You can do it before you renew, or just wait as long as you can somehow be 
notified if there is a need at your mailing address.

You need to create an FRN number at the fcc.gov/uls website.

In the past, that has been difficult, so you could always have HandiHams 
help I think, if you are a member.  I think the w5yi site does it for around 
7 bucks.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matt V" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 8:40 PM
Subject: Re: My 40th Ham Radio Anniversary


>i need to change the address too when i renew mine
> where would i do that online and can i do it before i renew or does it
> have to be done together?
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, 24 Apr 2006, Jeff Kenyon wrote:
>
>> Good evening John and the group.  I passed the novice in 2000 and was
>> granted my license in May of that year  It was just before the
>> restructuring took place.  I know that on our nets there are constantly
>> messages reminding people it is time to upgrade, but does the FCC to it 
>> at
>> all?  In 2010 I do plan on updating and renewing no matter where I may be
>> or what I may be doing.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, 24 Apr 2006, John Miller wrote:
>>
>>> I know what you mean, I remember last year when it was time for my first
>>> renewal of my license I was taken aback for a minute that 10 years went 
>>> by
>>> that fast and I am still now as involved as I ever was and probably 
>>> more.
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Buddy Brannan" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 8:17 PM
>>> Subject: Re: My 40th Ham Radio Anniversary
>>>
>>>
>>>> Oops, this not only went private to poor Barb, but I sent it before I
>>>> was done...
>>>>
>>>> Well, since we're all waxing nostalgic, I reckon it's my turn!
>>>>
>>>> October 24th (well, to be technical, October 20th, so says my first
>>>> license, now unfortunately long gone--but got it on the 24th), will
>>>> see my 19th anniversary as a ham this year. Next year--20 years--
>>>> who'd've thunk it? It's sort of like...I don't know, you never really
>>>> think you'll grow up, and you never really think about having done
>>>> anything for 20 years when you just get started. But here it is, this
>>>> side of 19 years, 20 years in site.
>>>>
>>>> I've actually known about ham radio for ages and ages. In fact, I
>>>> have a vague memory of being about five and with a teacher and
>>>> walking into the ham radio station at the New Mexico School for the
>>>> Visually Handicapped when I was there and (obviously) very, very
>>>> young. I just remember some radio static, asking, "What's that?", and
>>>> someone telling me it's the ham radio station. In typical five-year-
>>>> old fashion, I just said, "Oh." And forgot about it.
>>>>
>>>> Well, I guess I didn't really forget about it, though. I saw a book
>>>> when I was nine and thought, "Oh, ham radio, I think I've heard of
>>>> that." Reading the book, I thought (in typical stupid 9-year-old
>>>> fashion), "Oh. You can't play music on it? What good is it then?!" I
>>>> managed to meet some hams some time after that, but didn't give it
>>>> much thought then either. But it just wouldn't quit! Because a while
>>>> after that, we moved from Arizona to Texas, and I met an O&M
>>>> instructor who oriented me to the school I was going to, or
>>>> something, and, on the way home, he showed me his (you guessed it)
>>>> ham radio, made a phone patch to my mom, and I thought, "Oh well, now
>>>> isn't that interesting?" But it still didn't quit, because a few
>>>> years later, I found a book called "How To Become A Radio
>>>> Amateur" (Copyright 1950) and thought, "Oh, I've heard of that",
>>>> checked the book out, didn't understand a damned thing in it (well,
>>>> not much, anyway), and decided I'd get a ham radio license. (You see,
>>>> I can even learn, eventually.) I even thought, "Oh, well, I guess
>>>> I'll learn that morse code because I have to, but I don't think I'll
>>>> like it. I'll probably never even use it." How surprised was I that I
>>>> really not only learned it very easily, but absolutely fell in love
>>>> with it! Having a head for stupid details, I remembered that this O&M
>>>> instructor was a ham and somehow managed to let him know I wanted to
>>>> be a ham, too. So, Steve not only helped me get started, put up
>>>> antennas, lent me a receiver, helped me procure my first station,
