Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed in Tx
$35 fee is supposed to make up for the cost to the FCC of renewing. Hey I have an idea! Make the licenses LIFETIME and do away with the renewal expenses altogether! Like they did with the old First Class - Second Class that became the General Radiotelephone Operator License, issued for the holder's lifetime. Very disappointed the ARRL failed the Ham community when they didn't fight for "lifetime".
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I agree 100 percent, but the FCC obviously has other ideas, especially if they increased the renewal fee as much as they did. Amateur licenses should be absolutely lifetime once the license is issued, no expiration date. We work hard to get the license, so it makes perfect sense to me to do away with renewals altogether. I was able to upgrade from Novice to Technician in 1975, but unfortunately had to take the General test twice. The second time was the charm, as I passed the test with flying colors. As I have said, I worked too doggone hard to get the Technician, then the General, and do not want to ever go through that again if I can avoid it. Amateur radio is a grand hobby, as I have found after having been in it since 1972. (When I lived in a Cleveland suburb and still had my HF station, I came within several states of getting ARRL's Worked All States award.) I don't want to give up this hobby if I can avoid it. I am a member of the Lake County (Ohio) Amateur Radio Club, and check into their Thursday night 2-meter net whenever I can (I sometimes get busy around the time the net begins, as it starts at 7 PM Eastern time, but I will try to make up for lost time tomorrow evening [Thursday, January 22]). The local repeater here, N8BC/R, 147.81-21, is an excellent machine with good coverage of the Greater Cleveland area and also portions of the outlying area; in fact, their net is two days from now.