03-05-14 15:37 Roy Witt wrote to Ed Vance about Resurrected   
      
    RW> @MSGID: <53185E93.276.amtradio@capcity2.synchro.net>   
    RW>  Brer Ed Vance wrote to Brer Roy Witt about Re: Resurrected:   
   ------snip-----   
    RW> Hmmm. I let my Novice ticket expire because I lost interest. I   
    RW> was too busy being single and romancing the ladies. I had   
    RW> borrowed a pair of Drake twins and returned those within a few   
    RW> months, never having fired them up.   
   ----snip----   
    EV> The Code Tests I took in the late 1950's wasn't of the Q&A Type.   
      
    RW> I think the FCC updated the tests to stimulate your brain,   
    RW> making sure that you knew the content of the session, rather   
    RW> than finding a number of characters copied correctly in a row.   
      
    EV> Back then to pass the CW Exam IIRC 65 characters straight had to   
    EV> be written on the paper.   
      
    RW> 6as5d4d54as65das5d4fad65d4fa5s44f34sd534asf4sdf44s5df454f5s3sa4f   
      
    RW> But, what did it say?   
      
   IIRC, it was Words not garbage.   
      
    RW> I really never aspired to have a EXTRA class license, since   
    RW> there's no advantage to having one if you're not at all   
    RW> interested in using CW ... The only advantage I've found is   
    RW> that you could get a 1x2 or 2x1 call sign, but then after   
    RW> running out of those, they began to issue 2x2 calls, which I   
    RW> already had with my Advanced call - KB6PI...   
      
   I checked for my two old call signs on the FCC pages and the search   
   comes up empty.   
   I guess the FCC hasn't issued either one of them since I became W9ODR.   
      
    EV> I only tried for the Extra because of someone who I felt was a bigger   
    EV> LID than I am was always on the air bragging about his being an   
    EV> Extra.   
      
    RW> I ignore those kind of people. In SD we had a person who not   
    RW> only had an Amateur license, he also owned a commercial   
    RW> mountain top where he had built facilities to house commercial   
    RW> radio and TV services and Amateur radio was a second thought,   
    RW> but in his kindness, he leased space to a local HAM 2mtr club.   
    RW> I had a repeater on the tallest mtn top, but it wasn't owned by   
    RW> that guy, who spent hours on the HAM clubs repeater, giving his   
    RW> 'love me' speal over the lease and bad-mouthing the repeater   
    RW> users.   
      
   I knew a Radarman in the Navy frm South Dakota who told me of two Hams   
   who both lived one mountain top from the other and tried to blow up   
   each others RX by pointing their beam towards them while running at   
   Illegal Power levels to out do the other guy.   
   -snip-   
    EV> Before the FCC allowed Hams to keep their Call Sign no matter where   
    EV> they lived, I kept my K4 call from Kentucky and because I had moved   
    EV> to Indiana I got a Secondary License with a WA9 call.   
      
    RW> Those were no longer available when I got licensed. I often   
    RW> wondered why anyone would need two calls.   
      
   Back in my early Ham days when you lived in 2 Land and had a Summer   
   Home in 4 Land and you didn't want to use /4 every time you identified,   
   a Secondary Station License was a way to do that.   
   There may be other reasons than what I did and someone living part of   
   -----snip----   
    EV> In the 1970's or 1980's when I learned that I could exchange my WA9   
    EV> license for a One by Three license without paying anything, I asked   
    EV> the FCC for a 1X3 Call Sign figuring I'd get a K9 call and they gave   
    EV> me the W9 call I have now.   
      
    RW> Beginning in the 90s sometime, they began to issue 'vanity'   
    RW> calls of your choice. This is how I got licensed as K6RXT and a   
    RW> few years after I moved to Texas, K5RXT was available, so I   
    RW> applied for that one and got it. The former licensee lived in   
    RW> Louisiana and went silent key.   
      
   I'm a cheap LID, if I couldn't have swapped the Call for free I   
   wouldn't of done it.   
      
   W9ODR was owned by someone in Illinois before it was issued to me.   
   I was the Original Owner of my other two Call Signs.   
      
   ... If I melt dry ice, I can go swimming without getting wet.   
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