I need your opinions on Call Sign upgrades

[argo]

I'm studying for my Extra and have mixed thoughts about my call sign. My Elmer (Who I've known for almost 50 years) has had tha same Call since 69 or 70, And thats how Hams know him, He thinks I should keep my old vanity sign. On the other hand He is the only one who knows my call because I am not very active. On the other hand having a call designated for extra class would sorta be my reward for passing the exam.But! on the other hand I might not like the call given (I could live with the one I have w8lwh). What do most Hams do? are Call signs given the same way overseas as they are here in the States?
Thanks for your thoughts, I visit some other Forums but Thought I would ask a room full of Hams.

[5B4AJB]

Lots of people have several callsigns. Depending on your country, you can keep all your previous ones.

I would just take the first one that they could issue, to get on the air as soon as possible, but that's my point of view...

People that you know, know your voice (or fist if you play CW), so changing callsign might bag you more than usual QSO's!

Lots of countries just give callsigns consecutively, you'll have to wait for a particular callsign to "come around" before they will issue it. Concessions do exist for vanity callsigns, they're usually reserved for family members (your grandfathers callsign for example).

[edit] Of course you can use any callsign according to the rules, for example, if you used 10W you could use one callsign, but using 400W might require you to use another for the same band...

[AB3NK]

In the USA you are only allowed one call sign.
QRZ deletes your old call sign and all of your accomplishments when you change call signs.

Depending upon availability your new call sign will either be a A or a N or a W call sign.
I do not know if many W call signs are assigned in your area for Amateur Extra operators.
The bottom line is - you will either get a two by two call sign, such as AB8AB or a one by three such as W8ABC....

Those call signs are indeed a reward for accomplishing the feat of passing your Amateur Radio exam.
They can't be bought by a General Class license holder, unless it was permitted by the FCC to someone who had a family member that was a Amateur Extra license holder that became a S/K...

Take the call sign that the FCC gives you.
If you do not like it - you can always apply by way of the Vanity Call Sign program to get a different one.

What you want to do is try the call sign and see how hard it is to send by way of CW.
Some call signs are harder to send then others.

From time to time, I come across people with vanity call signs that doesn't make sense until you look at it a couple of times and then they are either very logical or the are a suffix for their initials or their area of country.

I talked to a guy for a half a hour and never realized that his call sign was ACOL and he was from Colorado. Or the guy with the call sign W0RK, or K8SAM and the guys name was SAM... It all works out in the end.

Become a active ham and people will recognize your call sign.
There are people with the hardest call signs in the world to remember, yet you can show me a list with 100 call signs on it and I will recognize their call sign - even if I only talked with them once or twice, because they were good hams and I enjoyed talking with them and maybe they even sent me a QSL card because we had such a nice talk and that is what Amateur radio should be about.
Not buddy clubs or wanting to be a big time contester.

[argo]

Become a active ham and people will recognize your call sign.
There are people with the hardest call signs in the world to remember, yet you can show me a list with 100 call signs on it and I will recognize their call sign - even if I only talked with them once or twice, because they were good hams and I enjoyed talking with them and maybe they even sent me a QSL card because we had such a nice talk and that is what Amateur radio should be about.
Not buddy clubs or wanting to be a big time contester.

I agree with that Philosophy and should probably adopt it. I already have a 1x3 W8LWH I sorta like the LWH Length Width & Height?
I'm a cabinet maker.

[AB3NK]

Amateur Extra has it's own rewards.
The General Class portion of the bands in the USA is full of poor operators, who does not know how to properly use a Ham radio, that compensates for a lack of antenna and experience with amplifiers and contest grade rigs.

In the Amateur Extra Class portion of the bands, you will run across some of the best hams in the world.
I have talked to ham radio operators here in the states that are near or at 100 years old with 50+ years of experience.
Those people tends to have good equipment, uses the mininum amount of power necessary to make their contacts. Have lot's of interesting things to talk about.
Will help you both in answering questions about ham radio, and by helping you to gain valueable experience in how to conduct yourself as a professional ham radio operator.

I have nothing but respect for anyone that has been a ham radio operator 50+ years and treats me as a individual and not as a call sign to be logged into their record books.
When you get old, you have already accomplished everything that you set out to do and so you tend to be more relaxed, easy come - easy go.
You don't try to bulldoze your way into a frequency with amplifiers and bad manners.

I have met hams 80+ years old with 70 years of experience who still repairs their own equipment and has some darn nice sounding audio out of even a very old Hammerlund or Collins and Heathkit radios that they had bought new 40 or 50 years ago, that sounds better then most brand new contest grade rigs - because the operator developed their radio voice a long time ago and learned how to adjust their modulation and keep things on a monotone scale and not try to make their signal louder then it needs to be.

It's not important to be loud, it's important to be good.

Buying a call sign is a lot like buying a new car, you could buy the best call sign you can find today, only to find one that is even better tomorrow.
The most important thing is to listen, write down the other persons call sign before answering their CQ, talking to them the same as you would your own family - be kind and courteous and considerate and act like you really care about that person and how they are doing and if there is anything to do where they live and get them to talk about it and you will be surprised how many people will want to talk to you.

If you make cabinets and can give advice, do it.
It doesn't cost you anything.
Ask them what they did for a living and what they like to do for fun and you will be suprised how many new friends you can make in a days time.

