[MRCA] Call Sign Nightmares (OT)

[Mike Morrow]

> My #2 son recently got his ticket (KJ4QMY - damn bad call for CW).

That call even beats out the nasty WA5WGJ call I got in 1968!  But at
least it doesn't have a 1 or a 9 in it as well.  :-)  I hated WA5WGJ
on CW, and it wasn't great on phone either.  But under the rules back
then, I'd be stuck with it until I made Extra and held a license for
25 years before I could apply for a 1x2.  Twelve years later (1980)
I took the Extra exam at the FCC office when I judged that district 5
Extra call assignments under the new system that began in the late 1970s
were near the KK5x region.  It was extremely hit and miss...I figured
with my luck I'd likely get instead a KJ5 with a Q, Y, or another J
(my three most-hated call letters on CW).  Fortunately, I got KK5F
from the systematic assignment process (long before vanity calls).
I liked that much better, for all purposes.   Few things are more
important to a ham than his call.

Congratulations on getting your son interested in ham radio.  There
seems to be little generic interest among the young anymore.  I've
been trying to get my younger brother interested for almost a decade
so he could assume the call sign of our dad (SK).  No luck yet.

Mike / KK5F