[UK-CONTEST] Vanity calls- revisited

[Alex GM3ZBE]

OK Colin,
Thanks for the clarification.
I would like to drop the "E" off the end of my call and get GM3ZB :-)
Amazing how often the "E" gets lost in both SSB and CW!
73
Alex

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Colin
Sent: 25 July 2008 15:09
To: UK-Contest
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] Vanity calls- revisited

Alex,

There are actually two different issues here, both of which have been 
discussed in detail previously both on this and other fora.

Personalised (Vanity) calls - it is proposed that full licence holders 
could apply for a 1 x 2, or 2 x 2 call in the case of the regions.   
Each of the 3 prefixes could provide 6,760 combinations, less the M2 x 2 
series, providing around 18,000 callsigns.   It is unlikely that of all 
the 'active' full licensees anywhere near this number would be 
interested in changing their call.   Initially the head of the Ofcom 
Licensing Centre came over poorly as she envisaged nearly 60K UK 
amateurs wanting to change their calls.

The second issue is that of the Short Contest Callsign (1 x 1) programme 
possibly being extended to individual full licensees.   Currently there 
are just over 100 SCC calls assigned although how many of them are 
actually used is another matter.   Using just the G and M series means 
there are 520 combinations available and I think that experience reveals 
that we would be hard pushed to identify 520 serious contesters in the 
UK.   Just for clarification I loosely define serious contesters as 
those who actually submit logs to the major contests.

Hope that helps.

Colin, G3PSM


The first is vanity callsignsAlex GM3ZBE wrote:
> Assuming vanity calls generally mean short calls, they are going to be
> limited in supply.  How will they be allocated, i.e. is it a case of being
> "in the know" and getting in first or what?
> Alex, GM3ZBE
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Colin
> Sent: 25 July 2008 10:54
> To: uk-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] Vanity calls- revisited