ken scharf wrote:

The LACK of incentive plus the 20wpm code was the reason so few upgraded
to the extra class,

Correct. Before Incentive Licensing there was not much incentive to go above
General since there were no additional privileges. Those who did upgrade to
Extra did it for the accomplishment.

And since it was a real (no answers supplied) exam before an official FCC
examiner it did show accomplishment. Hams of the day often listed it on
employment applications alongside their commercial licenses.

Actually the extra cw segments were the most prized,

Only if you are a CW DXer. And even before the change, by gentlemans
agreement the bottom of the CW band was left for DXers and casual CW
operation was higher, pretty much like now.

so the cw requirement made sense

IMO the only justification for the code test (at that time) was for possible
emergency use. As an example a ship in distress, since many ships were still
using CW at the time. But other than that making a ham take a special code
test made about as much sense as making him take a special soldering test.
That was finally recognized recently...

As far as techs are concerned... Well I knew quite a few techs who were
very much into home brew radios.

As it should be. The Tech license was supposed to be for technical use, not
just another operators license. But of course that was a laugh. Most Techs
bought their equipment and set up shop on the nearest local repeater...