New FCC Call Sign

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hotdjdave

K9DJW - Senior Member
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landonjensen said:
Do you get to pick any callsign you want, or are you assigned one?
You give them a list of the top 25 ones you want (you don't have to use all 25).

You have to do a little research if you want your request to be approved. You need to find out what call signs are or will be available at the time of your request. If none of your call signs are available, you request will not be approved and you will forfeit your fee; then you must reapply if you still want a new call sign and pay the fee again.

One good thing is that the region is not an issue when getting a vanity. Normally, the FCC assigns you a call sign based on your location at the time of issue. For example, using K9DJW, the 9 is not my region. I am in region 6, so my previous call sign had a 6. The only other requirement is that the format (how many letters and numbers) is the correct one for your class of license..0

You also must pay a fee (I think it was $20.80).
 
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kingpin

Trailer Park Supervisor
Joined
Mar 2, 2004
Messages
426
Location
Seattle, WA
I got my vanity W4IRQ back in Jan. IRQ is a computer term and it's easier to hear on HF than KE4KZY.

Still working on my own phonetics:
Whiskey
4
Improved
Radio
Quality

About the best I can come up with .... Radio does get more interesting as people drink....
 

iMONITOR

Silent Key
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S.E. Michigan
hotdjdave said:
I got my new FCC call sign. I applied for a vanity call sign and got my first choice. Now I have K9DJW (meaning: my former occupation and my initials).

K9DJW

You Dog! :p
 

k8tmk

Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2004
Messages
316
Location
Stevensville, MI
My wife got her license in March. She was issued KD8CZO. We immediatley applied for a callsign with her initials as the suffix. So, now she is W8ALK. I tried to get her to use the phonetics "watching 8 aborigines leaping kangaroos," but she didn't like that idea. LOL
 

Llwellyn

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Location
Brooklyn, Maryland
stateboy said:
Thanks for stealing a Nine-land call...guess we need to take one of yours now :)

They let you keep them if you move (see sig) and you get to keep it when you renew if you stay the same class... I don't think you'll run out of 9-calls anytime soon :)
 

hotdjdave

K9DJW - Senior Member
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I got my ticket at the Los Angles County Fair. There was an Amateur Radio section (many booths, displays, vehicles, rigs, etc.). I had been procrastinating to take the the test for over 20 years, so I decided to just go for it.

One of my VECs was the well-known Gordon West (WB6NOA). He was the one who encouraged me to just take the test. He gave me one of his books and signed it for me. It seemed somewhat sentimental to me, being that I had been hearing about "Gordo" since I was a kid (when I got into communications) and had been studying his books all these years.
 
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K5MAR

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Oct 13, 2002
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Location
Stillwater, OK
Here is a handy site for amateurs looking for a vanity callsign: RadioQTH The available callsigns are sorted in several different ways making it fairly easy to see what's available.

BTW, mine is a vanity call: K5MAR - K5 MAR - MAR K5 - MARK5 - MARK S
Easy to remember! And I do live in the 5 district.

Mark S.
 

Yokoshibu

Member
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Feb 8, 2005
Messages
362
eh I've decided to keep my original.... had it for almost 9 years... dont have a need for nothing fancy!
 

N1SQB

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Somewhere On Earth
I love Mine! Since 1994....

Thats how I feel about mine! Its cool though if you dont like it and decide to change it. At least there is an option!

Manny
 

zz0468

QRT
Banned
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Feb 6, 2007
Messages
6,034
Back in the day, having a 1X3 call meant something... You could tell who the old timers are. Not so, anymore. Now it's the guys with the WA and WB calls. I've had my WA6 call for 32 years. I'll never change it.
 

N8DV

Member
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Sep 16, 2007
Messages
111
In the old days of amateur radio, an op could actually recognize what part of the country a person was from by their call sign. Not any longer with vanity calls. I had to buy a vanity call just to drop one letter of my general call when I upgraded to extra. Now I don't know if a 4 call is really from 4 land or somewhere else!
 

eorange

♦Insane Asylum Premium Member♦
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Aug 20, 2003
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Location
Cleveland, OH
I moved from Pa (3 land) to OH (8 land) and didn't change my non-vanity call. So this problem still exists to some degree.
 
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