Then, when they grandfathered the Technician-Plus licensees into the General Class, it was another two years before I even tried anything on HF.  But recently a friend of mine passed the Extra Class test and started hanging out on the Extra portion of the 75-meter phone band.  If I wanted to talk to him on HF, he had to manually tune up to the General portion and we had to put up with extreme crowding when the band was open.  So I crammed for a week by taking the QRZ.com practice tests, and took the test at the ARRL Southwestern Division Convention at the Mesa Convention Center.

      S'welp me, I thought I'd flunked it.  After finishing the test, I figured I had not more than a 40% chance of passing it!  Many of the questions were similar to those on the practice exams, but not quite the same, and there were at least seven or eight questions on the real test that I don't remember on the practice exams at all.  The wait while they graded the test, and a dozen other tests being taken in the same room, seemed interminable, but I kept telling myself it was good practice -- if I flunked I'd put another nickel in and do it again.  And then the VE came over to my table, and kind of tossed his head and winced the way someone might just before they said, "Gee, I'm sorry, but ..." -- and then sat down and informed me I had answered 41 questions correctly.  I had passed with four questions to spare!  It was at least a week before my feet touched the ground again.  And strangely, at some point during that week I realized that most of my time as an amateur radio operator had been as a dilletante, someone who just dabbled in it, and didn't really take it too seriously. I never really felt like I'd earned the privileges available to my license -- and now, having passed the highest level exam and acquired the highest level of license, that seemed to have suddenly changed.  A lot of other interests have now been set aside, and I am focusing a lot more on ham radio than I ever have before.  All I can say is, if you are interested in ham radio, upgrade!  It does wonders for your point of view!