Vanity call sign

A vanity call sign is a personalized identifier used by some amateur radio operators, especially in the United States.

United States vanity call signs

When a person becomes a ham radio operator he or she is issued a callsign by which they are identified. In the United States, these callsigns are issued systematically on the basis of the licensee's location and license class. For instance, a California ham will, by default, have a Region 6 callsign, such as KI6HHH or N6AAA. Moving to another region, they may keep the original callsign or request a new one from the list of calls for that region.

Hams may also pay a small fee and apply to get a specific callsign, including calls from other zones, so long as they have the appropriate license class for the desired callsign format. The callsign also must conform to the prefix standard assigned to that area. For instance, an Amateur Extra might have W0OL (which is a "1 x 2" call), but a General-class licensee could not, because 1 x 2 calls are reserved for the Amateur Extra class. Likewise, a ham on the mainland could not get a callsign beginning with the KH6 prefix, which is assigned to Hawaii.

There are a variety of reasons why someone would request a vanity callsign. Some people want a callsign that has their name or initials embedded in it. Some want a callsign that reflects a specific interest in amateur radio (like W7FM or K7ATV). Others request callsigns that were formerly held by family members or friends, or even callsigns that they themselves formerly held (and gave up for whatever reason). Some people want a callsign that is shorter, or easier to pronounce, or just "fits their personality" better. CW (Morse code) operators might want a callsign that "sounds good" or is short when sent in Morse. (This is referred to as "CW weight".) Since the FCC (in the US) does not restrict most requests (other than those submitted fraudulently), any of these are valid reasons.

The exact rules for available callsigns are defined on the FCC website under [http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=call_signs_3&id=amateur&page=1 Rules and Availability] . The FCC web site can be confusing to some people, as it is very rules-based, and does not offer many examples or any utilities to help users. A number of free web sites (e.g., [http://www.vanityhq.com Vanity Headquarters] , [http://www.ae7q.com AE7Q] , and [http://www.radioqth.net RadioQTH] ) have sprung up, some dating back to 1999. These sites offer a variety of features, such as search tools, sorted lists, prediction capabilities, help files, message boards, and the like, all intended to help someone understand the vanity process and request a new callsign.

Due to the popularity of vanity calls, and the lack of region restriction, it is often impossible to tell which region an amateur radio operator using one calls home.

External links

* [http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=call_signs_3&id=amateur&page=1 Rules and Availability]
* [http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/ Universal Licensing System]
* [http://www.vanityhq.com N4MC's Vanity Headquarters]
* [http://www.ae7q.com AE7Q's Amateur Extra Query Tools]
* [http://www.radioQTH.net K7LS's RadioQTH]