[MCARC] Interactive maps of licencees

[Nate Bargmann]

* On 2020 28 Nov 10:10 -0600, Michael Philbrick wrote:
> Interesting, but like all data online I find data can be questioned.

Of course, for whatever reason N0KUX is not plotted anywhere near his
address.

> For example, I know one ham listed in NM is a silent key for many
> years. Of course, I don't know how silent keys are reported. I know
> silent keys are reported in QST. Is the family responsible for
> reporting the death to some organization?

Typically, unless there are hams in the family, nothing is done and the
license is allowed to expire and then eventually the two year grace
period is allowed to expire.  If the ham has a desirable callsign, then
things may pick up and someone will do the leg work to get the death
verification filed with the FCC and the license will be cancelled.  As
an example, that happened with N0LS where the license did not expire
until 2027-02-12 but was cancelled effective 2018-01-10 and was assigned
to an op in Colorado effective 2020-01-31.  I don't recall the exact
date that Mel passed.

In times past this was a worthwhile endeavor for some who would find a
recently deceased ham, particularly one with a 1x2 Extra class callsign,
file the paperwork with the FCC and apply for the callsign as a vanity
the next day after it was cancelled.  This was known as "callsign
harvesting" and some years back the FCC adopted rules that implemented
the two year grace period once a license has been cancelled.  Then it
will be applied for by numerous hams and the callsign assigned via a
lottery type system.

Just because an SK is reported to the Section Manager (Ron Cowan,
KB0DTI) and then printed in QST doesn't mean the proper paperwork will
be filed for license cancellation with the FCC.  I'm fairly certain that
Carla, KB0LVJ, was reported to Ron as an SK but the license is still
shown active, though not really, and expires in February 2024.

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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