07:52 – It was 59.0F (15C) when I took Colin out around 0620 this morning, damp and overcast. Barbara had to leave at 0630. She’s volunteering all day at the charity golf tournament that benefits the Wellness Center.
Well, it’s official, or will be when it shows up in the FCC database, probably later today. I’m again a licensed amateur radio operator, after a gap of 40 years. And, for the first time in my 64 years, I failed a test.
Since the FCC had completely forgotten about me, I had to start by taking the Technician Class exam. I blew through that in about eight minutes, at which point the examiners handed me the General Class exam. I blew through that one pretty quickly as well.
After she graded the General Class exam, one of the examiners said I’d passed it as well, congratulated me on doing so, and asked since I’d aced both Technician and General if I wanted to try taking the Amateur Extra Class exam. At first, I demurred. The other two guys who were taking their GC exams had already finished, it was already 2030, and I said I didn’t want to hold them up. She and her husband, the second examiner, assured me that they weren’t in any hurry, as did Sam, the third examiner and the guy who’d taught the class. So they talked me into it. I hadn’t even glanced at the Amateur Extra material or test questions, so I knew going in that there was a very small chance I’d pass. But what the hell, why not try it? So I did. And failed it. Oh well.
As I’ve mentioned, the only one I cared about was the Tech exam. I don’t intend to use anything other than 2 meters and 440, so that’s all I needed. The only reason to get Amateur Extra was if I wanted to qualify as a Volunteer Examiner who could administer tests for all three classes. And I may still do that at some point, but I’m happy for now with what I have.
I started seeing this message a week or two ago on the conservative sites Hotair and Townhall. The message is identical on both sites.
You are seeing this page because ads cannot be shown
Ads allow us to pay the content creators of this site.
Why is this happening?One of your browser extensions is blocking ads or scripts
How to fix this:Which ad block extension do you have installed?
Adblock Plus
Click the red octagon with “ABP” on the upper-right hand corner of the screen.
Select Disable on to allow ads.
Refresh the page.AdBlock
Click the red octagon with the hand on the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Select Don’t run on pages on this domain to allow ads.
In the “Don’t run AdBlock on“ dialog box, select Exclude. The AdBlock icon changes to a “thumbs up” image.
Refresh the page.
I’ve unbookmarked both sites because they don’t follow my acceptable site policy, which simply stated is:
o It is unacceptable for any site to run any type of ads whatsoever under any circumstances whatsoever.
o It is unacceptable for any site to interfere in any way with the functions of any ad-blocker, popup blocker, or script blocker.
o It is unacceptable for any site to use a paywall to limit access to some or all of its content.
o It is unacceptable for any site to require any form of registration, including even an email address, and whether that registration is free or paid, to access the content on that site.
o The only acceptable form of monetization is for a site to implement a micro-payments system that allows users of that site to pay a clearly-defined and readily-visible amount for each article or page that user views. Breaking articles into multiple pages to increase the cost to users of viewing an article is unacceptable.