"Dee D. Flint" wrote in
:


"N2EY" wrote in message
...
In article , "Dee D. Flint"
writes:


Even the 1x3s, of which there are 52,728 possible combinations per
district, are no longer available for sequential issue.

The "no longer available for sequential issue" thing is, I think, due
solely to an FCC decision. IIRC, their computers are not set up to do
it. Yet.

Besides, it generates vanity revenue.


No, it was not due to an FCC decision. They used them up.

Figuratively speaking, I was there, as they say, at the point in time
when they ran out. Sequentially available 1x3s ran out in most
districts in '92, '93, or '94 (some districts were slower than others
and some may have gone on slightly longer). My call is my original one
issued in 1992 and as you can see from the fact that it is N8UZE that
they were already close to the end of the 1x3s in district 8 by then.
My daughter's call sign, issued in 1993, is N8ZNW. The pattern of
issue was first to use W calls, then K calls, and finally N calls.
Slightly off topic, 2x3 calls being issued at this time are still in
the K sequence.

For a while, I followed the call sign usage just out of curiosity to
see when they would run out.

The biggest reason that I did not change my call sign upon getting my
Extra was that district 8 was out of 1x2 call signs by the time I
passed my Extra test in late 1992 (upgraded license was issued in early
1993). I had no interest in Extra class call signs in the 2x1 or 2x2
format.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE


In my case I didn't know whether I would get, say, WZ3Z or AA3AA. I
particularly didn't want a 2x1, as they seem to me to be 'back-to-front'. A
2x2 would have been OK, but they are no shorter than a 1x3. A friend of
mine, who upgraded at the same time, in fact got AA3BS. That could have
been me. Everyone phoneticises his last two letters as 'Bovine Scatology'!

73 de Alun, N3KIP