I have kept my Advanced ticket, and never gone for Extra, because I'm grandfathered in with Advanced, and they are starting to get rare. I don't mind being a little different. ;)
/johnny
Got my Advanced in 1976, my Extra in 1985, GROL in 2000.
In the early days I was builder. We did a lot of one of a kind stuff you could not buy then. I was the PC board guy. Screen printed, etched and drilled them. Got pretty good at it.
Last 10 years I have not been that active, too many responsibilities. Taking care of elderly sick family members.
Time is catching me.
Hey, I miss-stated my neighbors dish size. It was 28 ft. not 38. Shows how long ago the mid 1990’s was.
And since the FCC stopped demanding minimum levels of transmitter performance, many stations don't give enough of a s*** to hire competent technical help anyway.
Loudness, man, loudness! What else is there to care about?