{"id":61,"date":"2011-02-12T14:20:40","date_gmt":"2011-02-12T21:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/preparedblog.com\/?p=61"},"modified":"2011-02-12T14:20:40","modified_gmt":"2011-02-12T21:20:40","slug":"why-call-signs-are-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.andrewbaze.com\/wparchives\/radio\/why-call-signs-are-cool\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Call Signs are Cool"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A ham radio operator is issued a <strong>call sign<\/strong> by the FCC, after he or she passes a licensing exam.\u00a0 The call sign is used to identify the person operating the radio, whenever transmitting on ham frequencies.\u00a0 Since 1934, west of the Mississippi, call signs that start with \u201cK\u201d are issued, and east of the Mississippi, call signs that start with \u201cW\u201d are issued.\u00a0 If you listen to music on the radio in the car or at home, you will occasionally hear the station announce \u201cThis is KMPS\u201d or \u201cYou\u2019re listening to WKRP\u201d (or some other combination of letters) \u2013 this is their call sign, also issued by the FCC.\u00a0 Since the station is a business, their call-sign is a slightly different format, but the idea is the same.\u00a0 People who talk on certain frequencies have to identify themselves with a call sign.\u00a0 When you get your license, you\u2019ll get your own call-sign!<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re willing to pay a few dollars extra, you can get a call-sign with letters and numbers that you choose, called a \u201cvanity call sign.\u201d\u00a0 And depending on the level of license that you choose to get, they will be anywhere from four to six characters long.\u00a0 If you are able to get the \u201cExtra\u201d license, you can get a call sign with four, five, or six characters.\u00a0 Having a \u201cGeneral\u201d license will allow you to use five or six characters, and the \u201cTechnician\u201d license will allow you to use six.\u00a0 If you prefer, you can keep the original six-character that you are issued by the FCC, regardless of what additional licenses you may get later.\u00a0 Here are some fun possibilities, combining different characters:\u00a0 N0HOW, K1SS, K0RN, W0MAN, WA5HME, and KN1TTR.\u00a0 When it\u2019s your turn, you choose!<\/p>\n<p>Do you want to look up a call sign?\u00a0 You can do that here: \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.qrz.com\/\">http:\/\/www.qrz.com\/<\/a>.<br \/>\nIf you&#8217;re looking for more details, you could also try the FCC\u00a0database directly:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/wireless2.fcc.gov\/UlsApp\/UlsSearch\/searchLicense.jsp\">http:\/\/wireless2.fcc.gov\/UlsApp\/UlsSearch\/searchLicense.jsp<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A ham radio operator is issued a call sign by the FCC, after he or she passes a licensing exam.\u00a0 The call sign is used to identify the person operating the radio, whenever transmitting on ham frequencies.\u00a0 Since 1934, west of the Mississippi, call signs that start with \u201cK\u201d are issued, and east of the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.andrewbaze.com\/wparchives\/radio\/why-call-signs-are-cool\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Why Call Signs are Cool<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,16,37],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-radio","tag-amateur-radio","tag-call-sign","tag-ham-radio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andrewbaze.com\/wparchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andrewbaze.com\/wparchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andrewbaze.com\/wparchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andrewbaze.com\/wparchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andrewbaze.com\/wparchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.andrewbaze.com\/wparchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.andrewbaze.com\/wparchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andrewbaze.com\/wparchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.andrewbaze.com\/wparchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}