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

Age 16 (3rd Class)-quarterly exam given at Louisville, Age 18 (2nd Class-what a tough exam!) at Louisville, and First Class at age 20 in 1975 while on USAF active duty at Albuquerque, then a semi-annual test site closest to my base in Clovis, NM. Almost 38 years later, I'm still chasin' volts and watts!

I remember my commander making a big do of it at the next Commander's Call, our mandatory monthly squadron meeting...also got my third (Sgt) stripe at the same meeting! As far as the General Class license, well, I post it wherever required-along with a copy of my old, dear First Class license right beside.
 
Got my third phone/broadcast endorsement at 16 (9/1967) and my first phone at 20 (5/1971). Took both exams (and the 2nd phone on 2/71) at the old Hudson Street, NYC FCC office before their move to Varrick Street.
 
16 for the third, 21 for the second. Studying for the first when they announced it was going away. To those of you that felt cheated because your license became a General, I also felt like I cheated and at the same time got cheated because I never got to take the first phone.

I failed the 2nd phone by 2 points on the first try. My engineer friend and roommate at the time said it was lucky that I'd failed. He said that I didn't know as much as I thought I did and it would have been dangerous if I'd passed. He was absolutely right. I borrowed his Edward M. Knoll 2nd class handbook and studied every page until I knew each principle and they all made sense. It took six weeks of studying a few hours each day to get all the way through the book. Then I realized how much I had not known before. The second time around I missed only one question. The knowledge imparted from that one book served me extremely well in my radio engineering career.
 
jboyd said:
My "Bible" was the Q and A by Kaufman...I still have it...anyone else remember it? JBI
Click to expand...
I think that's what I studied the first time through. Was that a blue book with about 200 pages of test questions and answers?
 
ironbear said:
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.
Click to expand...

I agree with you on the lifetime General phone.
 
Kaufman was revised several times. It had basic theory and diagrams, and explanations of the circuitry and then some typical FCC questions in the back...not a total "Memory" option. Mine was orange. JBI
 
18 for the third
19 for the broadcast endorsement. (first one given at the Buffalo NY test office)
21 for the second
26 for the first
 
Watt and JBI, etal;
13 for the 3rd and 2nd. 2nd after three tries.
14 for the first and my first job helping construct
WMOX 10Kw 4 tower. Had to have the first to actually
have a job once it was licensed.
Hitchhiked from Meridian to Mobile every time but the
last to take the first again in Jackson.
Wayne Hall in Mobile would wake me up in the phone booth
at the bottom of the stairs going up to the office when I was
testing. I flunked the first and he said study these questions
an he would let me take the test the next week in Jackson.
He and Bill Simpson (W5RAH) gave the tests. I got a 100,
and don't think they aren't human beings. Will never forget
the look on Waynes face when he handed me test 1Z.......
exact same test from the week before in Mobile. What a smile.
I didn't let him or me down either!
And I walked out of there with the then diploma!
Harold
 
Kmagrill said:
I borrowed his Edward M. Knoll 2nd class handbook and studied every page until I knew each principle and they all made sense. It took six weeks of studying a few hours each day to get all the way through the book. Then I realized how much I had not known before. The second time around I missed only one question. The knowledge imparted from that one book served me extremely well in my radio engineering career.
Click to expand...

SAMS' Edward Noll books were great! Couldn't have passed the tests without them, and I still have them. I was so obsessed by broadcasting... I built the two-tube (12AX7) Gates phono pre-amp from the schematic in the book!

Passed the Third phone w/element 9 when I was 15.
Earned the First Phone at 16.

Took both exams at the Tampa field office ("7T"), and both licenses were signed by the late Angelo Ditty, who later headed the Atlanta office.

I know I'm not alone in saying that I felt cheated when they devalued the First.

Kind Regards,
David Reaves
Recklinghausen, Germany
 
Lordy - 1963 for 3rd and first - in Atlanta and I believe Angelo was the test proctor. Down at the old Atlanta Gaslight building with the wierd sculpture out front. The 'Lifetime' one was issued out of the DFW office cos I was in Tulsa at the time.
And I agree with Reaves - and a quick listen or look with a swept analyzer will show the results of that decision.
 
Passed the Third phone w/element 9 when I was 16, 1ST when i was 22.
Got radar endorsement while in USAF. Would have been nice if the FCC had sent out the General license to replace 1st holders.
 
Got mine at 18. That 2nd was the tough one. the 1st a breeze after that. Now about 50 years later in our 5 station cluster I am the only one with the now General. Our CE doesn't even have one. I think Kent T. has us all beat getting his at only 11.
 
Got my third and second class at about 19. Took the test in Mobile Alabama. Wanted to take the first class test at the same time but I was told I didn't pass the second class test. About a week later I received a call at home from the FCC. Boy was that a scare, I just knew I had got caught at something. I just didn't know what. I was told there were two people with the same name as mine taking the test. The lady looked at the other persons test and told him he didn't pass then looked at his test again and told me that I had not passed when I actually did pass. She offered to make arrangements for me to take the test anywhere I wanted to take it. I had to take the First class test two times before I passed. I was around 21 I think.
Really made me mad when they did away with the First Class License and replaced it with the General. I am sure many others feel the same way!
 
Lotta history in those old First Phone licenses. I believe you can see a bit of one, on the wall through the doorway, in this "KZN First Day of Broadcasting" photo, from May 6, 1922.
That's the predecessor of KSL-AM.
 
Got my first phone and amateur extra class licenses in spring of 1963 at age 20! Took the tests at rm 826, US courthouse bldg in Chicago. I was a college student working part time at the post office in the same building! Not employed in radio yet!
 
Got my 3rd with endorsement at 13, Rode the bus from Spruce Pine, NC to Atlanta by myself, and stayed in a motel overnight (try that at 13 today and see what happens!) to take the test the next day in the Gas Light Tower. Passed it with no problems.

About two years after high school while job hunting I had 4 or 5 stations within a week tell me they would hire me on the spot if I had a First Phone since they were DA at night and whatever night time jock they hired had to have a first to be legal. So I signed up with Elkins Institute and moved to Atlanta for a couple of months. I found out that the school was a lot more than the license mill many people said it was, if you really wanted to learn more than just enough to pass the test.

I got my second at 19 and a week later got my first. Didn't get the radar endorsement but later regretted that I didn't. Probably never would have used it but I just wanted it so I could say I had it!
 
jtudor said:
<snip>Didn't get the radar endorsement but later regretted that I didn't. Probably never would have used it but I just wanted it so I could say I had it!
Click to expand...

I always wondered if the Radar endorsement would've been useful to help me get out of a speeding ticket in court. ;)
I once knew a Ham who actually was able to use his technical knowledge to get a speeding case thrown out...

David
 
David Reaves said:
I always wondered if the Radar endorsement would've been useful to help me get out of a speeding ticket in court. ;)
I once knew a Ham who actually was able to use his technical knowledge to get a speeding case thrown out...
Click to expand...

I knew of a physics teacher that proved his car could not have accelerated from a stop to the speed that the cop reported measuring in the distance allowed across an intersection. Case dismissed. Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with the first phone, however, I also know of a broadcast engineer that asked to see the license and calibration records for the speed gun. When he discovered that the calibration date had long since passed on the day that he got his ticket, he went to court and also won.
 
Age 15 on a 3rd with Broadcast Endorsement (BE) with a job (age 16) at my local FM stand-alone that played elevator music. Took 3rd with BE on same day as ham general license (1967). Wage at age 16 is what factory worker makes now in China. By 1972, left radio for Cable TV.
 
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