EV> the Written Exam part but I was hopeing I'd pass it.

 EV> Then I took the Test for the General License when the FCC came to KY.
 EV> I passed the 13 WPM Code Test and wasn't real sure about how I did
 EV> with the Written part.

 EV> I did this because the Rules said it was OK to take a Exam for a
 EV> higher class license even though I had recently taken a Exam for a
 EV> lower class license.
 EV> There was a "waiting period" for taking the Same Test
again, but not
 EV> for a Higher License Test.

 EV> Some weeks later a letter from the FCC arrived, with a WINDOW on it.

 EV> I've learned from taking the General test before that Failure Notices
 EV> come in a plain envelope that my Address was PRINTED ON instead of
 EV> the Address (on the New License) being seen through a Cellophane
 EV> WINDOW.

 EV> In the letter was a Technician License.
 EV> I was depressed a bit but at least I had preserved my Call Sign for
 EV> IIRC 5 Years, and that license was renewable.  WHEW!!!!!!!!!!

 EV> A few more weeks passed and I was sitting in my front yard on a
 EV> Lawn Chair under a tree and the Mail Man called to me and said
 EV> that I had a letter from the FCC.

 EV> I asked him if it had a WINDOW, and he said YES.

 EV> When I got the letter in my hand I was trembling as I was opening it.

 EV> Inside the envelope along with the General License was a note from
 EV> the FCC that said that their records show I was issued another
 EV> License and that I HAD to return that License to them by Mail before
 EV> the General Class ticket was valid.

 EV> 20 Minutes later I had the Technician ticket in an stamped envelope
 EV> and walked down the street to drop it in the mailbox on the corner.

 EV> The next thing I did was call several of my Ham Radio Buddies on the
 EV> telephone and tell them the Big LID was now a GENERAL!.

Congratulations!

An aside to your story, while I and a close friend were sitting in the
FCC's exam room at their offices in San Diego c1978, we were taking the
General code exam. The code test included a 10 question test that asked
about the content of the code that we had copied. One question stands out
in my mind as 'the question that broke the camel's back'... The question
was; how many watts did the sender say he was using?

I had writen down "1 watts" in my copy and had answered the question
accordingly. My buddy, looking at my work sheet commented under his
breath; I don't believe that is right, and he wrote down 10 watts. I
whispered back that I hadn't copied two numbers before the plural word,
watts.

You could only miss 3 questions on that exam and I passed the exam on that
question with a 70% right score, while he had to make an appointment to
take the test again 30 days later.

Another friend, sitting across the room from us failed that test (his 5th
try) and hadn't gotten past Technician before I moved to Texas in 2004.
When the code test was no longer required, I see that he has made it to
Extra Class. I have no idea why, as he kept his old WB6xxx call sign and
can't communicate in CW...


         R\%/itt - K5RXT

"It is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all, and
 if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain."
     Bram Stoker (1847-1912)

 Thus, we have "Climate Change Science" - which isn't capable of
 explaining anything.


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