Request for Amateur Radio User Group

Good idea! I just created a "user group" called Hobbies and added "HAM Radio" as the first option.

Click to join the HAM Radio group and wear your "CQ" badge!

Sounds good to me, ive been a Ham for years as well as my father and both my grandfathers, so im in.

I cannot say that my grandparents were hams, but my dad and mom were... my sister and brother in law are... my wife and I are... I got my first license (before my mom did) at age 10, and am just coming up on my 50th anniversary in June or July... I forget which.

Would you make any guess just WHAT influenced me to take up engineering??

Bill

Great idea.

When you join the group it will ask you to edit your group profile. I suggest the following format. You may cut and paste as needed:

Current Callsign: KCØJBJ

License Class: General

First Licensed: 1973 as a Novice

Previous callsigns held: WNØJGF (Novice), NØEAA (Tech.)

By the way, in college I was a member of the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) Amateur Radio Club. Sponsored by the Electrical Engineering department, which also has a student chapter of the IEEE, the club holds the callsign WØEEE. Believe it or not, that is NOT a Vanity callsign. The club was originally formed by students in 1931 when UMR was still the Missouri School of Mines and Metalurgy.

Sounds great how do I join?

CE3AM ex CE3NSW...4X4SW.... since 1958, all home made tube junk.

Would 28MHz be a better place for such a forum, perhaps?

As a young man I used to be WA0PYD could I get my old license back?

If by "old license" you really mean "old callsign", yes. There is a new FCC program called Vanity Licensing that allows you to choose, within limits and from available callsigns, any combination to make a legal callsign, for an extra fee, currently $20.80 for 10 years.

A previous holder of a callsign can get his old callsign reinstated under this program, unless it has already be re-issued. Callsigns of your type, known as a 2X3 callsign are not very much in demand, and in fact, checking at a popular website, "Vanity HQ", I found that WA0PYD is not currently issued to anyone and is available.

Now, if your FCC license is expired, you may have to retest to get it back. Morse Code is no longer required for any class of license. Currently there are only three classes of licenses which will be issued Technician, General, and Amateur Extra. However, holders of current Novice and Advanced class licenses may continue to renew them. Also, under rules change made in 2000, if you passed the Technician Class licenses exam and held the license prior to 1983(?) the written portion was the same as the General Exam, and you can actually "grandfather" to General, however you must take the new Technician exam because there are new questions on RF Safety that were not on the old exam. I do not know if the same holds true for Advanced or Extra Class licenses. Also, you no longer need to go to a Federal building and sit for the exam given by an FCC employee. Most local clubs and some individuals offer license exams given by Volunteer Examiners (VE's) who are certified by one or more Volunteer Examiner Co-ordinators (VEC's). The ARRL is one of the VEC's, for example and lists license requirement on it website. VE's may collect up to $14 in fees to offset their costs and that is the usual amount per test session, during which you may take any or all of the three license tests. However, you may not take the higher test without first passing the lower test(s). For example, if you want to test for Extra, you must hold a General license and take the Extra exam, or hold a Technician license, then pass the General and Extra exam in order, or pass all three in order during the same test session if you do not hold any license currently. With the exception of "old" Technicians as I described above, you must do the same for General license.

You must hold an Extra class license to request a 1X2 or 2X1 type callsign. For example ARRL's W1AW is a 1X2 type callsign. There are not very many 1X2 or 2X1 callsigns that remain unissued, but callsigns may be re-issued after a 2-year waiting period after they expired from the previous holder (deceased or un-renewed). You may also request a 2X2 callsign if you hold Extra or Advanced license. A Technician or General may request a 1X3 or 2X3 (like yours) callsign.

Vanity HQ has several lists of currently available callsigns and even tracks expired callsigns with dates showing when they will be available. However, you may NOT apply for a callsign before it is available, and it is only available on a first-come first-served basis AFTER it becomes available, so timing is critical.

Hope this helps!

73 from KC0JBJ,

Don