Brer Ed Vance wrote to Brer Roy Witt about Re: Resurrected:   
      
    EV>> IIRC, it was Words not garbage.   
      
    RW>> I know, but if you write it down, its going to look like the   
    RW>> line above, unless you can copy words and not characters. You   
    RW>> know as well as I that when you jump to warp speed, things go   
    RW>> by faster than you can write them down. Well, maybe not at   
    RW>> 13wpm, but you know what I mean.   
      
    EV> I always Hand Print when I took the CW Test hopeing the FCC Examiner   
    EV> could read what I scratched on the test paper.   
    EV> My YF says I should had been a Doctor because no one can read what I   
    EV> write down, and sometimes if it has been a long while I can't read it   
    EV> myself.   .... ..   
      
   I was a manufacturing planner and later on a manufacturing engineer when I   
   worked at Cubic in the early 80s. I modified my printing so that anyone   
   could read it on the machining and assembly floor. I still print that way   
   today.   
      
    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...   
      
    EV> There wasn't any INCENTATIVE when I took the Amateur Extra exam,   
    EV> such as getting a preferred type Call Sign.   
      
   The only incentive was in the band plan that gave Xtras 25khz space   
   exclusively for Xtras.   
      
    EV> What I saw on the Extra Class Written test was way above my head and   
    EV> was about a lot of Ham Radio things that didn't even interest me   
    EV> then.   
      
   I couldn't see wasting my time for that.   
      
    EV> Such as: Ham TV on the 432 Mc/s Band and OSCAR communications.   
      
   Easy enough...Although TV is a bit more complicated than I'm used to.   
      
    EV> Really those Deep Technical Subjects asked on the Extra exam, IMNSHO,   
    EV> ought to be the privilages Given to the Higher Calss Operators to   
    EV> use, instead of Polarizing the lower Classe Hams by not allowing   
    EV> General Class Hams, Conditional Class Hams and Advanced Class Hams to   
    EV> enjoy QSOing on all the frequencies on all of the Ham Bands with the   
    EV> Amateur Extra Class Hams so everyone can learn from the Extras about   
    EV> the more involved Modes the higher Class OPS can use because they   
    EV> know that kind of stuff.   
      
   My Elmer was a Navy trained electronics technician; I didn't learn   
   anything about that stuff from him.   
      
    EV> And Yes I am saying that Amateur Extras should be the ONLY CLASS   
    EV> ALLOWED TO USE SSB because they know enough to be able to service   
    EV> that kind of Ham Gear, everbody else Licensed for HF Phone use should   
    EV> still be using AM.   
      
   Then I wouldn't aspire to be a Amateur, period. There are too many other   
   interests in HAM radio that are more interesting.   
      
    EV> I have one SSB rig and I have the Service Manual for it, but I've   
    EV> only used it twice.   
      
   There's no AM mod switch on my Kenwood TS-520...Upper and Lower SSB and   
   CW only...   
      
    EV> Once to install a CW Filter in it, and once to help another Ham   
    EV> Neutralize the new 6146 he put in his radio which was the same as   
    EV> what I have.   
      
   Before I was licensed as a HAM, I bought the Kenwood and modified it to   
   work above CB channel 40, but below 20.0... I later returned it to stock,   
   except that I put the crystals in the wrong place and 28.5 is on the 29.1   
   switch. I know where it xmits.   
      
    EV> I used my Heath-Kit VTVM and RF Probe and the Service Manual when we   
    EV> worked on his rig.   
      
   I used to have a service monitor and tuned the front end back to spec...   
      
    EV>> I checked for my two old call signs on the FCC pages and the search   
    EV>> comes up empty. I guess the FCC hasn't issued either one of them   
    EV>> since I became W9ODR.   
      
    RW>> Try the callsign database at qrz.com instead. When I enter one   
    RW>> of my old callsigns there, it takes me to my present callsign   
    RW>> with the old callsign in (callsign) brackets.   
      
    EV> I just tried the FCC site and none of my old calls were shown.   
      
   I just tried my K5RXT call and it shows every callsign that I ever had,   
   including WN6ABE issued in 1970...   
      
