"N2EY" wrote in message
...
In article . net, "KØHB"
writes:

One of those petitions asked that they
allow amateurs to retain their calls when moving because many hams had
become 'connected' to their call signs, almost as a 'name', and did not
wish to surrender the call when moving. Finding no regulatory,
enforcement, nor "good operating practice" reason that a ham shouldn't
keep their callsign, they ruled in favor of the petitioner.

Yep.

There's also another factor: availability of callsigns in the new area.

This is a more restrictive issue than most realize. There are only 2028
possible 1x2 callsigns and only 2028 possible 2x1 callsigns in each
district. As of this point in time, most districts have none available for
sequential issue and only a few available for vanity calls.

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

Actually the number of callsigns is slightly smaller since there are certain
suffixes that for various reasons are not made available for the general ham
population.



There was a time, back when the ARS was much smaller, that FCC would try
to
give "corresponding" calls when someone moved. W1ICP was W0ICP, for
example.
But that became "impractical".

I got N2EY (sequentially issued) when I moved from EPA to WNY in 1977. By
the
time I moved back (1979), the FCC was not reissuing "abandoned" 1x2 calls.
Something about their computer system.

What it meant in my case was that if I'd asked for a 3-land call, I could
have
gotten a sequentially-issued 3-land 1x2. But N2EY would not have been
reissued
to anyone. So there would be one less Extra with a 1x2, and I decided to
keep
N2EY.

Did I do the wrong thing?

Absolutely not IMHO. I've moved several times: from 8 land to 9 land to 0
land and back to 8 land. It would make no sense to me to keep changing my
call sign. And if one were restricted to sequentially issued calls, all
that was available by the time I moved into each of these areas were the
2x2s beginning with A. I don't happen to like them.


I guess it's no problem when you are running a full gallon and
have the Internet right there at the operating position, Hans.

Whether I'm running a "full gallon" or 100mW (which is closer to what I
normally run) doesn't make it any easier to devine the source of a CQ.
And what does the internet have to do with it?

If you have internet access in the shack, you could look up a callsign
heard
and see what state the ham is in. Not a new idea, though - there used to
be
this thing called a "callbook"

73 de Jim, N2EY

Don't need internet access even today. There are callbooks available on CD
ROM for a non-internet connected computer. Besides that, what's wrong with
just asking the guy (or gal)? In addition, if one is hunting states for WAS
or whatever, monitor the contests that include section as part of the report
and jump in when you find one. Or call CQ specifically for the states of
interest.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE