[ARC5] Call Letters

Sat Jul 13 11:24:35 EDT 2013

This is an interesting thread.  Please allow me to add to it....

Warning: This post contains potentially politically-incorrect remarks (as if I cared).

My original 1961 call was WN4DLF, which changed 5 months later to WA4DLF.  I always wished I could some day drop the A from my call; but when the vanity system came in I was beaten to the call I wanted by an "instant-ham-just-add-water" -- I think it would have been true justice to re-use 1x3 calls by allowing those of us who held 2x3s for a certain period of time to have an option to receive the corresponding 1x3 as that call became available, starting with the WA, then WB, WD.  Seniority would have ruled.  But, the FCC began reissuing WA calls for a while in the 1970s, so that might have complicated the procedure.

I still wanted a W4 call, and finally after a longtime friend from back in high school dropped his 1957-vintage K4 call for a 2x2, I thought about it again; but wanted a W4.  (Quite frankly, I've never "understood" 2x1 calls... "What's the rest of it?")  First I tried for a 1x2, and got beaten to it by an "extra lite" who'd been licensed a total of just under 2 years; the water wasn't even out of his hair yet.  (I got my Extra in 1968, when it had to actually be earned... where's the justice?)

I gave a lot of thought to what would be an appropriate call.  First I thought about the one held by the Old Old Timer -- someone I respected very much, almost like a second grandfather, who had told me the story of Reginald Aubrey Fessenden back when I was in high school, and I later wrote my Masters thesis in History on Fessenden; but that call didn't have a good rhythm.  Scouring the available call lists for something that would send well on a bug, I came across W4DSE.  It took me several months to decide to "change my name" after decades,  but I did it.

Then I had to stare at all my operating certificates awarded to WA4DLF... not to mention hundreds of QSL cards sent to WA4DLF... and my high school radio club jacket which I still have and can almost still wear, at reunions, with WA4DLF on it....

I've not used the call on CW, because the Neighborhood Nazis where I live went on a blitzkrieg and destroyed my antenna, even though it was stealth; so the only times I've been on the air with my own call are 10, 6, and 440 mobile.  I've operated Field Day and from special event stations but not with my call sign.

W4DSE is NOT a good voice mode call, at least with ITU phonetics.  Especially when working Latin American stations.  "Denmark-Sweden-England" works a little better sometimes.

One of my good friends in the club suggested the phonetic, "Digital Signal Expert."  In the Original Digital Mode, of course.  How cool is that?  I had a call sign badge made up with "Digital Signal Expert" below the call sign, and you would not believe how many guys come up to me asking about all sorts of weird alien technologies.  I'm going to have to paint a straight key on the badge.  They "MIGHT" get it.... They wouldn't understand what a bug is!

Yet, every time I find myself checking out a key at a hamfest table, or when visiting friends, I catch myself sending "WA4DLF."

Is the universe trying to tell me something?

I have looked all over for prior history on W4DSE, and the only instance I have ever seen of its being assigned is from about 1954-56 to someone in Birmingham, AL.  I rather surmise that the holder may have been USAF connected at Maxwell AFB and was transferred to some other call area, as back then when moving to another area you had to get a new call sign.  

I find it odd that there is no record of anyone from the 30s holding the call; from what I know of call sign history W4DSE would probably go back to 1937-38.  Prior to WW2, the 4th call area didn't grow at near the rate of others.  (W4H** and W4I** calls were mostly issued between late 1940 and December 1941.)  Not every ham who passes away gets a note in Silent Keys; but I have checked every QST in the ARRL archive back to 1920 just in case there was a 4DSE listed.  I suppose it's possible that if there was a former holder from the 30s, it could have belonged to a casualty of WW2 whose family just didn't think to (or didn't know to) put a listing in Silent Keys when they got the War Department telegram.

Should anyone be able to shed light on the call sign history, I'd enjoy hearing from you.  Yes, I did ask the person in QCWA who does this, but never heard a reply.  (And I am in QCWA.)

Meanwhile I keep wondering if I should, after all, get my old call back.  What are your thoughts?

And talk about weird coincidences, W4DES is also a member of the club I'm part of. 

