Hi Shawn,

When I received my Novice license, exactly 44 years ago today, my call was W 
N 9 Y B W.  When I upgraded to General 9 months later, the "N" in my call 
was replaced with an "A".  Also, back then all ham calls started with either 
a "W" or " K".  We didn't have all the additional  prefixes we have today. 
One reason is that there were less than 150 thousand hams and the "W's" and 
the "K's" were sufficient to meet that demand.  Today, there are upwards of 
700 thousand hams.

The "N" indicated that one was a Novice.  That's my story and I'm sticking 
to it!

Howard #3, W A 9 Y B W

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shawn Pearson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 7:20 AM
Subject: Novice license


> Howdy:
>
> I agree with most of what has been said about the Novice class ticket(at =
> least as far as the requirements, and operating limits go), but I don't =
> think that the comment about Novices having the letter "n" in their call =
> sign is correct.  I started off as a Novice in the State of MA in the =
> mid 70's, and was assigned the call sign wa1zhb.  The rest of us who =
> took the test at that time, and  passed were given similar call signs:  =
> wa1zhc, wa1zhq etc.  To the best of my recollection, nobody had a letter =
> "n" in their sign.  That ticket lapsed, and I had to start all over =
> again after sight loss.  I am now a General, and pondering trying for =
> the "Extra" before the question pool changes in Jul. even though I no =
> longer operate at all.  Have been trying   to get echolink working for =
> several months without success   , as it seems quite interesting.
>
> This is my first attempt at a "post" on this list, which is the reason =
> no one has ever heard of me.
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
>
>
> David S. Pearson-wa4dsp