In July of 1970, I took my General at a sub-regional FCC Field Office 
in Mobile, Alabama, where the exams were given every other Wednesday 
at 8:30 AM. My Aunt lived there, so she took my Dad and me to the 
office, thus saving a lot of the stress involved in finding the place 
when you don't live there.

I was 15 years old, and scared silly that I would blow the written 
test.

As someone said, they actually had the test in Braille. This office 
luckily had not lost their key, although they did have to look for it.

The test was administered on this particular day by the Engineer In 
Charge, which was an FCC title in those days. His name was Wayne Hall.

His primary duties in that particular office were busting shrimp boats 
for license violations, usually language or operating with no radio 
license, and, of course, taking down enough CB'Ers to make believers 
out of a few others.

Naturally, a primary qualification for that job was to be in firm 
possession of what, for the sake of politeness and list etiquette, I 
will refer too as a "hard nosed" personality.

After I successfully passed the General, Mr. Hall said something to 
the effect of: "Go ahead and take the Advanced while you are here. It 
won't cost you any more, and may save you a trip."

I had not even looked at the Advanced chapter of the ARRL License 
Manual, so I declined, telling him that I knew I wasn't anywhere near 
ready for that test.

Two years later, with my Aunt once again serving as navigator, I 
returned to take the Advanced exam before beginning my Freshman year 
at Mississippi State University. My thinking was that I would be 
taking enough test over the next 4 years, so I wanted to get that one 
behind me.

There were 2 other people taking tests that day, so we were all 
sitting there when Mr. Hall came into the room. Without batting an 
eye, before he even saw my form 610, and before saying so much as a 
"good morning," he said: "Didn't I tell you to take that Advanced test 
when you were here 2 years ago?"

My dad, who served as my reader for that test, told me later that the 
two other guys looked like they couldn't decide whether to pass out, 
or run for the door when he said that.

As for me, I almost bit my lip off to keep from laughing out loud, but 
I was impressed that he remembered me so quickly. I somehow managed to 
get out a coherent "Yes sir," with a straight face, then passed the 
test. As others have said, the Advanced, for me at least, was by far 
the toughest of the Amateur exams. Taking it when I did was a good 
thing. I didn't attempt the extra until the first volunteer exams were 
offered near my home in 1985. The hardest part of preparing for that 
test was reviewing what I was already supposed to know from the other 
license exams so that the new material would be more clear.





Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs