posted 03-10-2007 09:18 AM                      

Well, so long, KJ5KX... my callsign for the past 14 years. I got my new call today, to reflect my Extra Class license!! I'm now W3HR. It took quite a bit of work, but I was able to land a rare 4-character "W" call, and apply for it under the vanity callsign system.

Just in time, too, as there have been tons of upgrades now that the code requirement is gone. The ARRL has been swamped!

quote:
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 28, 2007 -- The avalanche of Amateur Radio license and license upgrade applications prompted by the FCC's elimination of Morse code as a licensing requirement is well under way with no end in sight. ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, reports that paperwork from upward of 450 Amateur Radio exam sessions held since the new rules went into effect February 23 has arrived so far this week. The ARRL VEC, which typically receives paperwork from about 70 sessions each day, has had to add personnel and schedule extended hours to keep up with the workload.

"We've been seeing some of the largest brand-new Technician sessions ever," Somma said. "These examination sessions are huge, and a ton of new Technician license applications has been coming in -- sometimes 60 or 70 at a clip." Somma says license upgrade traffic also has been brisk, and, with some 650 examination sessions already on the calendar for March and more arriving daily, it doesn't look like the pace will slacken anytime soon.

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This, of course, will translate into an increase in vanity applications. Competition for 4-character calls will be fierce.

73,
de W3HR
(Whiskey Three, Ham Radio!)

posted 03-11-2007 10:29 AM                      

Haha! Thanks, Louis.

quote: Jeff Stricker

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I didn't think there were any unused W x 2 callsigns available. You got a good one.

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Thanks, Jeff!

It's a SK call. I'm actually the 3rd guy to have it. The call's been sitting dormant since '98, but no one knew about it. That's where the all the work comes in, doing searches and checking against online databases. Makes it that much more satisfying when you do finally score a rare one!

K4TR (expired) will be at the end of the FCC's mandatory 2-year wait period in June, and will then be available as a vanity call. I wanted that one because it has my initials and it's my hometown call area, but I decided the competition with be too heated for vanity calls by then, and I didn't want to lose the W3HR to someone else who might have discovered it, so I committed.