altivo

Identities are peculiar things.

After 29 years of being KA9NZI I finally decided to take advantage of an administrative option to change the call. I could have chosen virtually any unused US call sign in the XX#XXX or X#XXX formats, but rather than going to something like "NH0RSE" I took the conservative route. I filed papers on August 8 to drop the letter "A" and shorten my call to K9NZI.

I've wanted to do that for a long time, but thinking about the long list of related changes that had to be made held me back. At one time there was a paperwork fee of $60 to make such a change, but the current cost is less than $15 because the FCC modernized its record-keeping and changed from slips of paper in a huge file to a computer database.

Though I haven't received a new license (it will come in the mail eventually) I did see yesterday morning that the change was official at the FCC. This morning, the ARRL also shows the change. In a few days it will trickle through to QRZ and eHam.net. Now I have to get busy and update all the other stuff. My ham radio e-mail alias changed when I confirmed the new call with the ARRL. Consequently, everything (I hope I got them all) that uses that alias had to be updated. I'll still have to deal with various ham radio groups, such as QCWA, 10-X, QRP-ARCI, and FISTS. Furryhams was easy, and that's updated already.

Still ahead, change the license plates on my car to show the new call sign. Can't do that until I have the official document from the FCC. The new plates will cost $30. Then when that's done, notify my auto insurer of the change, and, I suspect, also the I-Pass people. You'd think I-Pass would get this automatically, since they're connected to the state government, but I'll bet they don't check DMV changes at all.

I'm afraid ripples of dropping that one letter "A" will be haunting me for years. Oh, and I'll need to have new QSL cards printed too. (Another $30 or so.) What a hassle, eh?

A shorter call has small advantages in Morse telegraphy or voice communications, but no particular advantage in digital communications such as RTTY (radioteletype) or PSK31. Years ago, the stratification of the license system was such that some ignorant folks assumed that any KA call was a novice (limited beginner) licensee and you'd get told that you were on the wrong frequency or mode, but that's pretty rare now. In most districts, the only new system assigned calls are KX#XXX type, and the user has to then request a change to something else if he/she is eligible for it. License class does determine what you can get, but only in broad terms. A four character call sign indicates an Extra class license, the most advanced level. Obviously there aren't many such possible calls, so a lot of Extras still have five character calls. I just wanted the old "traditional" ham call sign like what my uncle had when he introduced me to ham radio as a teen. Now that's done, I'll stick with it even if I do upgrade my license from General to Extra.

Current Mood: busy
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From:

hrrunka

I'm on my third callsign; first was an M6, the second a 2E0 and now I'm an M0. That first callsign lingers as my login ID to LotW and one or two other places that aggregate records and keep the underlying ID apart from the displayed callsign. As it happened, I never actually used the 2E0 callsign on the air, so I never got as far as ordering QSL cards for it, but I still have more spare M6 QSL cards than I ever made QSOs...

From:

altivo

And I still get occasional foreign QSLs from as much as 12 years ago. I'll have to save my supply of KA9NZI cards so I can respond properly to those.

I gather that in the UK your call sign prefix still indicates something specific about your license privileges or location. While this was once true in the US, that began to fall apart some 40 years ago and the FCC has continued chipping away at it until now the only thing you can be sure of is that a four character call represents the Extra class license, and a five character call cannot be someone who is still holding the old Novice license that is no longer issued. Calls beginning with "A" require an Advanced (also no longer issued) or Extra class.

An upgrade in license privileges no longer causes a call sign change here. You can check a box to request a new call at that time, but they'll issue you a six-character call starting with "KD" or "KE" or something like that, so hardly anyone is likely to take that option.

Edited Date: 2012-08-29 05:53 pm (UTC)

From:

altivo

BTW, when I first got interested in amateur radio, UK hams had calls starting with "G" for the most part. In fact, I have QSLs from Wales with GW prefixes, and other areas of Britain with G3 and G8 prefixes I think. Have they completely stopped issuing those?

From:

hrrunka

Yes, the "G" series was all used up a while back. The "G" numeric parts used to indicate "Novice" or "Full", but since the demise of the Morse Test all "G" calls are now "Full". "GB" is still used for Special Event callsigns, but for the rest, "M3" and "M6" are "Foundation" (10W maximum), "2E0" and "2E1" are "Intermediate" (50W maximum) and "M0", "M1" and "M5" are "Full". At present, new callsigns are only being issued from "M6", "2E0" and "M0". Very occasionally they'll re-issue an old "G" callsign, but usually only to a descendant or close relative of the previous (now deceased) holder.

