This appeared on the Elecraft e-mail reflector today, courtesy of Phil Kane K2ASP:
"I can't vouch for the above, but I can for the following incident in which I was a participant:
As some on this reflector know, I was with the FCC in the San Francisco office for 28 years, retiring as the District Director (then called the Engineer-in-Charge) almost 12 years ago. In the early 1970s I was, among many things, the code examiner for both amateur and commercial applicants. One day an old-timer came in, related that he had been a coast station operator at the RCA Coast Station KPH, and wanted to upgrade his Second Class Radiotelegraph License to First Class before he retired. To copy the 25 WPM plain text, he brought his own "mill" as was permitted. He sat down, asked if he could smoke (in those days it was OK in offices), put the paper in the "mill" and said "OK, start the tape". The venerable Boheme paper-tape reader started pounding out at 25 WPM.
He took a cigarette out of his pocket, put it in his mouth, took a pack of matches from another pocket, lit the cigarette, dropped the matches on the floor, picked them up, and started typing. He pounded away and by the time the tape was finished had almost caught up. He took the paper from the mill, handed it to me, and said "Didn't think I could do it, sonny???"
He had perfect copy. I wish that I was that good
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane"
Thanks, Phil - that memory is priceless !!
73 de Larry W2LJ
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