[Elecraft] Elecraft CW Net Report

[Rick M0LEP]

On Mon 06 Jul kevinr wrote:
> I did hear some ESP code on 20 meters but not well enough to convince 
> me it wasn't just in my head. It happens now and then. Often when I'm 
> working and a squeaky fan is on.

One of these years, perhaps, HF conditions will pick up to the point 
where my KX3 might just enable me to manage a Net check-in from this 
side of the Atlantic. Not yet, though. I have, on one or two occasions 
this year, just about almost managed to hear (maybe) the occasional SOTA 
activator operating from a summit on the eastern side of North America, 
but none yet clearly enough for me to work, though other operators in 
Europe (with better antennas and better Morse than me) have succeeded.

> On the next call I copied M0YK M0YK M0YK.ÂI stared at the paper trying 
> to figure it out.ÂWith code this good why hasn't he upgraded to a G 
> call?

Heh. Given, for the most part, G* calls were issued first, and M* (and 
2*) calls only came along (for amateurs, at least) when the G* space was 
full, I'm not sure there's ever been a path to upgrade from M to G. 
There are chunks of the G* space that used to be "class B licences" 
(without HF access), but that distinction died with the Morse Test. 
There have been cases where folk have taken over a call from a 
silent-key relative, but they're unusual. For the most part, calls are 
never re-isssued.

Recently the regulator has relaxed (or possibly "confused") conditions a 
bit, and released some calls that were previously marked as "not to be 
isssued" into the pool, but changing your call when you're not also 
upgrading your licence is, at best, tedious. 

At best, these days, the only assumptions you can make are that 
Foundation licence holders will have an M?3*, M?6* or M?7* (where the ? 
is the regional modifier) call, Intermediate licence holders will have a 
2* call, and all the rest will have Full licences of some vintage. Even 
then, there are some short (1- or 2-letter suffix) calls that break the 
pattern.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_signs_in_the_United_Kingdom and one 
or two other places try to make sense of the whole muddle, but just when 
it seems they've nailed it some other confusion comes along...

-- 
73, Rick, M0LEP   (KX3 #3281)