I'm not sure the current system is "saner" than before. (Quite, possibly, more "INsaner" [sic] than before.") Now, you can have a 1x2 call with NO experience (and in some cases, don't even know Ohm's Law or how to build a dipole,) and a 2x3 who MAY well know their way around a nuclear reactor for the last 20-30 years. YMMV.
As I said, YMMV. We currently have no "choice," we either accept what the FCC says NOW, or the alternative is to surrender your license. What was policy in the past, is just that, and that's what it is: IN THE PAST. Of course (or curse, YOUR call) YMMV.
Yes and no.... The Novice term went to 2 years in 1967 - I had one of the first two-year Novices. The second letter of a Novice callsign could be N or V, per the regs, but AFAIK the V was only used in the 2nd and 6th call districts. For a time, it was possible to hold both the Novice and Technician at the same time. (I did this in 1968). The result was an amateur with two licenses and two callsigns, often with the only difference being the second letter. In late 1968 or so, FCC ended the practice, but by then I'd upgraded to Advanced. But I still recall having two license documents with two different callsigns - which one I used depended on the band. Yes. And in fact for much if not most of the time, you couldn't even ask unless the upgrade was to Extra. And there's more! Remember when repeaters had distinctive "WR" callsigns?
Well, as Gertrude Stein once wrote, "a callsign is a callsign is a callsign." I would have been very happy to have kept my original 1966 novice callsign, WN4CIE, which had a nice rhythm on CW I thought. But the bozos in Washington make the rules, eh?