To further complicate things, when moving between regions we're expected to insert a regional letter into our callsigns. If I go to Wales I'm an MW0. Scotland is "M", Northern Ireland is "I", Isle of Mann is "D", Jersey is "J" and Guernsey is "U". the "E" in the "2E0" and "2E1" calls is England, and those calls replace the "E" with the appropriate regional letter instead. Thus "2W0" in Wales, for instance.

To further complicate the system, if the call (whether "G" or a "Full" "M") is a "Club" call rather than a personal call, then the regional letters are "X" for England, "S" for Scotland, "C" for Wales, "T" for the Isle of Mann, "H" for Jersey and "P" for Guernsey.

Just in case that wasn't complication enough, occasionally a Notice of Variation may be issued to allow the holder of a personal call to use a special prefix letter in place of the regional one between specific dates. Last year there was the option to use "R" for the Royal Wedding. This year there was "Q" for the Queen's Jubilee, and "O" for the Olympics.

...and then, just occasionally, they come up with an extra-special call confusion situation. This year two "two oscar one two" calls, 2O12L and 2O12W were issued for Olympics Special Events.

From:

altivo

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Now I want to go look at all the UK calls in my log and see if they make better sense. I knew vaguely that the digit represented license privileges but was never clear on the details. Here in the US, as you know, the digit always represented geographical regions, though the boundaries were shifted a couple of times. The FCC used to require a call sign change if you moved your permanent station's location into another region.

That's all gone away now, and you even see folks who have never been outside of New England using vanity calls that ought to belong to Alaska or Hawaii. ;p A few of the old prefixes still have specific meanings, at least for the place where the license was first issued. Most of those relate to island possessions outside the actual states, like American Samoa or the Marianas Islands.

From:

hrrunka

It's complicated here because personal callsigns are generally not re-issued. There are still a very few old timers with two-character suffixes about, but that callsign-space was used up fairly quickly. I think the last ones were issued well over 60 years ago now. They live on in things like antenna names ("G5RV") though.

There are also a few special contest calls with single letter suffixes which do get re-issued, but you have to prove extreme dedication to contesting to hold one of those, and they can't be used except for a contest.

I have exactly two 4-character US calls in my log, NH7O and K1ZR.

From:

altivo

If you work many contests you should pick up lots of 4-character US calls. I can do it easily not just because I'm close, but because they're after every QSO they can get. Most of the big DX contest stations use those short calls.

The FCC used to not reissue calls except by special action, usually when they gave out a well known deceased ham's call to a club as a memorial. I believe W1AW was the first precedent for that, in fact. It was the ARRL that finally convinced the FCC to create the "vanity" call system and allow any ham to request any call not currently in use that fit the scope of his/her license. That would have been unthinkable in the day of 3x5 card files, but now that it's all computerized the process is quite reasonable for everyone.

I believe Canada lets new licensees request a specific call right from the start (again, within specified limits.) They have mostly quit giving out VE calls, but the new VA calls often have suffixes that match the op's initials or nickname or whatever.

From:

hrrunka

NH7O was a pleasant rag-chew from 5Z4 around Xmas last year.

For some reaason I've never yet been grabbed by the contest bug, though I've helped with setting up and taking down contest stations.

The "G" series and (I think) even some of the early "M" series were allocated strictly in order (by licence class, of course), but there was a system wherby you could request an option on a particular call, and then, when its time came you got a chance to claim it.

These days you can pick whatever you like from what remains in the current series for the appropriate level, but at the moment "M6", "2*0" and "M0" are the only active series. Earlier this year one of the clubs to which I belong decided it needed a club call. Having thoroughly lost track of any paperwork relating to possible lapsed club calls, the organisers decided to ask for suitable suffix suggestions, and drew up a long list. I think the first one to get a green light from the authorities was more than a dozen choices down the list, as well over half of the current series has been taken already. The one we got? M0XBY - add in the England regional "X" (which club calls should do to distinguish them from personal calls) and you get MX0XBY...

From:

altivo

MX0XBY? Well, it's nothing if not memorable. I wonder how many folks would think it was in Mexico, though... (Just kidding, sorta.)

My friend Rex did all right when he got his license a couple of years ago. He's in British Columbia, asked for VA6REX, and got it.

On the other paw, I've had KA9NZI for about 30 years. No one ever suggested a "Nazi" association until I changed it to K9NZI, and now two people have independently suggested that it makes them think of a dog in an SS uniform or something like.

From:

hrrunka

Funny how folks will pull pictures out of a jumble of letters. I think most of the ideas thrown up at the club involved trying to make something in the callsign sound vaguely like "Bromley", which task was made trickier once we knew that all possible combinations alphabetically earlier than HUU were taken. One of the old timers did advise folks to "think what it'll sound like in Morse", but I think that got lost in the puzzling. I suppose we could have ended up with something worse from that point of view.