[CQ-Contest] Vanity calls and dits

[jpescatore at aol.com]

I got my novice call WN2ADH as a 12 year-old in1969 and hated ending in dits. But, it never occurred to me to change my call - it
was like my name. But when I passed the General in 1970, I forgot to attach a copy of my license. This was back
at the FCC office in Manhattan, NY and the old timer winked at me to let me know I had passed the General, so
I went home and started operating as WA2ADH.


Oops - I was a bit surprised a month later when the license came in the mail as WB2EKK. Back then WB's were sort
of nouveau, and ending in a K was as annoying as dits. Flash forward to 1977 when the first vanity program started. I
was in college in Connecticut and managed to get into Manhattan on a Wednesday morning (the only day they
gave the ham exams) to take the Extra so I could get a better call. However, I couldn't get there until 0930 and had missed
the Extra CW. So, I took the technical exam, passed, got my Advanced - but no shot at a new call. Took a few years
before I could get in to take the 20 wpm code and get the Extra, no more callsign gates.


Flash forward to 1997/8 and the vanity program. I wanted not to end in K or dits, and I was doing a lot of work in Windows operating
system security at the time, so I went for W3NT or K3NT, with W3TN and K3TN as 3rd and fourth choice. I was on travel the
weekend and week that the program started, so ended up putting it in the mail from Mexico or somewhere and missed my
first two choices. Bill Cross, WA3LJP (of the FCC, suspiciously...) who I'd known for years got W3TN and I ended up with K3TN.


Flash forward to 2009 and my first QSO with TX3A they copy me as K3TD - those darn dits...