    RW>> PS - I just ran your KN4ZIQ callsign thru there and got no   
    RW>> results. Your previous callsign, WA9WSB does. My first   
    RW>> callsign, WN6ABE issued in 1970. refers back to my K5RXT call.   
      
    EV> I entered my WA9WSB call sign on my W9ODR page when I joined QRZ,   
    EV> I'd think, is the reason it redirects a search for that old call to   
    EV> my current call.   
      
    RW>> -- snip --   
      
    EV>> I knew a Radarman in the Navy frm South Dakota who told me of two   
    EV>> Hams who both lived one mountain top from the other and tried to   
    EV>> blow up each others RX by pointing their beam towards them while   
    EV>> running at Illegal Power levels to out do the other guy. -snip-   
      
    RW>> That was a trick that feuding CBers used to use on each other,   
    RW>> but with the xmtr sitting outside of the other CBers house.   
    RW>> That doesn't work, btw.   
      
    EV> This was two Ham Radio Operators not CBers the Radarman told me   
    EV> about.   
      
   I know you said that. But CBers learned that trick from older members of   
   their family who learned it a long time before there were CBers.   
      
    RW>> It's better to pin your enemies' antenna coax...   
      
    EV> I know of one case of that being done to a Ham that I went to high   
    EV> school with. It was done to him by two other students.   
      
   Shame on them.   
      
    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   
    EV>>> gave 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.   
      
    EV>> I'm a cheap LID, if I couldn't have swapped the Call for free I   
    EV>> wouldn't of done it.   
      
    RW>> Waddaya gonna do when it comes time to renew your present call?   
      
    EV> I haven't heard any news about License Fees for Amateur Radio   
    EV> Licenses. I think the FCC did have Fees some time in the past but   
    EV> IIRC the Fees were discontinued before my ticket came up for renewal.   
    EV> I'm not really sure about that last sentence, but I can't remember   
    EV> paying a Fee to the FCC, probably Old Age Syndrome keeps me from   
    EV> remembering doing it. ???????   
      
   I renewed my license in 2012...there was a fee, probably because it is a   
   vanity call.   
      
    EV>> W9ODR was owned by someone in Illinois before it was issued to me.   
    EV>> I was the Original Owner of my other two Call Signs.   
      
    RW>> I guess none of my old call signs are wanted by anyone. They're   
    RW>> still available.   
      
    EV> Same here, I don't know why the FCC hasn't given those calls to   
    EV> someone by now, I renewed the W9 call 6 years ago, that seems like   
    EV> long enuf time for them to issue the call to someone who didn't want   
    EV> a Vanity Call Sign.   
      
   Those old calls are being phased out in favor of the new license   
   re-structuring for different class of licenses...there are no more WAs-WDs   
   issued, instead 2x3 calls beginning a K (KA6ENU)...Generals can get a 1x3   
   call, but it will begin with an N (N6AGT) if any are available. Advanced   
   get 2x2 calls, as in my old KB6PI call. Extras get 1x2, 2x1, 2x2 that   
   starts with an A, none are available until one of them becomes a SK...   
      
    EV> IIRC Daryl Stout use to post a message about what Call Areas that all   
    EV> of the calls were taken.   
    EV> Why the two calls I had aren't listed in a Search on the FCC and QRZ   
    EV> pages come up blank says to me that whoever Daryl gets that listing   
    EV> from doesn't know my two old calls are still missing. ????   
      
   And not available, unless someone chooses it as a vanity call.   
      
    EV> But I do appreciate Him, You and Mark posting Ham Radio related   
    EV> messages to the BBS echos so I can read and learn what's happening.   
      
   Does anyone play the recorded Newsline message that I post in HAM in your   
   area? Usually found on a repeater...That isn't done here in south Texas.   
      
      
            R\%/itt - K5RXT   
      
   "It is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all, and   
    if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain."   
        Bram Stoker (1847-1912)   
      
    Thus, we have "Climate Change Science" - which isn't capable of   
    explaining anything.   
      
      
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