I have been interested in Amateur Radio since I was at school and passed the Radio Amateurs Examination in 1966.
My difficulty was the morse test which I failed. At that time although it was possible to obtain a B licence without a morse qualification this only permitted operation on 70cm and above for which there was no commercial gear available.
As a result I did not bother to apply for a licence and so although it was not long before non-morse licensees were allowed to operate on 2m I had by then lost touch with the hobby as I got involved with vocational studies and bringing up a family.
It was not until 1993 when, seeking diversionary activities I decided to check out the amateur radio scene and on the basis of my RAE pass applied for and obtained a B-licence with the call G7ROK.
I never got around to operating with this callsign as was determined to pass the morse test and after many hours with the excellent tuition programme "Supermorse" and listening on the bands I felt proficient enough to attempt once again the morse test which I had failed 28 years earlier. Passing the 12wpm test in February 1994 I was at last able to obtain a class A callsign - G0UOS.
However I did feel a little guilty operating on the basis of an exam success so long ago when everything from licence conditions to equipment and operating practices had changed so drastically in the meantime. It would have been foolish to retake the RAE (after all I might have failed!) but I heard about the american exam and decided to have a go at this. I would at least be able to prove to myself whether or not I understood enough about the hobby to be let loose on the airwaves. So I obtained the manuals and lists of questions. Never before had I prepared for an exam for which I had been told the questions in advance. Of course there were too many questions to memorise the answers but it was easy to find out the areas where I needed to do some serious study. Well, I had a go and managed a clean sweep passing the novice, technician, general, advanced and extra exams together with the 20wpm morse exam in one two hour session on 4 July 1996, so I really felt like celebrating that day!
As for now I don't spend much time on the bands but keep in touch with what is going on from morse to APRS and look forward to having more time to pursue the hobby
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