While I haven't used it, I've heard good things about HamTestOnline.

Another useful resource is KB6NU's free No-Nonsense General Class License Study Guide, which you can download here:

http://kb6nu.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/2011-No-Nonsense-General-Class-License-Study-Guide.pdf

I'm speaking only for myself, but, no, it would not.  I became a VE after the code tests were dropped, but I've heard from some of the VE old-timers that administering the code tests was a pain in the neck.  Having taken the 20WPM test at an early VE session back in '85, I can see why.

Beating a dead horse isn't all that much fun, either.

N2EY is right: if someone wants to set up a club for CW novices, issue certificates and awards, arrange skeds, hold contests, administer recreations of old exams, etc., no one is stopping them.  Sounds like a great idea to me.  And, as has been pointed out, SKCC is already doing some of that.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the FAA recently revert to closed question pools?  I know nothing about the air transport pilot test, but I believe that the private pilot pool, once open, is now closed, with the FAA releasing only a few representative questions.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I will point out that maintaining a closed question pool takes a lot of work.  To keep the pool effective, it'd have to be updated continuously, to thwart any Dick Bash, Jrs.  And keeping a pool secret when there are 36,000 VEs out there seems unrealistic.

One thing that's often overlooked in these matters is that the FCC has essentially zero money to spend on overseeing the amateur service.  Any proposal for change that costs the FCC anything, either in staffing or expense, is going to have a tough time getting approved.

If there is genuine interest in keeping applicants from rote-memorizing their way to a license, there's a simple way to do it that involves no change to current regulations: increase the size of the question pools.  However, I suspect that the number of hams who have serious objections to the way things are done now is relatively small, and the number of those willing to put in the work to increase the size of the question pools is even smaller. 

At this time, the FCC is not promoting Advanced class licensees to Extras, and has announced no plans to do so in the future.

The only sense in which the FCC "did away" with the Advanced class license is that they're not issuing any more of them.  Any existing Advanced licenses can be renewed indefinitely.

It has been updated; take a look at some of the most recent entries under "Warning Letters."  Granted, only a handful of letters have been added since July, 2012.

Yes, you can take the exam anywhere in the USA (and a few places outside the USA, too).  Your new call sign's district number will be based on the mailing address that you enter on the NC605 form, not on the test site location.

That's a mighty generous thing you're doing for your fellow hams.  That said, I'm going with a vendor who can spell "hexagonal."

Very useful.  I'll take a look at your videos on sampling tees, too.

I was wondering why your call sounded so familiar, then realized I'd heard your very entertaining interview on the Amp Hour podcast.

I'll second that.  I've had a QL-500 for several years, and it's great.

I agree with those who've pointed out that trying to share COM ports is problematic, but I don't see why you can't share a sound card among CW decoders.  Windows is more than happy to send an incoming sound card audio stream to more than one program.  I commonly run both DM780 and JT65-HF at the same time, with both programs using the sound card in my Signalink USB.  By doing so I can switch between JT65-HF and other digital modes without the hassle of opening and closing programs.  (I share the same sound card for tx, too; Windows automatically creates a mixer input for each program.  As long as I don't try to transmit from both programs at the same time, this works fine, too.)

As an experiment, I just opened DM780, JT65-HF, and CW Decoder, with all of them taking their audio from the same sound card.  No virtual audio cables needed, and no problems.

Virtual audio cables are useful when you want to pass an audio stream from one program to another.

For what it's worth, I installed CWDecoder yesterday, and I have a rig, computer, OS, and interface pretty much identical to yours. My computer has 6GB of memory, but I have a hard time believing that 4GB of memory is insufficient.  CWDecoder seems to work just fine.

Written by the late Michael O'Donoghue.

The benefit of owning a 753 is that, after using it a while, any other transceiver you buy will seem like the best one in the world.

If you're like me, and don't send out all that many paper cards, you might want to consider a free software program called QSL Design and Print.  It's a deceptively simple application that lets you create and print very nice looking cards.  I'm not that crazy about buying ink for my printer, so I have the program create jpgs, which I upload to the Walgreens photo site and print out for about $0.19 a card.

You can download the program at:

http://www.va3hj.ca/

Take a look at the sample cards page; you'll be impressed.

I suppose it could be useful, but it's not required.

The issue was addressed in this thread:

http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php/topic,74566.msg508284.html