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Author Topic: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams  (Read 540 times)

W9AC

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1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« on: September 02, 2021, 04:38:21 AM »

I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine concerning the written portion of our FCC exams we took in front of an FCC examiner back in 1972.  For the Advanced Class exam, I distinctly recall a short essay-type question where I was required to draw a schematic diagram of an oscillator.  It was likely a Hartley, Colpitts, or Pierce. 

Does anyone else who took their Advanced Class exam in front of an FCC examiner recall drawing a schematic diagram?

Paul, W9AC
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KX2T

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2021, 05:25:59 AM »

Yes I do remember that but it was in 1970 plus even of the General test you had to draw a diagram of one of those oscillators plus identify the differences between them.
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W9AC

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #2 on: September 02, 2021, 05:38:52 AM »

Yes I do remember that but it was in 1970 plus even of the General test you had to draw a diagram of one of those oscillators plus identify the differences between them.

Thanks for confirming a very foggy memory.  Imagine if that same exam requirement existed today!

Paul, W9AC
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K3UIM

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #3 on: September 02, 2021, 06:10:23 AM »

Yes I do remember that but it was in 1970 plus even of the General test you had to draw a diagram of one of those oscillators plus identify the differences between them.

Thanks for confirming a very foggy memory.  Imagine if that same exam requirement existed today!

Paul, W9AC
I'm thinking there would be less of us Generals around. It seems that we had to troubleshoot a receiver schematic and I believe it amounted to a missing coupling capacitor. (Too long ago, the very early 60's)
Charlie
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WA9AFM

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #4 on: September 02, 2021, 06:42:16 AM »

I took my General in Summer, '67 in St Louis; the FCC crew came over from Kansas City on a quarterly basis.  There were oscillator diagrams on the test and we had to identify them and the function of some of the components.

Took my Advanced at the Kansas City FCC office in '75.  It was all 'multiple guess' questions.

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N2EY

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #5 on: September 02, 2021, 08:29:45 AM »

I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine concerning the written portion of our FCC exams we took in front of an FCC examiner back in 1972.  For the Advanced Class exam, I distinctly recall a short essay-type question where I was required to draw a schematic diagram of an oscillator.  It was likely a Hartley, Colpitts, or Pierce. 

Does anyone else who took their Advanced Class exam in front of an FCC examiner recall drawing a schematic diagram?


No.

I earned my Advanced in 1968 and Extra in 1970. The tests were all multiple choice.

Here's the history:

Prior to about 1961, the FCC written exams for amateur licenses other than Novice were "blue book" exams, with essay, draw-a-diagram and show-your-work calculation questions. The Novice was all-multiple-choice from the beginning.

Then in 1960 or 61 the FCC announced they were changing all the written exams to multiple choice. Be sure to bring some #2 pencils!

BUT

They didn't just change to multiple-choice immediately. Instead, field offices were instructed to use up their existing stocks of blue-book exam materials before changing over to the new multiple-choice tests.

Different field offices had different numbers of people being tested and different stockpiles of test materials, so, for several years, the kind of test you got depended on where you went for the test.

But there's more!

From January 1,1953 to some time in 1967, the Advanced was closed to new issues. If you had an Advanced you could renew or modify it, but nobody could get a new one. There was no Advanced test available. Then as now, if someone with a General wanted an Extra they had to do it in one go.

Then came the first changes of "Incentive Licensing" in 1967. The Advanced was reopened to new issues, the Novice term went to 2 years, and some of the rules changed. The old Extra written test was split into two parts - the first part became the Advanced test, and the second became the Extra test.

And all the old blue-book test materials were scrapped. All tests became multiple choice.

So, if you passed a US amateur license exam in after 1967 - or even earlier, depending on where you were - it was all multiple choice. If you passed the Advanced after it was reopened in 1967, the test was all multiple choice, because it was a new test, not the one used in 1952 and earlier.

So  why do people think/remember otherwise? Two reasons:

1) If someone got an Extra, General, Technician or Conditional before 1967, particularly at a less-busy FCC office, they may have taken the old "blue-book" test - and that's what they remember.

2) (The big one) - The ARRL License Manuals, and probably other study guides, were all in "blue book" format, even years after the tests changed. A typical LM question might be "draw a diagram of a pentode crystal oscillator using the grid-plate and modified-Pierce circuits". Or "explain why a triode RF amplifier would need to be neutralized". Or "calculate the length of a half-wave wire dipole for 7100 kc." And when studying, that's what we learned to do. Then, in the actual test, there would be a schematic diagram and we'd be asked to identify it. Or, as was on my tests, there was a component missing, and the multiple choices would suggest what part had to be added, and where, to make it work.

