[CQ-Contest] Call sign history

Radio K0HB kzerohb at gmail.com
Sun Jan 8 14:50:19 EST 2017


I chose my initials also.  Regretted it every CW contest  since.  Wish I
had more "average power" in the suffix --- dits get lost.


On Sun, Jan 8, 2017 at 10:53 <steve.root at culligan4water.com> wrote:

> I remember this well. One of the first rare DX stations I ever worked was
> VS9MF (Present day 8Q7). When I got his card I saw the suffix of his call
> was the same as his initials, and that was the coolest thing ever. When I
> got a chance to pick a call sign my first choice was easy.
>
>
>
> 73 Steve K0SR (ex-WA0VPN)
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> From: James Cain [mailto:jamesdavidcain at gmail.com]
>
> Sent: Sunday, January 8, 2017 09:28 AM
>
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
>
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Call sign history
>
>
>
> What's in a name?40 years ago this week a very large group of us were
> applying to the FCC for the long-awaited "preferred Extra Class call
> signs." The FCC opened the gate on January 1, 1977. Decisions, decisions.
> You were told to list four desired call signs. That sent everybody to the
> latest Callbook to see what was available. It depended on what Call Area
> you lived in. 1X2 call signs starting with the letter K had never been
> issued in most Call Areas. Some had been issued in Call Areas 2, 4, and 6.
> Lots of call signs starting with the letter W were available but all would
> be "re-issues." I don't think a 1X2 call sign starting with the letter N
> had ever been issued. Some of us had waited many years to dump our 2X3 call
> signs. We had been Extras for nearly 10 years. The prospect of fewer
> characters was exciting. But choosing a new call sign was agonizing! A lot
> of us chose a new call sign that had some connection with our checkered
> past. For many, the choice was mode-oriented
>
>  . If you liked phone, phonetics were a big consideration. For CW
> operators, bauds mattered. And, if you prefer CW, do you really want a call
> sign ending in K?A lot of us operated the first of two weekends of the 1977
> ARRL DX CW Competition with our 2X3 call signs. What happens if our shiny
> new call sign arrives in the mail before the second weekend? (In those good
> old days, children, each mode of the contest was two weekends, a month
> apart.) Somebody I know really, really well, enquired about this, and the
> unofficial word from the FCC was if your new call sign/license arrives
> before the second weekend, just pretend it didn't. Jim Cain, K1TN
> (ex-WA1STN,
> WA9AUM)_______________________________________________CQ-Contest mailing
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> --
73, de Hans, K0HB
--
"Just a boy and his radio"™


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