[SOC] Am I a ham?

[Tom McCulloch]

Hi all,
  Well a friend of mine fom our local qrp club here on Long Island ( the 
LIQRP club - pretty original, eh?) passed his extra last week and loaned me 
his study guide. (In the unlikely event that I eventually pass the extra 
exam I promise to continue to operate in a second class manner so my 
membership in the SOC will remains intact).

  Anyway, today I decided to see when my General class license comes up for 
renewal and so I dug out my ticket.  It says that it was good from June 1996 
until June 2006..."oh, oh" I said (well not really, but this is a family 
list).  OK now before we get to crazy and call the FCC on me -- my antenna 
has been down since last winter and in the true spirit of SOC, rather than 
fix it, I just I haven't operated since well before my license's  expiration 
date.

So I go to the ARRL site (who I thought was going to notify me when my 
license was up for renewal, as a membership benefit) and I looked through 
the procedure for renewal...ahh good news, there is a two year grace period 
to renew after expiration of the license..."whew", I said (really!).


The ARRL site pointed me to the FCC renewal site and I go there and rember 
that in 2000 I filled out something  called an "FRN", and I even wrote down 
my FRN number and password.  So I log on and it tells me that my license was 
good from March 1998 and expires in March 2008.  I have no idea where these 
dates came from.

So do you think I'm a ham?  If you were me would you fix your antenna and 
operate, or take advantage of the two year grace period and go watch the 
football game?

Seriously, though, if I actually study for the Extra exam and show up at the 
VE to take it, will I need my license, like I did in 1965 when I took my 
general and had to prove I was a novice?  Or will they check the FRN 
database,  QRZ.com also says that my license expires in 2008.  Am I in the 
twilight zone?

Thanks for your help with this,
Tom ,
WB2QDG (I think)