But the strangest coincidence, if you can call it that, was back in high school when I heard my own call sign in QSO with another station.  Not an LDE -- a bootlegger!

73

Mike
W4DSE  x-WA4DLF

________________________________
 From: Geoff <geoffrey at jeremy.mv.com>
To: Mike Morrow <kk5f at arrl.net>; ARC-5 List <arc5 at mailman.qth.net> 
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2013 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Call Letters

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Morrow" <kk5f at earthlink.net>
To: "ARC-5 List" <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2013 12:34 AM
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Call Letters

> Dave wrote:
>
>> 1977 or 1978... somewhere in there.
>> I went for my Extra when the FCC came to Shreveport, LA
>> for a testing session...They had started issuing the 2x1 calls
>> for Extras and I was hoping to get issued one of the "W" or "K"
>> calls, but was a little late for those.
>
> I was still on active duty during that time, and I wasn't paying a
> lot of attention to ham regulatory matters.
>
> The first hint I had of something changing was in 1975 when I
> received notice that my long-held USN-USMC MARS call had been changed
> for some mysterious reason from N0LTD to NNN0LTD.  I learned later
> that was just setting the stage for the new N#xyz ham calls a couple
> of years later.
>
> I was surprised to begin hearing ham 2x1 ham calls starting with
> "A" in 1978.  I had considered "A" and "N" calls to be military and
> naval calls.  What really shocked me just after I left active duty
> in 1979 was to have a CW QSO with a W0xx who told me he was 18 years
> old.  In earlier times, one had to be a ham for two years to sit
> for the Extra exam, then had to be licensed for 25 years to apply
> for a W#xx or K#xx call.  I could not understand how such a call
> was assigned to an 18 year old.  I learned that the 25-year requirement
> was dropped in 1977 as transition to the new call sign system took place.
>
> Personally, I was very disappointed by the dropping of the 25 year
> requirement for a W or K 1x2.  Years later, when vanity calls became
> the rage, I regret that re-issue of 1x3 calls beginning with W or
> K did not have a similar 25-years licensed requirement.  I miss the
> day when one could still find many 1x2 call sign holders on the air
> that were not Extra holders.  Those were the real old timers.  Today,
> one is very likely to hear someone holding one of the old 1x2 calls
> asking something bizarre...like "are RF chokes polarized".  Sad.
>
> I kept my original WA5WGJ call until 1980, when I attended the
> semi-annual FCC examining session in Tulsa to upgrade to Extra.
> Good luck was mine...the systematic sequential call sign assignment
> process gave me my current call of KK5F.  That is way better than
> WA5WGJ on CW or voice.  I propose to never change it.  In truth,
> I had waited to upgrade until the monthly QST notice of recently
> assigned calls showed that the 2x1 calls were about to pass the
> KJ5x block.  I disliked Morse J, Q, Y characters in a call.  I just
> hoped I wasn't testing too early, getting KJ5Q or KJ5Y instead. :-)
>
> Mike / KK5F

My first call was KN2QJM and later K2 so it fulfills your Q and J distaste; 
I never cared for it. Next was Kilo One Uniform Hotel Yankee which was also 
a PITA.

As bad as that K2 call was I kept with CW, worked my way to a 40 wpm 
certificate and did a fair amount of traffic handling and working my way to 
the high speed nets.

When I joined the USN and went aboard ship as as an ETSN I astounded the 
Radiomen by copying their traffic and training sessions in my head while 
doing repairs and PM's in Radio Central. The Chief RM challenged me to a 
high speed net session and I stayed right with him. When he found out I 
could use the "speed key" (bug) proficiently he gave up(-;  I brought my 
Vibroplex Presentation back a few weekends later and stood duty when ops 
were sick, on leave, etc as well as quite a bit of training of newer RM's as 
well as being trained myself on the mill.

Naturally, ET duties took priority but I enjoyed playing RM at sea to 
relieve the boredom. As soon as ham radio aboard ship was authorized I was 
running phone patches on 20M and working CW back in Emergency Radio on 
several bands as /MM. I went from SN to ET2 on that ship.

Carl 

______________________________________________________________
ARC5 mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html