[MCARC] Ernie Wolff's callsign history

[Nate Bargmann]

Something I read today made me start looking for resources of old
callbooks.  I found that the Department of Commerce callsign directories
from the mid 1920s to 1931 are online.  W0IS has helpfully included
links on his Web site:

      http://w0is.com/oldcallsigns/oldcalls.html

Way back when I got my Novice, Ernie was the examiner (back then a
Novice exam was conducted by a single licensed radio amateur holding at
least a General class license) and he told me he had first been licensed
in 1926 and then held W9GCJ after international prefixes were assigned.
After World War 2 the call districts were realigned and the present
tenth district was created.  At that time Ernie's call was converted to
W0GCJ which is now held by the MCARC.

My assumption was that he had initially been assigned 9GCJ.  I found
this evening that my assumption has been incorrect all of this time.
Searching the callbooks by 9GCJ turned up nothing but I had a few hits
with Wolff and found that Ernie first appears in the June 30, 1926 DOC
callbook and again in the June 30, 1927 edition as the holder of 9EJV
with an address of R.F.D., Marysville.

Evidently, at least the station license was vacated as in the June 30
1928 edition W9EJV was reassigned to another station (after the
international radio conference of 1927 the international prefixes were
assigned to the various countries as amateur radio was formally
recognized in the international radio regulations).  As of the 1928
edition, W9FWF was about the last assigned "three letter" call.  Most
all callsigns after it in the callbook, with a couple of exceptions, are
"two letter" such as W9FX which is the next in the listings.  Thus, per
the book, W9GCJ is unassigned.  Interestingly, there is no comment about
the addition of the W prefixes.

In the June 30, 1929 edition of the DOC callbook W9GCJ was assigned to a
station in Chicago.  Amateur radio was growing as the last of the three
letter calls appears to have been W9GKT.  But then W9GLA is shown two
places later with W9GL in between.  One must remember at that time the
individual district field offices assigned the calls and they apparently
recycled lapsed calls rather quickly.

In the June 30, 1930 edition, W9GCJ was no longer shown in the listings.

In the June 30, 1931 edition, W9GCJ was assigned to Ernie with an
address of 203 Fourth Street, Marysville, which I gather would have been
just south of the present day house west across the street from Mike's
OK Tire.

In those days callsigns were assigned to the station and not the
operator.  Operator privileges were separate from the station license
(actually, separate documents if my memory of the history I've read is
correct).  It is quite possible that Ernie did not have a permanent
station sometime between his appearance in the 1927 callbook and again
in the 1931 callbook.  As a result, he may have been required to
surrender his station license during that time frame.  He may well have
been able to keep his operator license and could have possibly operated
from some club, school, or as a guest at another operator's station.

This bit of research answered a number of questions for me.

73, Nate

-- 

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."

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