You are not entirely correct about the conditional.  I upgraded from my
conditional to advanced class I think back in the late seventies.  It
turned out to be a strange story.  I lived IN Kansas, only about 25 miles
from the Colorado line.  I was only 200 miles or so from Denver, but 400
miles from Kansas City.  Unfortunately, I was in the Kansas City
district.  I wanted to upgrade to an advanced class and contacted the
Kansas City office to get my conditional advanced test.  I had local ham
all lined up and all.  I was told they basicly didn't want to bother with
the paper work.  I then contacted the Denver office and talked to a very
nice engineer there.  He said I understood the rules right and I should be
able to take the conditional test, but since I wasn't in their district,
there wasn't a damn thing he could do.  He basicly said it was up to the
Kansas City office, and if they didn't want to be bothered, there really
wasn't much I could do.  He said if I could find a way out there, they'd
work me in any time to take the test and do what they could.  That is what
I wound up doing, although I did not have to take the general.  My
conditional was recognized.  I never knew of it happening, but the rules
were such that one could be called in to be tested if they doubted your
license was legit.    Anyway,  my brother read me the test except for the
diagrams.  The nice engineer came in and read me the rest of the test and
I passed.
I am now an extra, thanks to the lowering of the code speed.

73s
Butch      WA0VJR