[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

The reason I never got my license is simply I'm too damn stupid to do code...And I never had a kindly old Elmer to help me along. The hams we have around here are generally 144MhZ guys, not into HF, & you start talkin' Hammarlund, Hallicrafters, Collins they just sorta look at you- "Oh, no-another one of THOSE old radio freaks...ignore him, & maybe he'll go away..."-Sandy G.

The Morse code requirement is now just 5 wpm for all licenses, the same as the old Novice/Technician requirement used to be. Just a suggestion, but I don't think you'd have any trouble with that speed. If you don't feel comfortable with learning code for any reason, there is now a code-free Technician license that conveys privileges from 50 MHz up and requires no code test of any sort.

The reason most of the hams in your area look at you strangely when you talk about your old Collins, Hallicrafters, etc. rigs may well be because they never heard of them and/or don't know much (or anything) about them. Most hams today have been trained on solid-state gear and may never have seen a vacuum tube in their lives, let alone know how one works. Most of the people I know outside AudioKarma and the ham radio club I belong to know absolutely nothing about radio, electronics, or anything technical (even computers). It's just the way people are; we all have different and varying interests. You and I, and everyone here at AK, are exceptions, as we all have been around electronics a long time. The hams in your area may well have been just recently licensed and could know just enough about electronics to have passed the written test, possibly just barely.

I saw some of the boatanchor receivers you have in your collection when you posted some pictures of them here awhile ago. Every one of those receivers should tune to 3.58, 7.08, 14.08 MHz--the 80, 40 and 20-meter frequencies of ARRL headquarters amateur station W1AW at Newington, Connecticut, near Hartford. This station transmits code practice on a definite schedule seven days a week. I don't know what frequency you'd hear W1AW best on in Rogersville, but I'd try all three I mentioned above. Every issue of QST magazine, the official journal of the American Radio Relay League, carries a W1AW code practice schedule for every frequency the station transmits on. If you have a public library in your town (most do), they likely have a file of QST dating back at least a few months. Look in the index under the heading "W1AW schedule" to find where the schedule is posted in the magazine. Copy the 5-wpm practice transmissions each night for a month or so, and you'll have that speed down cold. I know this works, as I used the same method to get my own code speed up to 17 WPM so I could pass the General exam. (It's always best to be sure you can copy at least two or three wpm above the speed you will be tested on, just to be safe.)

There is no such thing as being "too stupid" to learn the code, as you put it. Many people have done it in the past, some of them as young as eight or nine years old (I once read of a four-year-old in Vincennes, Indiana--get it, four--who passed the entire set of license exams--code, written, everything--and is now, I think, a 30-odd-year-old Extra licensee; the man got quite a writeup in QST at the time, when he passed his Novice exam and got the license, call sign WN9VPG). Another example: Former CBS-TV newscaster Walter Cronkite got his Novice class ham license (callsign KB2GSD) a few years back; he got the license when he was perhaps in his mid-seventies and is now well over 80. I had to take my General code test twice before I passed; same with my Novice code and written tests. The important thing is not how many times you have to take the exams or by how many questions you passed them; rather, the idea is to have passed the exams and to get the license you are after. No one cares (or should care) what your score was on the written and/or code tests, as long as you passed them and have the license to prove it.

I'm not saying you should or shouldn't take the exams, Sandy, but I would suggest you at least try a few sessions in front of one of your old boatanchors, listening to W1AW. You might be surprised how quickly you can learn 5 wpm. As I said, if a four-year-old in Indiana can do it, so can you.

73 (best regards) and good luck,

Jeff, WB8NHV (mailto: [email protected] or [email protected])
Fax: 216-274-9513
Fairport Harbor, Ohio USA