>>>> took me to hamfests and field day and all sorts of things, but he
>>>> became a great friend.
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, just six months after picking up that initial copy of How To
>>>> Become A radio Amateur, and several outdated study guides later (with
>>>> patient help from Steve), I passed my novice test. By the way, if
>>>> anyone knows where I can lay hands on a braille copy of this book,
>>>> I'd be forever grateful; if I knew that TSB was throwing theirs out--
>>>> the very one that got me started--I'd've asked for it, but I didn't
>>>> know, and it got thrown out without any input from me.
>>>>
>>>> So that brought me to that Saturday, October 24th, 1987. I was
>>>> talking to a friend on the phone, and I think motor Week had just
>>>> gone off the TV. And my initial thought when my (uh. sister?) told me
>>>> what my new call letters were...was, "Yuck!" (You see, I really was
>>>> secretly hoping to get issued KB5LID mostly because I have a twisted
>>>> sense of humor.) But it grew on me...like a cancer?...and a week
>>>> later, I was making my first few contacts at Steve's ham shack. I
>>>> really wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be, but then, I'd been
>>>> practicing for ages! My first contacts were on 15-meter cw; first
>>>> with KA1JDG, then WA9YMI. I think my first QSL card came from YMI. I
>>>> then made a couple of 10-meter phone contacts, which weren't nearly
>>>> as much fun as I thought they'd be (they were lots of fun, though!),
>>>> then one on 40-meter cw. The 15-meter novice band was my favorite
>>>> band thereafter, for several years. Even after I tried 10-meter
>>>> phone, 20-meter phone, lots of phone, lots of cw on several bands, 15-
>>>> meter novice band was the home of many, many memorable contacts. It
>>>> was the band I got the worst signal report I ever got, and probably
>>>> the worst signal report just about anyone ever got. JH1WIX, whom I
>>>> contacted again several months later, gave me a 219 signal report.
>>>>
>>>> I was a 20-WPM Novice for a month, then got my General. Worked lots
>>>> of traffic nets. Made lots of wonderful friends. And the one striking
>>>> thing about ham radio for me, as a 14- and 15-year-old kid, was that
>>>> the hams fairly unversally treated me as an equal and with
>>>> respect...not like some dumb kid.
>>>>
>>>> BTW, my first rig? A set of Drake twins. Fantastic rig. And as much
>>>> as I absolutely loved (and still love) cw, I used a straight key
>>>> exclusively for about three years, tried a Heath keyer for a while,
>>>> went back to the key, tried a bug and loved it. Now I use an
>>>> electronic keyer, but I really want another good hand key for my
>>>> desk. And a bug. There's just something about sending cw with
>>>> mechanical things. I should say, too, that unlike many of my modern
>>>> ham brethren, I didn't actually get on 2 meters (apart from Steve's
>>>> mobile) for about a year after I got licensed, and a good nine months
>>>> after I got my general.
>>>>
>>>> So, even though my activity sort of drops off (like now, for
>>>> instance), I still love ham radio, and cw is my first ham radio love.
>>>> There were some amazing times, like that night in 1989 when I cruised
>>>> 20 meter cw and had dx come back to my cq's for several hours; one of
>>>> those contacts was Lyuba, UA1OSA, who (I found out later) has a sort
>>>> of interesting background--look her up on QRZ. If I'd known then. ...
>>>> But I didn't, and having the dx just sitting there without much
>>>> effort was just amazing to me. Wow but that was an amazing evening.
>>>> Sure wish I still had access to those logs, but I don't. Or what
>>>> about those evenings on the Central Gulf Coast Hurricane Net, when a
>>>> big hurricane was coming and my friends on the coast, some of them
>>>> just weren't leaving. They got through OK, though. Just lots of
>>>> stuff. Now I'm starting to play with QRP. Still can't quite bring
>>>> myself to try hf digital modes, though.
>>>> --
>>>> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV : Independent Watkins Associate #361534
>>>> Email: [log in to unmask] : Phone: 888-752-8339
>>>> --------------------------------------
>>>> For over 135 years, Watkins has brought you products to improve your
>>>> health and your home: http://www.tastyshop.net
>>>> ...And a Watkins business could change your life! Get all the info on
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>>>> www.tastybiz.com
>>>>
>>>
>>
>