I am a newbie to Amateur radio and although I am almost in my 6th decade on this great earth, I simply feel like a 'kid in the toy store' when I am playing radio. I got my first ticket in March, 2009 and upgraded to General in June. My hope of attaining Extra class status by the end of the year will not be realized, but I should attain that upgrade early in 2010. When I was much younger, I had a desire to try and get a novice license, but that blasted code was the 10 foot wall that I could never scale. Dropping the CW requirement has allowed the hobby to realize a rebirth in my opinion.