People that will remember you - even when you are on a different band and at a different time of day is the ones that you made a good impression on.
After a while, I get to memorizing their web page for their call sign and I can say Hey Jim, long time no talk and they will say Yes Jerry it has been a couple of weeks and we both get a good laugh out of it. Especially when you live in Pennsylvania and they live in New Mexico or Colorado or Oregon. Not some place that I can normally talk to on a daily basis.

[G6NHU]

I thought licence class snobbery was dying out. Now I realise that I'm sadly mistaken

[AB3NK]

Its not snobbery, it is the truth.

I have very limited funds, limited amounts of real estate to put towers and antenna's on.

A very limited amount of time per a week to play ham radio.

When I want to talk ham radio, I turn my radio on at my QTH and listen, or I get in my vehicle and drive 8 miles to our club house and use the club's beam antenna.

The very first issue that I have is hams that are not good hams.
There are some people in this world, who thinks that they can talk over other people by using more power then necessary.
When in fact, the antenna does most of the work.
If you have a good antenna - you can talk around the world with 100 watts.

Unfortunately there are hams in this world that does not understand that just because your amplifier puts out 1000 watts, does not mean that you use all 1000 watts when you transmit - everytime.
I realize that it probably does not happen as much in your country as it does in mine, but it is a issue that we have to put up with as hams, because there is nobody monitoring the bands and enforcing the rules.

When you get people with large amplifiers, trying to out do each other, there comes a time when Jamming becomes a issue.
You try to talk and they decide to tune up on your frequency.
So they sit there and all you hear is HUMMMMM HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM HuMMMMM for 3 minutes.

When you get away from the General portion of the bands, and if you can find knowledgeable hams who has already done everything there is to do, and are there to actually talk, not to contest, you can have pretty decent conversations and can actually have quality time on the radio.

Unfortunately there are people who buys their ham radio license here, even today.
These people has it in their heads that to be a good ham radio operator, you have to contest and win awards and your signal has to be strong and loud.

So I turn on the radio this morning and who do I hear? Henry in Germany calling CQ 10-10. DL8YBM
Henry is one of those guys that is always looking to see how many numbers he can collect.
Henry is very polite and speaks better english then I do.
He gets a little confused with the numbers and phoenetic's - but is always courteous.
Henry uses a beam antenna and about 100 - 200 watts of power most days and can be heard loud and clear. 3928 miles away.

You don't mind talking to Henry because if you can hear him and work him with your 100 watt signal, you know that anyone else working the 10 meters from the same general area of the world can also hear you - if they have as good of or better antenna then Henry does.

If Henry wants to make many contacts, he must work in the DX portion of the bands or the General portion of the bands because that is where the bulk of the people are going to be.

In the real world, when most people achieve the status of General Class License Holder in the USA, they stop trying to learn or advance because they are allowed on the HF portion of the band and that is all that they care about.

They mostly come from the CB radio, where they could do as they pleased - hence they don't really understand what the Ham Radio stuff is all about. But they studied or paid and got their ticket and now they are here and they don't know what to do or how to act.

When someone comes along and tries to explain to them what they are doing is wrong, they get mad and they spout off about how they have been a ham for X amount of years and that they know it all.

There are 600,000 ham radio licenses in the USA today.
The most there has ever been in the history of Amateur Communications.
They are not all trained radio operators, just someone who passed a test and was given a license.
There are 8 year old kids who can memorize enough to pass the test and get their license.
That doesn't make them radio experts. Just someone with a good memory.

I appreciate being able to get beyond that stage and enjoy being able to use all of the band portions alloted to the amateur radio service.
I enjoy actual QSO's and not just a exchange of call signs and 73's.

That is the benefit of having a Extra Class radio license and a good radio and following the band plans and being a good ham. That is what everyone should strive to acheive in my opinion.

[guest01]

In the USA you are only allowed one call sign.
QRZ deletes your old call sign and all of your accomplishments when you change call signs.

What accomplishments are "tracked"?

[argo]

I don't understand this accomplishment thing and how it can be deleted. advancing in class are stepping stones, you can't skip one! so how is it deleted?
their are extra class portions of the band, that should tell me all I need to know.

[AB3NK]

On QRZ - when change your call sign from your origional call sign to your new call sign, QRZ will not allow to access to your old account.

Hence my first call sign's account KB3VQZ no longer exists.
When you enter it - it will refer you to my updated call sign and when I try to access it, I can no longer see my account because it is deactivated.
Everything that was in the account - is no longer there.

[mu0chn]

I have 2 call signs (both are on QRZ.COM) but I only use one. I have renewed the old one and if I ever use packet again I will use it for that. There is no cost involved now, if it was still £15 a year each it would not be worth it.

[K7KBN]

My personal take on updating call signs is that there should be at least a one-year waiting period after you pass the General test before you can take the Extra. Back around when I was first licensed there was a TWO-year waiting period, during which you got on the air and operated, learning what works and what doesn't -- gaining experience. THEN you could take the Extra test - but you kept the same call sign.

Today, as soon as one passes the Technician test he feels it necessary to get a new call sign -- probably to hide the fact that he has no amateur radio experience at all; a 1x3 call makes it look like he's been licensed 20 years or longer.

I've operated under two call signs other than K7KBN. The first was my Novice call, KN7KBN. The other was in 1976, the USA Bicentennial Year, during which we were authorized to use "Bicentennial Calls" based on the license class and call sign structure. I was AD7KBN during that year. I've never been remotely tempted to get a "Vanity" call.