In article . net, "KØHB"
writes:

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.

How were the changes in 1968 a "dis-incentive"?

In my mind the non-renewable nature of the Novice license was the very
reason ham radio still survives today.

How so? That feature went away a quarter century ago.

People were given an almost-free
pass into the hobby, and they flocked in by the droves.

So 5 wpm code is an "almost-free pass"? I agree! ;-)

oh wait - back in those days we had to send *and* receive....

Plus a 25 question written that was mostly about the regs.

As for the droves, back in those days the number of Novices was about
15,000-18,000 per year.

If they liked it,
they were forced to qualify for a real license or hit the bricks.

You mean the Novice wasn't a real license? If so, then those Novices weren't
real hams?

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".)

I had one of those 2 year one-shot Novices. I got my Advanced (ahem) less than
a year after passing the Novice. I was 14. Yer preachin' to the choir, Hans.

But ya still haven't told us how to sell your idea to the FCC and the rest of
the ARS.

73 de Jim, N2EY