"Jack Erbes" wrote in message
...
L. wrote:


A CHEAT SHEET???????????????

Buddy, if you're not ready for an exam, you're going to fail. Come to my
exams and be caught and the exam is OVER and YOU FAIL. And that is the
least
you can expect. Being turned into the FCC for any possible action will
be up
to them.

L.

Calm down, I thought maybe it was okay to have one.


Calm down? First of all, I'm not "upset". But - you are kidding, right? You
"thought" it was ok to have one? Cheat sheets are NEVER allowed. You weren't
allowed them in school, you surely aren't now either. IF any team EVER let
anyone use one, then it was a fraudulent exam session - pure and simple. ANY
"honest"' VEC and the FCC would stand by that.

They seemed to give a lot of latitude when I took mine about 3-4 years
ago. I was told I could answer some questions and "gist" the QSO if I
could not or did not want to copy it all down.


See my comments above...... regarding the cheat sheets - if you were given
"latitude"..... Be careful what you admit to, the FCC could make you RETEST.
AND if they find you failed, then you and the VEs are also subject to
punishment. The CW tests USED to be either Fill in the blanks OR Multiple
choice or whatever the team chose to use. FIB and MC were the two most
widely used. NOW they are ONLY "Fill in the blanks". You needed then AND
NOW, to pass 7 out of 10 in answers to pass the exam. IF you failed the code
exam written, they could look at your code copy and IF you had the
prescribed number of characters "straight"' in a row with NO MISTAKES, they
could pass you on that. THAT is how it is SUPPOSED to be done.

As it was, I probably had the best Morse skills in the room (including
the volunteers giving the test) when I took mine. The volunteers
running the test were having a lot of trouble getting the playback
system to work (about 10 headsets ganged up to a cassette player) and in
getting the tape rewound and staged to where they wanted it.


Then if you were that good, you shouldn't have needed a "cheat sheet". THEY
should have been General class or above. I don't know.... faulty equipment
still doesn't give "latittude" towards "answers". WE would have started it
over - PERIOD. What you had copied would have been passed off as a "warm
up".

And their Morse skills were either poor or very rusty. So they said,
this is the test, get ready, go! But wound up starting the test with
the last quarter or so of the final practice QSO still going on and none
of the volunteers had a headset on at that point. I did not want to
raise a disturbance for the other (5-6?) testees so I simply started
copying down everything I heard and turned it in at the end.


Then they should have stopped the test and got the tape qued and started
over. That was not a good example of testing.....

After I took the written test they said I had passed the theory and code
tests and I was a Technician with Code.


Congradulations - if you did it "honestly".

It is another issue but I am a real bone head on theory and have some
trouble recalling tabular data that pretty much has to be memorized so I
did not pass high enough for the General. But I didn't whine about how
hard that was for me.


ALL exams have ALL the answers in books widely available. If you had
trouble, then you need to study more. Memorizing answers A, B, C, D - just
doesn't cut it. One does NOT get the proper understanding of it. If you KNOW
the stuff, then the test will come easier. The only thing is, when you read
one of the "widely available" study guides, though the answers are the same,
the alignment - IE; A, B, C, D - may not be. I know a guy who tried
memorizing that way once and failed. The book was shown to us after, and the
answers were in a different order.

Maybe after we get done throwing away the Morse requirement we can throw
away all the info in the test that is not needed by people who buy
radios instead of building them. What about that?


WHY? Then when all the electronics goes to hell, who then goes on in
interest to become those who design and manufacture your stereos, tvs, play
stations, computers, etc. ? MANY who get licensed as hams, go on to be
broadcast engineers, etc. Especially if they're young with the hobby at
heart. The old farts, well, that is another story. SOMEONE has to "learn"
electronics. HAM is usually a stepping stone. Man, they once said this is
the dumbing down of America..... IT SURE IS. With the "I don't want to learn
it" attitude, in a few years, this country won't be worth a good ****. ANY
country who strives for excellence will beat us hands down then........
We'll have a bunch of dumb asses who won't know how to do anything.

And how about not having to memorize all the things that I would
normally and prudently look up on a wall chart or a handy reference?
I'm getting my first social Security check this month and it seems to be
affecting my memory. :)


MAN, that is PURE LAZINESS. For Christs sakes, they're not asking to recite
the Bill of rights! Just a "few" formulas. Why bother reading a "driver's
license manual" to learn how to drive, to pass the exams which require you
to know all the signs of the roads? WHY DO ANY STUDYING???? Why not just all
of us end up a bunch of morons because of laziness? Ohms law is one of the
most basic formulas you can be called on to remember and how to do it. When
I had trouble with it in school in shop class, I was made to write it 100
times. Believe me, I learned it fast. It was tough then - as a teen who was
rebellious against "hard work", doing all that writing, but ya know what????
I'm glad as hell it was drilled into me. Electronics became not only a great
hobby but my business.

But the bottom line is that when you have a structured group of people
that have learned something "the hard way" they expect everyone else to
go through the same hoops to join the group. And they are not always
wrong.


It is only as hard as you make it. ANY THING with work or hard earned money
put into it, makes it worth more. When you have something given to you,
you're more apt to abuse it. Had you not went to school to learn, you
wouldn't be anywhere near as far ahead.

I love the code and think everyone should know some. Maybe my 26 years
as a Navy cryptologist, with a good part of that involving the copying
of Morse code, is affecting my thinking. I still enjoy hearing "bens
best bent wire" sent in morse. Heaven forbid I should stumble off band
and hear a crusty old Radioman at NPL calling NPM with a "banana boat
swing" to his fist. I'd probably cry.


I bet the Navy made you study SOMETHING. And, if you had to do Morse in the
service, then why are you bitching about it now? Surely if you did it there,
you can do it here WITHOUT A CHEAT SHEET. If you were to use a cheat sheet
in the Navy to receive a message of a pending attack, by the time you got
done decoding using a cheat sheet, the message of a Bomb is headed your
way... the bomb has probably HIT.

Look, this isn't "personal".... but I DO disagree with you or that you've
experienced....... Any reference I've made as to a dumb ass and so on, is
not to you - personally. It is in general if things do end up going as you
seem to suggest.

Cheers!

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jacker at midmaine dot com

L.