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