The FCC classifications of licensing have evolved considerably since the program's inception (see History of US amateur licensing, below). When the FCC made the most recent changes it allowed certain existing operator classes to remain under a grandfather clause. These licenses would no longer be issued to new applicants, but existing licenses may be modified or renewed indefinitely. The Novice Class operator license was for persons who had passed a 5 word per minute (wpm) Morse code examination and a basic theory exam. After the 1987 restructuring, privileges included four bands in the HF range (3–30 MHz), one band in the VHF range (30–300 MHz), and one band in the UHF range (300–3,000 MHz). This class was deprecated by the restructuring in 2000. Novice operators gained Morse code only privileges in the entire Morse code and data only segments of the General class portions of 80, 40, 15 and data and Morse code in the general section of 10 meters in 2007 just prior to the end of the Morse code requirement. The Advanced Class operator license, whose privileges closely match those of the General class license but included 275 kHz of additional spectrum in the HF bands, was deprecated by the restructuring in 2000. The Technician Plus Class was effectively introduced - though without a name - in 1990, when the requirement for Morse Code was dropped from the Technician Class. To comply with International Telecommunication Union regulations requiring Morse proficiency for working HF, Technicians were restricted to operating above 50MHz, but could gain access to the so-called Novice Class privileges (effectively getting what the Technician Class had before the change) by passing any of the contemporary Morse tests. In 1994, this was specifically separated out as a separate class, called Technician Plus. This class was deprecated by the restructuring in 2000. Volunteer examiners Any individual, except for a representative of a foreign government, regardless of citizenship who wishes to apply for a US amateur radio license must appear before Volunteer Examiners (VEs) any person who qualifies by examination is eligible to apply for an operator/primary station license grant. VEs are licensed radio amateurs who conduct examination sessions, frequently through permanently established teams on a monthly or quarterly basis. VEs are governed by Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (VECs), organizations that "coordinate the efforts of Volunteer Examiners ... in preparing and administering amateur service operator license examinations." As of April 2021,