How old were you when you got your FCC First Phone License?

[BobOnTheJob]

3rd age 14 (1 try), 2nd age 16 (4th try) & 1st age 17 (2nd try). All school of hard knocks...no formal education.

 

[Grounded Grid]

21.

Blew the 1st element on the first try (wierd, because the second-class element was way longer). Got it on the second shot.

They gave the test in the federal building in Seattle. Classroom setting, as I recall.

 

[jboyd]

19.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Yes..it was a classroom setting in the federal building in Cincinnati come to think of it...in each test instance, I was young enough that my dad had to take me there. I recall one question with a picture of a tube type schematic (may have been an FM detector circuit using a 6AL5). There were a number of choices to answer this question : to make this circuit function, connect points A&B, B&C, A&C, etc. That's about the only question that comes to mind 46 years later.

 

[frankberry]

I was 17. The test for the Second Class was much more difficult than the test for the First.
I also remember one question. I believe it was question #1 on the Second Class test.
Q: What is an ion?
A: The loosely held outer valence electron.

 

[greg.hahn]

3rd age 14 (1 try), 2nd age 16 (4th try) & 1st age 17 (2nd try). All school of hard knocks...no formal education.

3rd age 14. (1st try on elements 1&2, 3rd try on element 9 because I was using an outdated study guide. After failing the element 9 test the first time, I MEMORIZED the study guide, and then failed it a second time. :LOL )

2nd age 17.

1st age 19.

 

[Kent T]

Third Phone at 9 years of age.
First Phone at 11 years of age. Passed both first time.

 

[stacker]

Third, age 14. First, age 20.

 

[K4WRF]

All when I was 20. 3rd & 2nd in noisy crowded Federal Courthouse bldg Jackson Miss. (FCC was there twice per yr), failed the 2nd on first try but passed it in same noisy overcrowded room months later but couldn't take 1st as it was too late in the day and lot of people, one agent. Had to go to New Orleans Federal Building to take 1st. There were four other people in the small room for other test, I was only one that passed. The lady first said license would be mailed in about a week... As I was about to leave after pausing to talk with the EIC and other agent. Lady who administered the exam said she would type it up if I could wait and Mr Simpson signed it on the spot. I never heard of that "same day service" happening again...

 

[Grounded Grid]

As I was about to leave after pausing to talk with the EIC and other agent. Lady who administered the exam said she would type it up if I could wait and Mr Simpson signed it on the spot. I never heard of that "same day service" happening again...

Very cool, Watt.

 

[jboyd]

Watt: Your mention of Mr. Simpson reminded me of the first time I met him...I was at a newly constructed AM directional station, and he and Mr. L.J.N. Dutriel walked in the door for a final inspection...after a few niceties and a cursory inspection, we were pronounced ready to proceed...program tests were started that day. Last time I saw him in person..a very nice and realistic
bureau chief....JBI

 

[K4WRF]

Watt: Your mention of Mr. Simpson reminded me of the first time I met him...I was at a newly constructed AM directional station, and he and Mr. L.J.N. Dutriel walked in the door for a final inspection...after a few niceties and a cursory inspection, we were pronounced ready to proceed...program tests were started that day. Last time I saw him in person..a very nice and realistic
bureau chief....JBI

Thanks JBI, hope all is well in the land of Panola! L.J.N. du Triel, Now there was a character! Met him several times when he was consulting engineer... Was told by I think Joe Gross that Mr. du Triel knew Guglielmo Marconi personally... It was no joke.

 

[bossbill]

Apparently I'm a lightweight. I think I was 16 when the boss said "get your first phone".

 

[local oscillator]

All the same day when I was 19. Amateur Extra three weeks earlier.

 

[ironbear]

14 3rd.
19 2nd.
24 1st.

By the way, having the ultimate result...a lifetime General Phone thingie still feels like getting robbed, all these years later.

 

[robgrayson]

Like Watt, I took my test for the 3rd in the Federal Building in Jackson, MS. I had just turned 14. I attempted the 2nd at 15, but failed. After a few years in the business, I hunkered down in the early 80's to study electronics with an eye on the exam. A year into night school at State Tech, the FCC announced the end of the license system as we know it, and the plan went by the wayside.

I did finally get around to taking the GROL and passed at 50. Apples and oranges, I know.

 

[K4WRF]

Anecdotal and humorous in recalling those days but it always seemed to me that the FCC inspector relished in *loudly and repeatedly* calling out your full name in that crowded examination room, then informing "YOU FAILED!"

 

[speakerman]

I was a bootlegger through high school so I was not in any hurry to get my 1st phone. Upon getting my 1st chief job at 22 after leaving school I went to Chicago (intimidating for a small town mid-westerner) and took the series. I passed the 2nd with no problem but failed the 1st so I had to go back again (I remember the expensive parking garage and the uncertainty whether my stuff would still be in the car when I got the car back).

I left broadcasting for a number of years and let the license expire without grandfathering to the General. It seemed the FCC did not put much value in the testing requirement anymore so I was somewhat disenchanted at the time with the whole situation. I had a acoustics/electo-acoustics livelihood going good so I let it go by.

I went the full NICET audio route instead as it better pertained to what I was doing.

 

[kenglish]

Seems like I got my 3rd Phone at about age 16, taking a "Radio and TV Announcer Class" from WMAZ's Lloyd Harris, at Macon (Georgia) Tech.
Got my First Phone at 21 or 22, while I was stationed near Washington, DC in the Navy. Took a bus up to 1919 M Street, and spent the day at the FCC, taking the test, and reading the files of every station I could think of. Interesting to see the actual paperwork on a real station for the first time.

 

[davideduardo]

I was early on the 3rd at 13 and late on the 1st at 23. I did get to take the first at the M Street building in DC; I was visiting Washington from home in Ecuador and figured a First might come in handy at some point and went over and took it.