Thanks for the interesting story.

Howard #3

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Curtis Delzer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2012 7:20 PM
Subject: vanity call!


> Many of you know that I recently applied for a "vanity" ham call.
> It is in process and should be handled on August 28. That is truly 
> fascinating since I got my first and only call on August 25, 1963.
> Then, it was  W N 6 H E F, but was changed when I got my general, and 
> I never had the idea that just because I became an extra, that I 
> should highlight the fact with a one by two or two by one call, or 
> some other identifying call sign as to the status of my license class.
> The call I want is K 6 V F O. There doesn't appear to be any reason 
> they shouldn't act on my application according to the status I see on 
> the radio QTH web site, so am I excited?  YOU BET!
> The call sign, V F O, is part of my past too.  In 1963, W N 6 V F O, 
> was the super intendant of schools where I grew up in Lodi, 
> California, and I happened to bump into him on the air on 40M CW. 
> Important to me, at the time, was not to have to attend a Stockton 
> high school where all the rivals of the Lodi football team went to 
> school and so I asked if he, the super intendant, couldn't look into 
> the matter and help me.
> He asked, on the air, at probably 12 WPM or so, how I would handle 
> all the materials, being blind, and all that. I told him about the 
> program which hired readers for us at the time, (there wasn't at that 
> time a so-called "rehabilitation" office as such but I believe it was 
> at least being planned to include helping blind people read their 
> books by hiring readers, so I asked him if he wouldn't look into it.
> He did, I was the first blind attendee of the Lodi Unified school 
> district, in San Joaquin county, 1965 being my Sophomore year of high 
> school.  So, V F O, is an important call, and K 6 V F O, is available 
> as of July 31, 2012, where the 2 year grace period has run out for 
> the original vanity requestee in 2000, Steven Share, is his name.  He 
> lived in Milpitas, CA, and had the call from 2000 onward to 2010, do, 
> speculation reigns; did he die, or did he just lose interest?  He was 
> a Technician class licensee and had an earlier call, so I can't help 
> but be curious. Such a great call, I think, imagine how you'd stick 
> out of a pile-up with V F O, as your call.
> I sure hope it'll be mine someday.  On CW, it takes the same time to 
> send W B 6 H E F as it does K 6 V F O, because of all the 
> combinations of dots and dashes, though mine, W B 6 H E F, on CW and 
> on phone is a problem for misunderstandings galore, as you can 
> imagine.  It takes skill to send  W B 6 H E F in CW, but there are a 
> huge bunch of phonetics I've gotten use too on phone, such as "high 
> energy fire cracker," or, "half empty fifth," or "harasses every 
> female," or, hamburgers every Friday," or "have enough faith." "Have 
> enough faith," is a great rallying cry for a lot of things, for which 
> faith is needed, so . . . as I say, the decision to do this is not 
> gone into lightly.
> Comments will be appreciated, against, or for, for after having 
> something for forty nine years and then, changing it, is quite a 
> step.  It it not as though after accomplished, I cannot revoke it, 
> but I can at least wait for 2 years and see if  K 6 V F O, how it 
> feels, how it sounds, how it integrates into my style of operating, 
> etc.  I have been practicing saying it, though it may be premature, 
> after all, the FCC may not choose to act on it, it says on the QTH 
> site that they should do it on 8/28.
> That would be a Tuesday, which was the 27th of August, 
> 1963.  Amazing!! My first contact on 40M CW was in 1963,
> on August 25 using a DX35 Heath transmitter with a Hygain 14AVQ multi 
> band vertical at 6 to 1 SWR, and a Collins 75A1 receiver. He was , W 
> N 6 F L N in Norwalk, CA. It wasn't long before I got a better 
> antenna and different transmitter that didn't shock so much at the CW 
> key as that one did, 250 volts DC.
> We sold our house here in North Dakota and will be moving to 
> California in a couple months or so.  The new call, with a new 
> address in California, hmm! Funny how everyone who hears  V F O, 
> immediately identifies it without confusion unlike H E F, or even, 
> the W B, gets confused when conditions aren't just right with W D, etc.
> 
> Thanks, everyone, for reading this dissertation. :)
> I did send it out before, but for some reason it didn't get posted.
> 
> Curt
> 
> W B 6 H E F