"Dee Flint" wrote in message
...

"Jim Hampton" wrote in message
...

[snip]
Certainly, there are still a large number of 1X3s still around with a
non-vanity issued call. However, I suspect that in the 2nd district,
these
would have run out sometime around 1959 or 1960. This sets a lower
limit
on
age of around 50. This would be for a child who obtained his or her
ticket
just before they started with the WA prefixes here. Someone obtaining
their
ticket then as a teenager should be around 60. You don't have to go too
far
back through the K2XXX to approach W2XXX and now you're likely looking
at
someone 80 years old or more. There were fewer amateurs then and
callsigns
weren't issued at the machine-gun rate they were some decades later.


You keep ignoring the 1x3s beginning with N. These started being issued
in
the 1970s and/or 1980s and finished being issued in the 1990s (for all
call
districts). So the 1x3s beginning with K would not have run out until
sometime in that 1970-1980 timeframe.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE



Hello, Dee

I thought I had mentioned that I had obtained N2JH under a vanity for extra
class licensees in the very early 70s.

I have been in touch with Dan and I think we both got a surprise. He
obtained his ticket only 1 year before I did and didn't get the W4NTI until
some years *later*. There was a big difference between call districts as we
had exhaused the 1X3s in the very late 50s in the 2 district (or perhaps
early 1960). WA was issued in 60/61 and WBs started in 1962 (at least so I
believe as I obtained WN2CJV in May of 1962, which would have become a WB2
upon upgrade).

I consider the N calls to be the first of the "recent" stuff, despite going
back 30 to 35 years.

It also turns out that we are both Vietnam vets.

As far as 1X3s, it would depend upon the district; as I mentioned, the NY/NJ
area was done with 1X3s sometime in the very late 50s or perhaps 1960. By
May, 1962, we were up to WB2CJV. WAs were already exhausted.

I did get to operate K2US at the Coca Cola pavillion during the World's Fair
in 1964 LOL. So there are 3 1X2s that I was familiar with that have been
re-issued (W2ZX, Russ, and W2OY, Mike are the other 2). All re-issued after
the gates started opening.

At least in NY/NY, I suspect the bulk of 1X3s are re-issued under the vanity
call sign program.

Hey, come to think of it, I remember Mike and Pam Kortz. They lived perhaps
1/4 mile away from me. I still had a crystal radio and had built a one-tube
regenerative receiver. He had let his novice license expire more than one
year before. He would have had a 1X3 if he had upgraded, but he dropped
radio.

I was in 7th grade; that meant it was 1959. I assume he was licensed in
1957 or so. He would have been very near the end of the 1X3s. He was 3
years older than I. Pam, his sister, was my age.

That sets a minimum age, in my mind, of around 55 years old for an original
1X3 from the NY/NJ area. Any moves, and you loose it. I suspect that
original 1X3s, although not rare, are likely not in the majority. Some
folks drop out, others are killed. Some move. Original X2XXX calls are not
likely in the majority.

X2XX are as common as weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I knew a couple
and they are long sk.


73 from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA