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Call Sign & License
History
WV2MBR
- Novice Class
- April 1960 to February
1961
- Delaware Township, NJ (now Cherry
Hill)
My 1st license. I was Elmer'ed
by Earnest B. (Bart) Mayo, K2KTS. Mr. Mayo was the head of
the Industrial Arts Department of Delaware Township High School
where I was a freshman. I took the Novice test in a loft
above Mr. Mayo's office which doubled as the school's club
station, W2MBC.
NOTE:
The WV prefix for a Novice license was a unique bit
of amateur history that only existed for a short period of
time. Since the Novice class license was only temporary, the
FCC issued a call based on the permanent call that the licensee
would receive after they upgraded. In the lower 48 states,
Novice call signs had an N inserted after the K or W of their
permanent call sign. In Alaska, Hawaii, & the U.S.
territories, the K at the beginning of the call sign was replaced
with a W. The FCC was starting to issue WA-prefix calls, and
there were a lot of existing WN-prefix Novices that would become
W's when they upgraded, and they were afraid of inadvertently
issuing duplicate calls. There were no computers back then,
and call sign records were kept on 3x5 index cards. So, the
FCC decided to make the WA novices have a WV prefix. This
system went into effect in the 2nd & 6th call areas, the first
call areas to go to the WA prefix. However, this caused a
LOT of confusion. Many amateurs thought that the WV2 or WV6
prefix was a Novice call from some unknown US territory.
Therefore, the FCC decided to give WA Novices a WN prefix starting
with the 4th call district, the next district to go to the WA
prefix.
KN9DUR
- Novice Class
- February 1961 to April
1961
- Indianapolis, IN
In January 1961, my father's job took us back to
Indiana. My WV2MBR license was modified & I was issued
KN9DUR for the remainder of the license term. This was among
the last K & W calls issued in the 9th call area.
Shortly after I was issued K9DUR & KN9DUR, the FCC started
issuing WA9 calls.
K9DUR
- Technician Class
- February 1961 to April
1961
- Indianapolis, IN -- Terre Haute, IN --
West Lafayette, IN
I took my Technician written test sitting at my
older sister's kitchen table the day before I got on an airplane
to join my parents in Indianapolis. Under the rules in
effect at that time, a General Class or higher amateur had to
administer the code test, but any US citizen over the age of 21
could administer the written exam which was graded by the
FCC. So, my sister gave me the test. Anyone who
thinks that this allowed me to cheat, doesn't know my
sister!
W9EZJ
- Additional Station
License
- 1962 to 1967
- Cordry Lake in Brown County,
IN
In the 1960's, if you moved your station to
another location for more than 48 hours, you had to write a letter
to the FCC District Engineer-in-Charge, notifying them of the
temporary location and how you can be reached. We had a
cabin on Cordry Lake in northern Brown County, IN., where we spent
nearly every weekend during the spring & summer.
To avoid having to write weekly letters to the FCC, I applied for
an Additional Station License for the cabin. After the FCC
deleted the requirement for notifying the district office if you
moved your station, they discontinued issuing the Additional
Station License.
WA2MBR
- Technician Class
- June 1969 to September
1970
- Middletown, NJ
In early 1969, I was transferred to New York
City. Since I was back in the 2nd call district, I applied
for the non-Novice version of my original call sign. In
those days, the only way you could be assigned a specific call
sign was to be a previous holder of the call. The only other
ways to get a different call was to move to another call district
or upgrade to Extra and request a 1x2 call.
K9DUR
- Technician Class
- September 1970 to January
1974
- Indianapolis, IN
In August 1970, I was transferred back to
Indianapolis, so I applied to get K9DUR
back.
K9DUR
- Advanced Class
- January 1974 to February
2000
- Indianapolis,
IN -- Vincennes, IN --
Monroe City, IN -- Niles, MI -- West Terre Haute,
IN
After 13 years as a Technician, I decided it was
time to get off my duff & work on my code speed. I had
attempted the General in May of 1961, but missed the code by 2
characters. I went to the Federal Building in Chicago, IL,
as a Technician, and came home an Advanced. Of course, in
those days you had to wait to get the license in the mail before
you could use your new privileges.
K9DUR
- Amateur Extra Class
- February 2000 to
present
- West Terre Haute,
IN
After 26 years as an Advanced, the FCC was
dropping the code speed for Extra from 20 wpm to 5 wpm, so it was
time to go for my Extra. This would be the only VE testing
session where I was a candidate. The Extra written exam was
actually less challenging than the Advanced exam. I knew
that the new Extra exam pool was going to be a combination of the
old Advanced & Extra pools. So, I decided to take the
Extra written exam before the new rules went into effect on April
15, 2000 and do a paperwork upgrade after April 15th. Since
I had paid the test fee, I decided to have a go at the 20 wpm
test, even though I knew I didn't have a chance of passing
it. But, miracle of miracles....i walked out of the test
session as an Extra!
V31DU
-
Class 1
-
January 2006 to
present
-
Placencia,
Belize
After my company had sent me to Shanghai 5 times,
I had built up enough frequent flyer miles to make a ham's dream
vacation come true for myself, my wife (KC9JMA), and 2 friends
(NT9T & KC9AOR). We all got Belize licenses and spent a
glorious week lying in the sun, playing in the surf, and operating
from the other side of the pile-up. Bob Fox, V31MD, has a
house & a fully-equipped ham shack you can rent, and we made
the most of it.
Although we have no immediate plans to return to
Belize, we are all keeping our licenses current just in
case. | |
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