[600MRG] New RadioTelegraph License

[sbjohnston at aol.com]

 Thanks guys.  Your experiences remind me of mine with the first phone.  In the early eighties I passed the first-phone exam at an FCC session in Cleveland, but the certificate that arrived was the General RadioTelephone Operator License!  What a rip-off!  They implemented the change between my exam and the grant of my license - I might as well have just taken the elements for the second phone as the results would have been the same.  Oh well, *I* have the satisfaction of knowing I really have a First-phone...  My career in broadcast engineering did not suffer for it being a general - everyone else had one too eventually.  And the professional society certifications that we developed became the new challenge.

With the demise of commercial maritime CW, there is little practical use for a radiotelegraph ticket.  Except for museum-ships and historical club shore stations, there is little commercial Morse to be heard on the "ship-to-shore" bands.  Why bother with a new version of an antique license?  I appreciated the challenge of studying for a serious exam covering technology from a very wide time range - 1920s to 2000s, and I'd like to be able to operate one of the restored maritime stations some day.
 

Steve 

sbjohnston at aol.com
http://www.wd8das.net/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Radio is your best entertainment value.
--------------------------------------------------------------------