VANITY CALL SIGNS

Everything You Wanted To Know

And A Few Things You Need To Know

by Tad K3TD (Wake Forest NC)

Call Signs are FUN!

Our call signs are how we are known to our fellow hams, and in many cases the most important way we are known. Your call sign is unique - and unless you already have a vanity call, it was probably assigned to you sequentially by the FCC ULS system based on your initial license class and when you first licensed. So, do you LIKE it? Many hams do, and that is a very good thing. But others would like to have something so important as their call sign personalized for them. Maybe a call that was once held by a relative or your mentor or Elmer, or a call that contains your initials, or some other combination of letters and a numeral that is significant to YOU.

Vanity call signs are a call sign that you request and are granted by the FCC, within their standard call sign requirements based on your license class, which calls are available and in a some cases where you live.

There are many THOUSANDS of call signs available if you would like to select your own! Here are some examples based on your license class:

Extra class: While 1x2 and 2x1 Extra class calls (W4NC and NC4A are examples) are in very short supply, there are MANY 2x2 Extra class call signs available that have a Prefix of AA-AL followed by a numeral and 2 more letters such as AB4CD, AF4NC, etc.
Advanced and Extra class: THOUSANDS of 2x2 calls with a prefix of KA-KZ, NA-NZ or WA-WZ (NC4DX and WR4AB for example)
Technician, General, Advanced and Extra class: THOUSANDS of 1x3 calls with K, N or W as the first letter such as K4RTS, N4ABC, W4ZDF, and THOUSANDS of 2x3 calls with KA-KZ or WA-WZ such as KZ4ABC or WX4HOT

As mentioned above, here are a few things you need to know:

Per FCC rules, when a call sign is cancelled or expires the original licensee or their close relatives have 2 full years to apply for reinstatement. This means everyone else must wait 2 years + 1 day to apply. As an example, N4VT expired on 10/23/2015. Unless you are the former holder of N4VT or his/her close relative, you must wait until 10/24/2017 to apply for N4VT. You can use the AE7Q web site referenced below to determine whether a call is available by verifying the Available Date.
You are not limited to having the numeral 4 in your call sign. If you choose to you can select any Region 1-10 for your vanity call sign.
Some vanity call prefixes are reserved for amateurs with mailing addresses in Alaska, Puerto Rico or Hawaii which are FCC call sign Regions 11, 12, 13. In addition, some call sign combinations are prohibited by the FCC or reserved for future use. Review the FCC Amateur Radio Call Sign Allocations chart for full details.

Interested in learning more? Use the information and links attached to help you decide!

Come up with a list of 1 to 25 calls you are interested in based on your personal preferences and interests
Use the AE7Q web site to enter your calls, one at a time, into the field titled "Show License, Trustee and Application History". The result returned will show whether the call you are interested in is available now, available at a later date, or already in use. NOTE - some calls are reserved for amateurs with mailing addresses in Alaska, Hawaii or the Pacific territories, and Puerto Rico and the Caribbean territories. Others are restricted by the FCC . Review the FCC Amateur Call Sign Allocations document for more information.
Use the FCC ULS to submit your vanity application and list 1 to 25 calls in your order of preference. If at least one of your calls is available at the time you submit your application, you will be awarded a new vanity call in 19-21 days. NOTE - if two or more amateurs request the same vanity call on the same date, the FCC will awards it to whichever application is randomly selected first to be processed without regard to the time the applications were filed.

Still have questions? Feel free to reach out to me at my email address Good luck finding a great call, and 73!

FCC Amateur Radio Call Sign Allocations

Tad Danley, K3TD (previously K1UM, K3TD, NZ3I, KB3PF, WA3TGR)

Group A - Amateur Extra Class

Primary stations licensed to Amateur Extra class operators.

Region	Prefix	Letters in Suffix
1-10	K, N, or W, and two letter suffix;	2
	two letter prefix with first letter A, N, K, or W	1
	two letter prefix with first letter A	2
11	AL, KL, NL, or WL	1
12	KP, NP, or WP	1
13	AH, KH, NH, or WH	1

Group B - Advanced Class

Primary stations licensed to Advanced class operators.

