Hey Kurt,

I also got my license in 1963.  I am WB6IVF and I lived in the San Fernando 
Valley.  I kept my call but now I live in Boulder Colorado.  I am studying 
for my extra, but when I get it I don't know what I will do for a different 
Call.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Howard, W A 9 Y B W" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 6:30 AM
Subject: Re: vanity call!


> 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