Vanity Call

License Expiration and Renewal

AF5NP Call (Call Sign), Expire, License, Renew(al), Vanity Call

Relevant to American hams only:  US amateur radio licenses are valid for ten years (10 year grant term).  License term or renewal rules are likely different in other countries.

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So a newly-licensed ham doesn’t have to worry about renewal for a long time to come. Various organizations will nag you via email, postal mail, and on QRZ when your license expiration is on the horizon (“This license expires soon.  Renew Now!”).  So if you intend to keep your license you should have plenty of warning and opportunity to renew.   You can renew within 90 days of expiration but no sooner.

If, for any reason, you let your license expire, you have a two year grace period during which you may file for reinstatement.

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However, you may not operate (transmit) whatsoever once your license has expired.

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Renewal or re-instatement (within the grace period) is simple and straight-forward.  No cost and no re-testing required.  Unlike the old days, you do not need to prove activity for renewal (showing log entries).  Make renewal application on the FCC ULS website.  If you have trouble navigating the process, there are renewal services eager to do the work for you (for a reasonable fee).

Direct renewal via ULS should be very fast.  Your status with new expiration date should show up on the ULS database shortly after processing.  If previously expired, do not transmit until you see a new expiration date a decade away (much like your original license experience).

After the 2 year grace period has passed, the FCC will cancel your license and make it available for reissue. If your license gets canceled, your call sign is lost and you must pass an exam again to get re-licensed. After you have obtained a new license and call sign, you may apply for your old call sign as a vanity call, if it is still available.

Not all new hams are brand new to the game.  Sometimes hams let their license expire due to neglect or lack of interest.  More commonly a ham will find that a career and family interrupt their interest in amateur radio and they just let it slide.  Then years— perhaps decades—later they catch the bug again and want to get back into ham radio.  In some ways they are a new ham because many things have changed (rules&regs, technology).  On the other hand, the basics are familiar so they aren’t totally green.

There is good news for previous holders of General, Advanced or Extra Class licenses.  If you can show Continue reading →

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.

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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 →

Call Sign Variations

AF5NP Call (Call Sign), FCC, Format, Vanity Call

New hams listening in on a repeater are likely to hear a wide variety of call signs.  They may be confused and question some of them.  Repeaters near an international border can get pretty interesting with call sign variations in both countries.   EchoLink and IRLP open many repeaters up to access from anywhere the internet can reach.  Call sign variations are even more evident on HF bands where communication distances can be much greater.  New ham KG5XYZ may wonder why not everybody else is a KG5 like them.

It is important for new hams to be familiar with call sign variations and legal call signs for logging, message handling and just scribbling down a call sign when communicating with another ham.  “Did I just hear KMG365?” Comment if you get this reference. 🙂

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First it is essential to understand that ham radio call signs (AKA call letters or just plain call) have a prefix followed by a numeric digit followed by a suffix.  The prefix is determined by the country in which the license is granted, most always one or two alphabetic letters. The digit following the prefix has significance within individual countries, such as geographic zones.  The alphabetic suffix following the number is generally meaningless other than to distinguish between calls sharing the same prefix and number.

There are variations in prefixes, not only by country but often also in number of alpha characters.  The number in a call sign is almost always a single digit.  The suffix may legally be anywhere from one to five alpha characters, depending on governing authority.

This arrangement of prefix-number-suffix is referred to as its format and is useful for describing a call sign. The format system counts the number of characters in both the prefix and the suffix.  It is usually termed the “p by s” system or pxs in writing where p represents the number of characters in the prefix and s is the number of suffix characters.  Using USA example call signs, W3MRC is a 1×3 call while KF5ZFD is a 2×3.  KL7AA and AF5NP are both 2×2 call signs.  NA6M is a 2×1 and W1AW is a 1×2.  One by three (1×3) and two by three (2×3) are by far the most common call formats in the US, followed by 2×2 and then 1×2 and 2×1.  Because they are relatively uncommon, even seasoned hams sometimes pause at a 2×1 call to register with their brain as legitimate.

1×1 call signs are legal in the US but are assigned only to organizations for special events and only for a limited time.  Details on special event call signs can be found at this FCC site.

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Valid prefixes in the USA are K, N, and W (one letter),  and AA-AL, KA-KZ, NA-NZ, and WA-WZ (two letters).  Complete details can be found here.

Below is a small sample of international prefixes a US ham might run across, mainly on HF bands: Continue reading →