Old Calls

[ae4fa]

As the local VE liaison, I like to keep track of the folks we test. Checked on one today and found he'd gotten a KC4 call. Apparently, they FCC, having exhausted the KG4 series, was reluctant to go on to the KI series - the KH series obviously being out of the question.

Just a note of interest.

[kf6ueb]

Thanks for passing this along. I've been wondering what would happen after the KG's were exhausted.

I wonder if these are unissued KC's, or are they recycled (owner died or got a vanity).

As unimpressive as it is, I like the fact that my call has not had any previous owners.

73,

Rick

[W4CGP]

In region 4, the last callsign issued was KG4YRA as of March 2 according to the FCC's website. I'm guessing we'll run out of KG4 callsigns by the end of April (we've been using about 8 letters a year for the last 2 years). I hope the FCC goes to KJ...KI sounds a bit awkward.

Something tells me to doubt that the FCC will reissue too many callsigns for the sake of the vanity world and callsigns represent a bit of the seniority level of hams.

Looking back at the W-prefix callsigns, they quit those at WD4. Hmm.

[KA8NCR]

I've had my call now since 1981. The only way I'd switch is to take on my dad's old calls, either kn8lhh or wa8uhy.

He's quite insistant that I do not, saying that this is what I was dealt, the world knows me as such and he'd feel almost as bad if I changed my last name.

You know how those OT's are...

[K4TG]

I discovered several KC4's, KC8's, KC9's, etc. were issued on 03/03/03.

[W4CGP]

I did too. I also saw a lot of 2x2s in 1-land being issued. Weird.

[w3sy]

That is kinda interesting. After KG, you get KH. That's reserved for Hawaii and other places in the Pacific. KI, KJ and KK should be ok... KL is Alaska. I didn't think they would NEED to do any recycling for a loooonnnggg time.

As for the WD4 ("Wet Dog Four"), that's what the calls in most districts were up to in the "W" series when the FCC abruptly switched to the KA#XXX format for 2x3's in the 70's. In 3 land, we were in the middle of the WB3L's when the big change happened.

But yeah, it's odd that they'd go back to KC4 again....

They started reissuing callsigns that happened to be next in the sequence of Kxx series as long as they don't run afoul of already allocated prefixes.

For a good look at that.. check out the ARRL website. They should have a link that shows you the full list of ITU prefixes and what country they are allocated to. It's a neat read and helps you when you work DX and wonder 'WHAT IS A D44?' or 'M0?? in the UK?' GOOD GRIEF!' heh.

BTW.. did you know that even though the FCC lets a call 'lay fallow' following it becoming expired that you can take action to get it made 'issuable' within a week or two?

Yep. You have to check and see if the licensee is NOT an SK. (Silent Key for you youngsters out there! HI) IF the station is an SK, you can write to the Social Security Administration and get a confirmation of death. Then you send ThAT notice to the FCC with a note and request that they make the callsign available for reissue. Once the FCC reviews and confirms the fact that the callsign is TRULY assigned to an SK, they will then make the callsign avaialble for immediate reissuance.

W3HF - the 'guru of all things callsigns' provided that data to me while I was doing an extensive research project of my own gathering data for callsigns I had worked from 1968 till 1995. He has an email if you are interested in more details.

So if have your eyes on a callsign and it appears unavaialble and you think the guy is SK.. check it out. You CAN get the FCC to reactivate it.

For details. contact W3HF.

73
Chuck K3FT

NO! you can't get it.. yet! I'm still very much an AK (Active Key) although there are those who WISH I wasn't HI!

SY - Your landwire is ringing!

[ae4fa]

Update:

Bart Janke at ARRL VEC touched base with the FCC after I let him know. He says the FCC is in OOPS mode.

I really thought it was a good idea to re-issue old, expired calls of the proper group.

The guy I checked on got a call that was, indeed, expired (in '99), so no harm done. Don't know about the others.

FCC, according to Bart, is following up. Don't know what the outcome wil be . . .

[kg4rrm]

Thanks for the info. was waiting on kg4yrb to be issued. Waiting for a friend's call, darn it taking awhile.

[KG4UDX]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K3FT @ Mar. 04 2003,14:44)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Yep. You have to check and see if the licensee is NOT an SK. (Silent Key for you youngsters out there! HI) IF the station is an SK, you can write to the Social Security Administration and get a confirmation of death. Then you send ThAT notice to the FCC with a note and request that they make the callsign available for reissue. Once the FCC reviews and confirms the fact that the callsign is TRULY assigned to an SK, they will then make the callsign avaialble for immediate reissuance.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Actually, I believe that they only reset the start of the 2 year waiting period to the point in time that the operator became SK. #So you'd still have to wait for an expired ham's callsign if they passed recently.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (ae4fa @ Mar. 04 2003,17:20)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Update:

Bart Janke at ARRL VEC touched base with the FCC after I let him know. #He says the FCC is in OOPS mode.

I really thought it was a good idea to re-issue old, expired calls of the proper group. #

The guy I checked on got a call that was, indeed, expired (in '99), so no harm done. #Don't know about the others.

FCC, according to Bart, is following up. #Don't know what the outcome wil be . . .[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Very interesting, I helped teach 3 new hams that just got some of the KC4 calls, so I will be following this closely.

[w3sy]

We had a similar incident here in 3 land just a few years ago. We were still issuing N3Z-- calls to new Techs. (We were one of the last call districts to run out of 1x3's.) I was following the daily &quot;new licences&quot; list when we had a group of new hams pass their tests. I was surprised to see that they all received 2x3 KB3 calls, even though we clearly had not run out of N3 1x3's.

I contacted Bart W9JJ at the ARRL, and he got on the horn with the FCC. Sure enough, there had been a glitch. All the people who were issued those 2x3 KB3 calls in error got a nice new N3 1x3 in exchange.

The difference between an available KC4 and a never-issued KG4 may not be significant enough for the FCC to go back and correct, but who knows?

73,
Steve W3SY

Well the FCC has gone back and termintaed the KC4 calls and reissued KG4 calls... I got a call today from one of thye enw hams i help get licensed who was concerned as his call showed &quot;terminated&quot; in the FCC database.

[w3sy]

It's deja vu all over again! #That's what the FCC did with the erroneous KB3 calls.

Here's a slightly-related story of another FCC blunder from a few years back. Waaay back in 1973 or so, one of the less intelligent local Novices (with a WN3 call) went for his General. He failed. However, some weeks later, he went to the mailbox and found an envelope from the FCC. It was an ADVANCED ticket issued to HIM with a brand new WA3 call. Now it wasn't the WA3 call that he would have received if he had passed his General... But funny thing was it was kinda close!

He knew he had failed the General. And he knew he didn't even freakin' take the Advanced test. But here was this Advanced ticket with his name, address, and new call sign. So what did he do? That's right -- He went out and bought a nice new SSB rig and set up shop! #I don't remember how long he went merrily on his way as an Advanced ticket holder. Might have been close to a year. Until one day he kinda pissed off a &quot;friend&quot; of his, who kinda ratted him out to the FCC. The FCC went back and retraced the paperwork from this guy and realized its error.

FCC was not happy.

Granted, they goofed, but they were very disappointed that this individual did not point out the mistake. They pulled his ticket. Quickly. In fact, they probably pulled it, tore it up, stomped on it, and set fire to it. They let him know he was not likely to get another FCC license of any kind in THIS lifetime.

So sad. He might have been another Hiram Percy Maxim.

Not.