05-11-19 21:17 NANCY BACKUS wrote to KURT WEISKE about Re: Callsigns & BBS 
as:
Howdy! Nancy, Kurt and ALL,

 NB> @MSGID: <5CD7B6B5.21785.memoryln@capitolcityonline.net>
 -=> Quoting Kurt Weiske to Nancy Backus on 05-09-19  10:02 <=-
 -=> NANCY BACKUS wrote to DARYL STOUT <=-

 DS>> The FCC normally issues callsigns in a sequential format...such as
 DS>> N5VLX, N5VLY, N5VLZ (which was my first callsign), N5VMA, N5VMB,
 DS>> N5VMC, etc. The 1x3 calls (1 letter, a number (the callsign district)
 DS>> and 3 letters) have all been used
 NB>> I'd guess that as operators either change their signs (by choice or
 NB>> move) or die off, those original signs would become available to
 NB>> others...

Nancy, the W9ODR Call Sign issued to Me was held by someone earlier.
When I got the license change in the mid 1970's I looked in the Amateur
Radio Callbook and saw the previous owner lived in Illinois.
I wouldn't know if the Ham Moved away from the 9th district to one of the
other districts (0 - 8) or if He passed away.

 KW> I always thought the shorter the call sign, the more senior the
 KW> operator. Phil Karn wrote a great TCP/IP stack for DOS back in the day
 KW> that he called KA9Q - that was apparently his callsign.

Kurt, I looked for KA9Q in some Amateur Radio Callbooks.
The Last edition I have was dated 1980 and didn't see that Call in it.
The KA9Q Call Sign could be a Vanity Call Sign that Phil requested from
the F.C.C.

I saw some Call Signs with just a single letter suffix after the district
number in the 1980 Callbook.
Back as far as the 1961 Edition there were a few listings with two letters
after the district number but I didn't spot any one letter suffix when I
thumbed through that old book, but someone may have had a really short
Call Sign back then.

Ttbomk, Ham Radio Call Signs started with a W in a Wx3 letter series as
Daryl wrote.
In later years when tke F.C.C. didn't have any Wx3 series Calls to assign
they started the Kx3 series (KNx3 for Novice Licensees).

As I wrote previously in the late 1950's the suffix's in the 4th district
where I lived were already in the Zxx and my license then was KN4ZIQ.

When the ZZZ license were all issued in the 4th district, the F.C.C. began
assignning new calls beginning with Axx as there were a lot of people who
fialied to upgrade their License after the One Year Novice License expired.

Around 1959 (1960+???) the 6th district (in California Only) WN6xxx and
WA6xxx calls were being issued.
Some Years later Hams in the 4th district were getting the WN or WA prefix
when they were licensed.

In the 1980 Callbook I saw some Call Signs with the A prefix (A#xxx),
I don't know if any of those are still being given out or not.

After I upgraded my Ham license my call was K4ZIQ, when I moved to Indiana
but was still near my old neighborhood I wanted to keep my call letters since
everyone knew me by that Call Sign but I felt I wanted to be LEGAL since I
moved to Indiana (9th district) I applied for a Secondary Station License
and was issued WA9WSB which is a 2x3 Call.

Years later I learned the F.C.C. relaxed the district number requirement when
someone moved out of the district their Call was issued in, and I heard a
Ham who has a W1xxx Call living in Kentucky,
AND
someone told me I could Get a 1x3 Call if I turned in my K4ZIQ callsign.
There wasn't any of my family living at the place my K4ZIQ license was
addressed to so I submitted a request to get a 1x3 license in the 9th
district where I lived. (I also had the WA9WSB call cancelled)

I thought I'd get a K9 call but was issued W9ODR which to me sounds like
I've been a Ham for MANY YEARS (a Old Timer).

 NB> I'm not at all up to date with that sort of thing, never having been a
 NB> radio ham operator, or even done CB.... so it's all been just from
 NB> following conversations either in person or here on echoes... 

... Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist needs his head examined!
--- MultiMail/MS-DOS v0.49
 * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (1:2320/105)