Think antenna, not radio. In my opinion, far too many new HF hams buy a great transceiver and then string up a poor antenna.  A $400 used rig with a good, tower-mounted Yagi  will bring you lots more interesting operating possibilities than a $2,000 radio with a poorly-located dipole or vertical. 

By the time I upgraded from Novice (after about eight months) to General in the mid-1960s, I had:

Built a Heathkit DX60/HR10/Twoer/SWR Bridge/Wattmeter station.
Constructed an HF vertical, a 2M vertical and several HF dipoles.
Made over 500 HF CW QSOs.  Worked 48 states and about 35 countries.
Made daily contact on our town's 2M AM Novice net.
Thoroughly read every ham magazine I could get my hands on.
Read chapters of the Handbook and other ARRL publications.
Nearly memorized the ARRL License Manual
Participated in several contests, including the NR, Field Day, etc.

I felt that the day I passed the General before an FCC examiner in New York, while a junior in High School, was one of the great days of my life.  Don't think that many get that feeling anymore.

Neil/N3DF/Miami

I'm thinking more like 75 watts input, crystal-controlled, on slivers of HF cw bands (except 20m), one-year, non-renewable. 

....or, spend a week or so studying the General questions and pass the exam. 

Given some direction, motivated middle schoolers pass the Technician exam almost routinely.  Just how easy does the entry-level license test have to be?

He didn't "win" anything.  The court just decided that the "pecuniary interest" charge presents an issue to be decided at trial, while the "failure to respond" issues don't depend upon any facts in question and entitle the government to its claims without need for a trial (i.e., via summary judgment). 

Some hams find a challenge in climbing the licensing ladder and some don"t.  You could be a General or even an Amateur Extra in a couple of weeks.

The CW test was 5 wpm prior to WWI.

ARRL had petitioned the FCC to raise the CW exam speed from 10 to 12.5 wpm.  One ARRL official later suggested that this was at the behest of traffic handlers, who felt amateur cw ability needed general improvement.  The FCC thought the 12.5 wpm standard might add difficulty to exam grading and so raised it to 13 wpm.

I have found that a General class license is within the reach of just about any motivated high school (and some younger) students. 

The FCC began using multiple choice questions for amateur operator examinations in 1940.  It moved to all multiple choice questions in 1960.

"Real" Novices ran 75 watts input, crystal-controlled. 

The revolving door between government and industry employment is a disgrace to all U.S. regulatory agencies, not just the FCC. 

Don't need to memorize anything related to material that is not specifically asked in the published questions and answers.