I have told this story before. I first became a Novice (KA5RZY) ham in the early 1980’s. I upgraded to Technician (N5HRK) in the mid 80’s. I never got over the 13 word per minute hump, so never upgraded to General. Many years passed and I did Other Things ™ and my license lapsed so hard that even the 10 year renewal grace period was years out of date when I got interested in the hobby again around 2011 or so. I had to study and test again to get my license anew. It is a no-code license and between the study tools and my own experiences, it was possible for me to take the tests for Technician, General and Extra in one sitting. I kinda squeaked by Extra (AE5XB), but I did pass. I didn’t like my new Extra call all that much, though it did have a X in it. I searched for a vanity call. For all the searching, the best vanity call for me was my old Technician call, so here I am, N5HRK again.

Also, 10 years have passed and it is time to renew my license and for the first time ever, I did it.