That's the real history.

73 de Jim, N2EY

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AA4PB

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #6 on: September 02, 2021, 09:23:16 AM »

I recall having those "draw a schematic" questions on both Amateur and commercial radiotelephone exams in the late 1950's/early 1960's. It really wasn't all that difficult - mostly having remembered the schematics from working on equipment. It wasn't to the level that you had to design a transmitter and calculate all the component values. Even on the commercial exam, what they got from me was a schematic of an ARC-5 transmitter.  ;)
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Bob  AA4PB
Garrisonville, VA

WB0FDJ

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #7 on: September 02, 2021, 10:35:53 AM »

N2EY seems to have nailed it.

I also took my Advanced exam in summer of 1972. It was all multiple choice questions.

Doc WB0FDJ
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W7XTV

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #8 on: September 02, 2021, 11:40:46 AM »

I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine concerning the written portion of our FCC exams we took in front of an FCC examiner back in 1972.  For the Advanced Class exam, I distinctly recall a short essay-type question where I was required to draw a schematic diagram of an oscillator.  It was likely a Hartley, Colpitts, or Pierce. 

Does anyone else who took their Advanced Class exam in front of an FCC examiner recall drawing a schematic diagram?

Paul, W9AC

I took my General in 1971, and the Advanced a year later.  I don't remember having to draw anything.  All the questions were multiple-choice, although part of the test was having to identify what type of oscillator was shown in the question.
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WB2VKL

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #9 on: September 02, 2021, 11:48:16 AM »

Age 16, General class, 1965, Buffalo, NY Post Office building, I walked upstairs. Yes, I remember there was space provided to draw a required simple schematic diagram. May have been an oscillator or pi network output stage. I think the 13wpm code test was first,
receiving first, 5 letter groups. No words. Then sending.
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AE0Q

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #10 on: September 02, 2021, 01:20:15 PM »

I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine concerning the written portion of our FCC exams we took in front of an FCC examiner back in 1972.  For the Advanced Class exam, I distinctly recall a short essay-type question where I was required to draw a schematic diagram of an oscillator.  It was likely a Hartley, Colpitts, or Pierce. 
Paul, W9AC

The FCC Advanced and Extra tests in the 60's and early 70's were seriously more difficult than recent years.
Extra Class licenses made up only 4.6 % of total US hams in 1972 when I got mine.  At the time you had to have a General or Advanced for 2 years before you could take the Extra tests (written, Morse receiving and sending).

Our callsigns didn't change then, but when someone found out you had an Extra Class license they believed that you knew SOMEthing about electronics and probably antennas :-)

I took my tests at the San Francisco FCC office near the end of Navy Electronics Tech "A" school on Treasure Island, Feb 1972.

Glenn AE0Q
« Last Edit: September 02, 2021, 01:23:31 PM by AE0Q »
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K3XR

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #11 on: September 03, 2021, 03:20:09 PM »

I seem to recall the explanation given by N2EY.  I took the Novice test in 1959 and there were no diagrams.  I don't think there were any math problems, I could be wrong.  In 1960 I took the Technician test and I do seem to recall circuit diagram(s).  What form they took I can't say. There may also have been some math on that test but I wouldn't swear to it.
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K1VSK

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #12 on: September 03, 2021, 05:46:34 PM »

N2EY seems to have nailed it.

I also took my Advanced exam in summer of 1972. It was all multiple choice questions.

Doc WB0FDJ
Not sure what he “nailed” with all that unresponsive rambling. To be a little more succinct, in the 60’s, drawing oscillator circuits was on the exams.
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K3UIM

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #13 on: September 03, 2021, 06:26:51 PM »

VSK: Come to think of it, it may have been an oscillator circuit and not a receiver schematic involved in my test in 62 or 63. Too many years ago to be accurate.
Charlie
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Charlie. K3UIM
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W9FIB

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Re: 1960/1970 FCC Written Exams
« Reply #14 on: September 04, 2021, 02:42:56 AM »

Maybe we should bring back drawing schematics. Love to see how many could draw a modern digital frequency synthesizer with a phase locked loop. And include the source code that the uP uses to run this thing as the explanation asked for in the test.

I bet there are a lot of people who have no clue how it even works, and have no idea what components do the job. Should we eliminate all of them?
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73, Stan
Travelling the world one signal at a time.
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