Technician

Change Your Call Sign

AF5NP Call (Call Sign), Change, Extra Class, FCC, General Class, Technician, Vanity Call

So you just passed the Tech license exam and your new call sign just appeared on the FCC ULS database.  Congratulations!

Let’s say you were assigned KG5ZXY, but that’s both hard to remember and hard to pronounce phonetically.  Or maybe you’ve been licensed for years but just don’t like the call sign you have.

Either way you would really like something different; maybe a catchy one or a call that has your initials or something shorter or easier to remember.  Don’t despair!  You can request a specific call sign if it is available, termed a vanity call.

T1C02-2018

Vanity call signs typically include alphabetical characters of personal significance (e.g., licensees initials, parts of names, hobbies, etc), or sometimes are simply chosen because they are shorter calls, or sometimes they have double or triple duplicate characters (e.g., W1WWW).

Note: this information is valid for USA hams.  Many other countries have vanity call programs but the details and rules will be different.

Now there are limitations to call signs, of course.  This is a good time to review our call sign variations topic where you can learn about valid prefixes, suffixes, formats, and quantity of characters.

It goes without saying that you cannot request a call that is already issued (for two years Continue reading →

Keep Up With Rules and Knowledge

AF5NP FCC, Technician, Training

I have enjoyed helping teach technician license classes in the past and may help with more in the future.  When you step into the instructor role you realize how much you don’t know about a subject, or have forgotten.  It’s humbling to discover that you forgot something or really didn’t understand a particular topic.  I’m an extra class operator and was surprised at how many things I forgot or couldn’t answer with certainty on the Technician exam.

So now we will discuss keeping up with rules and knowledge regarding amateur radio, and not just resting on our laurels, having passed a license exam one day in the past.  The reason the FCC requires some basic knowledge about ham radio is because we have the most privileges in the radio spectrum around the world, and we can cause a lot of trouble with that freedom.  In ham radio there is an expectation of continuous learning and that also implies that we should not forget what we already know.

There are seven broad categories of questions in exams of all three license levels.  These are:

  • Regulations
  • Operating practices
  • Electronics
  • Propagation
  • Antennas
  • Safety

Of these seven we might say that three are the most important:  Safety (first!), Regulations and Operating Practices.  That doesn’t mean the other categories are unimportant but we should probably place a priority on these three.

To reinforce the premise that we easily forget important details, let me quiz you on some Continue reading →