On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 04:06:31 GMT, "KØHB"
wrote:

There are a small handful of "will-call" PO boxes in KH0 and KH2 which
are the "home address" for hundreds of JA and DU citizens.

That's correct. And in California and a few other places too.

Besides "souveniers" I mentioned reciprocal-licensing cheats, which is a
primary reason so many KH0/KH2 calls go to JA's..... Because JA only
has reciprocal agreements with a dozen or less countries, a US license
is an essential tool for JA DXpeditioners --- let's say they'd like to
do a DXpedition to V7 or VP9 . Their JA license is useless, but let
them flash a KH0 license and wham, he's VP9DX with no questions asked.

That's also correct.

But now that all the KH2 and KH0 extra calls are gone, the JA's are
having to suffer with continental U.S. calls or Hawaii calls, poor
babies. N3FW, AD7AL, NB6A, NH7IG, KK2H, K8VR, N1VF, etc.

No, Frank Wilson, you can't get your intials for your call sign, even
though you do REALLY live in Maryland. You have to wait until Fujimoto
Wazawari in Tokyo dies and then wait two more years.

My favorite at QRZ.COM:

"KK2H - Please send QSL to my home call, JL1UXH. If you send anything
to the address in the U.S., my cousin has to forward it to Japan."

That sucks. Hate wasting good Yen buying U.S. stamps.

The official position of the WTB in Washington, D.C., when I talked to
them on the phone about all of the above and a few other questionable
items a few years back was:

"It's not our job to verify addresses. It's our job to issue
licenses."

Which they continue to do, to anybody that wants one and who
passed a "test"....

So..... Any U.S. address + V.E. "exam" in a foreign country
(administered by foreign nationals who could never be extradited to
the U.S. to face charges for holding "funny" exams) = U.S. Extra Class
Souvenir Call Sign and International Reciprocal Radio Passport.

Good system. A U.S. V.E. makes a mistake on the paperwork and the FCC
nails his nuts to the wall, but nobody notices when Yoshi, Toshi, and
Schosi send their paperwork in from Japan.

W5YI or the ARRL make six bucks everytime a JA gets a U.S. license at
a VE test held in Tokyo, so everybody is fat, dumb, and happy. Turn
your head, cash the check, ten more extra's, what the heck......

Welcum to the Wunnerful Werld of Ham Radio. Nobody cares.

At least the FCC did do something about club calls. They took 42 of
them away from a JA few years back :-) But for some strange reason,
they let him keep his primary station license, a W9 extra class U.S.
call.

73, Jim KH2D