TexasCHLforum.com

txsmiley kf5wre wrote:Yep

Welcome back my friend!

Chas.

joe817 wrote:TAM, good luck on the No Code Tech exam. It's a breeze. I went from Novice to Extra in 11 months, and that was when code was required on all exams(except Advanced IIRC...it's been a while) Breezed through Novice, Tech, and General with no problems. Learning the General 13 wpm was a bit of a challenge, but listening to the Gordon West tapes made it a breeze(no, I don't work for Gordon, but I knew him & knew him well). Advanced gave me fits. Had to take the exam 2 times before I passed. Very complicated for me. Rote memorization got me through. I was fortunate enough for THE W5YI VEC to give me a part time job grading papers at his house here. It turned into a full time job, and it was so much fun while it lasted. Gordon & Fred collaborated on many training manuals & tapes, & I was privileged enough to debut them at the Dayton Ham Convention. I'm not in the business anymore, nor am I active, but I miss it. Many, many stories to tell....for another time.

73,
Joe AA5LD

You are correct about the Advanced not requiring additional code. I got my Novice in 1976 ( 5 WPM code), then upgraded to Technician shortly thereafter. I took the General exam (13 WPM) a few months later. This was done at the Houston Amateur Radio Club facility and an FCC employee came to the club on a Saturday to give the exams. This unheard of at the time. (My Technician exam was at the FCC office in Houston.) The examiner told those of us who had passed the General exam to take the Advanced just for the experience and exposure. A few of us passed it, much to our surprise! 13 WPM was hard enough and I knew I'd never get to 20 WPM, so I never tried to upgrade to Extra. I was out of ham radio for over 20 years, and by the time I got interested again, the code requirement had been dropped and I upgraded to Extra. My wife got a grandfather upgrade from Technician (later Technician Plus) to General.

I used Gordon West's study manual and computer software for my Extra Class upgrade and it is great. A buddy of mine used it for Technician, General and Extra. I had no idea Gordon was doing this back when Advanced tickets where still being issued. When I got my first three tickets (went from Technician to Advanced without every holding a General), the test question pool was not available to the public and we had to study various manuals.

Chas.

The Annoyed Man wrote:FWIW, I'm studying for my Technician license right now.

Excellent! I have a meeting Monday with an entity I can't name about installing an antenna, repeater and other equipment in their building. I'm then going to push forward with setting up AllStar links and having the weekly gun nets I've wanted for a couple of years now.

Chas.

Liberty wrote:I know a few Ham radio Operators that are active in this forum, guns, CHL and the 2nd amendment are popular discussions on 2 Meter and 70 CM networks . It would be useful to have a field in our profiles to input our Callsigns. There are probably a lot more ham operators than active ICQ or Yahoo messenger folks on our forum.

Thanks,

Ray .. KF5IZN

I'm not sure if I can add fields to the profile in phpBB or not. I can in Joomla, but I'll check. I know some are concerned about security, but since I use my real name, people can find me easily.

Chas.