Vanity call question

[kc4yoy]

Does anyone have any idea how long it normally takes
for a vanity call to be granted?
I assume I just have to keep checking QRZ for an updated listing?

Thanks & 73,

Ron kc4yoy

[Rick K5IAR]

Hi Ron,

I think it's within 18 business days, but could be mistaken.  The waiting is always the hardest part!

73,
Rick/K5IAR

[KF1Z]

Usually about 18 days....after they recieve (and accept) the application.

No.... don't bother with QRZ.com..... they may indeed NEVER show your callsign....

I know of quite a few hams that QRZ says the call is not in their data base....
For whatever reason the automatic database update can skip info.



The ONLY sure way of checking your callsign data is the FCC website.... that's IT.

Use this link for a quick way to search....

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchAdvanced.jsp;JSESSIONID_ULSSEARCH=Ec8MLIgAXvaVhqnBMwZXu818yAUzeWyjDBW52ABxvjygJaczXC7v!-559617880!643474297


By the way, Your application was recieved by the FCC on 9-21-07... so don't look for the new callsign before the end of the month. ( probably the 9th of Oct)

[AF9J]

Usually about 18 days....after they recieve (and accept) the application.

No.... don't bother with QRZ.com..... they may indeed NEVER show your callsign....

I know of quite a few hams that QRZ says the call is not in their data base....
For whatever reason the automatic database update can skip info.



The ONLY sure way of checking your callsign data is the FCC website.... that's IT.

You're right about that Bruce,

I got my vanity call in late 1998 (back when they ripped you off to the tune of $50 for them).  I specifically tried to get a never used 2x1 call.  I knew that the FCC didn't use up the 2x1 A prefix calls when they issued them around the bicentennial time period.  So, I concentrated on 2x1 A prefix callsigns.  Back then, the QRZ callsign database would also show the previous holders of unused callsigns.  Mine showed no previous holders, so I went with it.  Wouldn't you know it, in 2000 or 2001, I got a QSL card from an SWL, who told me that he had also logged the original holder of my call back in 1979 (he even sent me a photocopy of the QSL he'd received)!  The card showed a photo of some guy from Illinois in his 50s, operating a Yaesu FT-101 setup!  Go figure!  So much for my call never being used! 

73,
Ellen - AF9J

[W4EWH]

I got my vanity call in late 1998 (back when they ripped you off to the tune of $50 for them).  I specifically tried to get a never used 2x1 call.  I knew that the FCC didn't use up the 2x1 A prefix calls when they issued them around the bicentennial time period. 

I was also in the "First" pay-to-play vanity program in 1995.

When I started looking for calls, the FCC database had very few 1x2's, and I was thinking it wasn't worth it, when I checked one of the calls that I thought was "unavailable", just to see who owned it, and found out that, although the FCC didn't show it as available, it also wasn't assigned!

Long story short: I drilled down the FCC web pages until I got a name and phone number, and worked my way to the database administrator at Gettysburg. He told me that the only call signs in the database were the ones that had been in service when the database was created in 1984, but that the "missing" calls were, indeed, also available for assignment.

That meant that I had a "secret" list of calls nobody else knew about! W1AC was my second choice: someone else got W4BH.

73, Bill W1AC

[w5omr]

I got my vanity call in late 1998 (back when they ripped you off to the tune of $50 for them).  I specifically tried to get a never used 2x1 call.  I knew that the FCC didn't use up the 2x1 A prefix calls when they issued them around the bicentennial time period. 

I knew my callsign was a re-issue...

Originally assigned the novice call of KA5THB in Feb of 1984, I was born and raised around Ham Radio. I'm one of the lucky ones. My Elmer was my dad. My taking of his call sign after he passed away, is not only my privilege, it's an honor.

Only.. I got his call in 1999, and it cost me (I think) a grand total of $13.oo

I remember dad remarking, in 1987 when he got his ticket back in the mail, after renewing "10 years!?!  This thing is good for 10 years?  Well, I guess it's a life-time license for me."

He was born on the 8th of October, in 1920 in Arkansas City, Kansas.
Dad passed away September 30th, 1988.

[WD8BIL]

The waiting is always the hardest part!

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers !

[kc4yoy]

[quoteI think it's within 18 business days, but could be mistaken.  The waiting is always the hardest part![/quote]

Tell me about it...
I'll have a nervous breakdown before I get it.

I called the FCC today to ask some questions, like,
How do they decide you gets the call when there's more than one
applying for it. The answer is by lottery.
It makes no difference when you apply as long as you do it before they
process the applications. One submitted the day before processing
has just as much chance as mine that I waited until the computers came
back on line at 2am the first morning the call was open for reassignment.
She said "it wouldn't be fair to give it to the first that applied for it..."
Must be a democrat...

So far I have 1 chance in 3 of getting my first choice.

73, Ron