Hi Folks,
I had a similar experience when I went for my general.  This was back in the
days that you went to the FCC Office to get a license.  I went to the Miami
FCC and was not worried about the code until it started.  I had always had
the speaker in front of me or to the left side.  When the code started, the
speaker was about fifteen feet to my right.  I had made 950 contacts as a
novice and thought I was very proficient with.  It didn't even sound like
code.  Well, I settled down and made 90 percent on the test.  This was Feb
24 1978 and I had to report to school two days later.  Well, then came the
hard part, the written part.  As a novice, I had helped with a couple
classes and I helped with code and rules and regulations.  The first 19 were
r&r and that meant I had 19 correct.  I needed 19 more to pass.  Every time
a question was asked, it seemed like something I studied that morning.  My
reader was from Cuba and he told me, "I don't speak so good English, if I
say something and you don't understand it, tell me and I will spell it for
you."  I had no problem until he got to the phrase Characteristic impedance.
and he murdered it, Well that was the only thing he had to spell.  At the
end of the 50 questions, he asked if I wanted to change any answers.  I said
no!  He then said, "I think you have one wrong."  He took it away and graded
it and came back and said, I told you that you had one wrong.  He actually
told me the one I got wrong but not the correct answer.  The question was
about FM and how it was transmitted.  I said by a carrier, which we all know
is wrong.  73

Walt and GEB dog Opus
WA4QXT
New London CT
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