N2EY Wrote:

I doubt FCC would ever again enact a ham license that wasn't renewable.
They dumped that feature of the old Novice more than a quarter century
ago.

And I count that as one of largest mistakes the FCC ever made, even worse
than dis-incentive licensing in 1968.

In my mind the non-renewable nature of the Novice license was the very
reason ham radio still survives today. People were given an almost-free
pass into the hobby, and they flocked in by the droves. If they liked it,
they were forced to qualify for a real license or hit the bricks. I know
that notion spins you up big time, something about "we can't afford to lose
them", but frankly my dear, we never had them in the first place if they
couldn't manage to take the next baby step up to
General/Conditional/Technician. (When Technician meant "technician", not
"beginner".)

73, de Hans, K0HB