The Vanity Quest for a new 7th area Ham Radio Callsign is now over. We managed to get picked and won the callsign seen above. It was my third choice on the list I submitted in my application to the FCC on the 5th of November. I achieved my goal of having the new call before the end of 2018.
I started the Vanity Quest last January for a 7th district call when I “harvested” a silent key’s (deceased ham’s) amateur radio callsign by providing a letter requesting the call be released for reissue and a copy of the obituary to the FCC. I was disappointed when I didn’t get that call because the suffix was my first and last name initials. I was doubly disappointed when a guy from Illinois (out of the 7th district) got the call.
Before today’s result, I applied for 21 callsigns on 19 applications, all of which were dismissed. This morning when I read my email, the FCC notice was in my inbox. Now, I am pleased with the fact I got an old-timer W7 call and am happy with the Quest being at an end.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Way to go!
Has a nice CW swing to it, too.
Thanks, DrJim . . .
I picked the top three in order of CW Weight. It didn’t work out too bad getting the third choice since the CW weight for the old and new call are the same – 50 beats.
Back in Days of Olde, we just took what we got!
I kept my Advanced call when I got my Extra because that was the call everybody knew me by, and I liked it.
I’m just glad I was able to get it changed to a “0”.
I got my advanced back before they had 2×2 calls. I kept my old call until the extra offered a 4 character call. The AJ6 prefix was worth 6db in a pile-up back then. Not so much now . . .
I had people hear “KQ6” and think it was some exotic Pacific island. Most of the people I worked when I first got the call asked me about it.
I am an old guy who got into ham radio at the age of 12, in 1972. Back then, we had the prefix of N for a novice, so I was WN8SZG. Talk about a fun CW handle to key with a straight key. I think that you had 1 year to upgrade or your license would expire, maybe 2 years.
Well, due to life getting really complicated, with a marriage, a new baby, and a job with tons of overtime, mine expired.
About 4 or 5 years later, I was in a position to have the time and a tiny bit of money to get back into the hobby, so I wrote the FCC and asked them what I had to do, if I had to take both elements of the test, because of CW being one of the requirements. Much to my surprise, I got a letter back in the mail, which included a new license. They apologized for not being able to give me the same call sign, but explained that it had been reissued to someone else.
Talk about being totally surprised and pleased with a government organization. I expected them to at the most, tell me I only had to take the written test again, because I had been expired for so long.
I went and got my Tech Plus license, and then my General, and in between, they dropped the Morse code requirement.
I am not as active right now as I would like to be, but I am just so involved with other things, that I can’t do it all. But I think it is still a hobby worth young people getting in to. And congratulations on the vanity call sign. I know you have been trying for some time.
Hello P-51. OK on the history and the take on the FCC. Over the years, I have had no problems with them and as a matter of fact they went to a lot of trouble to help our radio club solve an interference problem on one of the repeaters. Turned out the spurious signal was being radiated by a residential TV pre-amplifier unit gone bad.
Thanks for the new call wishes. It took 20 separate applications and nearly a year to get here.