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Some thoughts on license tests
The year was about 1970, I was ten years old and my father got his first ham license. I was intrigued with this new hobby of his, and was even more intrigued when he upgraded to General and started using voice. He encouraged me to get my own license -- he was willing to help with code practice, and he bought me my own straight key and oscillator, but morse was just too much for me to bother with. I learned the four letters of my first name and I learned 'CQ', but that was about it. I never really memorized the entire alphabet, or any of the procedurals and punctuation required for the test.
Now we skip ahead thirty years.
It's 2001, and I work with a friend who's a ham and is encouraging me to get my license. I'm extremely lukewarm to the whole idea until I start talking to my son about what it means to be a ham. At eight, he's extremely interested, and since there's a no-code license it's something we both feel we can do. With his excitement fueling me, I decide to get my license.
Thing is, I knew that if I was going to get a ham license, I was going to want to be able to work HF. That was what piqued my interest all those years ago, and while two meter and 440 might be great for my son and I, HF was going to be my real goal. Using various sources on the internet and the 'Now You're Talking' book, I first studied for my Technician license. I realized extremely quickly that getting that license was going to be easy for me. I had about a month before a test in my area was going to occur, so I started in on learning the information for the general class test. It was more difficult, but I knew I could easily have it learned by the time the test came around.
That left code.
Code turned out to be my real problem. It took me far longer to learn code than I had anticipated. So long, in fact, that when the time for the tests rolled around I wasn't ready. I was very clear I wasn't ready, and I didn't bother to take the test. I passed both element two and element three, however, earning me a Technician license and the written credit for General.
So I sat back and thought about things. I had a month before the next testing session. I knew I wanted to have code learned by then. But why not take element four and try to earn an Extra Class license? I decided to try it. If I failed element four and passed the code test, I'd still be left with a General class license, and I'd be no worse off than if I didn't take it. If I passed, then I had the Extra, and I probably wouldn't ever need to worry about it again.
It was a hard month of studying. I read most of the ARRL Extra upgrade manual, and for a while was taking four practice tests a day. I averaged about an hour a day on code -- close to two hours a day the last week. Code just doesn't come easily to me. On the day of the test I aced the code element -- no problems at all. I did rather poorly, I felt, on the written, but managed to get 40 out of 50 questions correct, which was enough to pass the test.
And I walked out that day as an Extra. Unfortunately, since I haven't been able to afford HF equipment, those priviledges went completely unused for four months. A nice income tax refund bought me a refurbished Icom 706MkIIG, and I'm due to finish putting up a dipole in the next week or so. A friend lent me a power supply, so the only part of the station I'm missing is an antenna tuner, and I suspect I'll have that before we finish the antenna.
My son still wants his license, but as I'm divorced and without physical custody, it's hard to help him study for the test. But we'll get there.