Region	Prefix	Letters in Suffix
1-10	Two letter prefix with first letter K, N, or W	2
11	AL	2
12	KP	2
13	AH	2

Group C - General, Technician, and Technician Plus Classes

Primary stations licensed to General, Technician, and Technician Plus class operators.

Region	Prefix	Letters in Suffix
1-10	K, N, or W	3
11	KL, NL, or WL	2
12	NP or WP	2
13	KH, NH, or WH	2

Group D - Novice, Club, and Military Recreations Station

Primary stations licensed to Novice class operators, and for club and military recreation stations.

Region	Prefix	Letters in Suffix
1-10	Two letter prefix with first letter K or W	3
11	KL or WL	3
12	KP or WP	3
13	KH or WH	3

The following call signs are not available for assignment:

KA2AA-KA9ZZ, KC4AAA-KC4AAF, KC4USA-KC4USZ, KG4AA-KG4ZZ,
KC6AA-KC6ZZ, KL9KAA- KL9KHZ, KX6AA-KX6ZZ;
Any call sign having the letters SOS or QRA-QUZ as the suffix;
Any call sign having the letters AM-AZ as the prefix (these prefixes are assigned to other countries by the ITU);
Any 2-by-3 format call sign having the letter X as the first letter of the suffix;
Any 2-by-3 format call sign having the letters AF, KF, NF, or WF as the prefix and the letters EMA as the suffix (U.S Government FEMA stations);
Any 2-by-3 format call sign having the letters AA-AL as the prefix;
Any 2-by-3 format call sign having the letters NA-NZ as the prefix;
Any 2-by-3 format call sign having the letters WC, WK, WM, WR, or WT as the prefix (Group X call signs);
Any 2-by-3 format call sign having the letters KP, NP or WP as the prefix and the numeral 0, 6, 7, 8 or 9;
Any 2-by-2 format call sign having the letters KP, NP or WP as the prefix and the numeral 0, 6, 7, 8 or 9;
Any 2-by-1 format call sign having the letters KP, NP or WP as the prefix and the numeral 0, 6, 7, 8 or 9;
Call signs having the single letter prefix (K, N or W), a single digit numeral 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and a single letter suffix are reserved for the special event call sign system.

Pick a new callsign for intelligibility

Some letters are hard to get right in voice modes because they sound like other letters. This more impacts the suffix of the callsign than the prefix, because A, K, N and W are expected in the prefix (for USA callsigns) and K, N and W are often followed by A, B, C, D. If your prefix has other than the 'normal' letters, than you could be hurting callsign recogntion. You can easily imagine that KA2DEW is easy to confuse with KA2PDW when stated over the air. These letters are the problem letters:

B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V, Z
Z can be forgiven because it can be pronounced ZED.

M, N

F, S

and to a lesser extent:
A, J, K

The most intelligible callsign would have only these letters, after the first letter in the prefix (if any), and in the suffix: H, I, L, O, Q, R, U, W, and X

What numbers are reasonable for hams in North Carolina?
4 is the default letter for the south-east US states. People will expect to talk to 4-landers, as we are called. This doesn't mean you have to apply for only 4-land callsigns. But many times when you meet a new person on FM, they will want to know where you lived in your foreign 'land'. Anybody with a 2 in their callsign is automatically a yankee and possibly interesting. So be judicious with your 'land' choices.

If you grew up in 8-land, but only got your callsign after moving here, maybe 8-land is a fair choice for your vanity callsign. At least you can answer the 'where are you from' question with a story.

It may be interesting to know that it is much easier to find a specific available suffix in callsign-lands that have the least population. 4-land has the highest population of hams, I think.

When should you pick from the crappy-letter list?
When your name fits in 3 characters, it is kind of interesting to have your callsign match your name. W4JON, WX4ED, WT4DD

Sometimes a callsign can strike an interesting chord with one's friends. We can't undervalue how much fun a callsign can be when the meaning is obvious. K9DOG, for instance.