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
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