Thanks for sharing this, Chris. Being a relatively new licensee, I didn’t
realize this was a thing until I was “outed” during one of my first Houston
nets. I thought I could slip into Texas all stealthy and whatnot. No such
luck!
73
David
KO6NGH
><((((º>`..¸¸.´¯`..¸..´¯`....¸><((((º>,...
,,..*'`... ><((((º>`.´¯`..¸¸...¸><((((º>
> On Oct 24, 2026, at 8:53 AM, Chris Medlin via BVARC <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I was talking to some ham friends about this Worked All Stated map and
> learned that they had never seen one before, so I thought maybe others had
> also not seen it before, and I wanted to share with the overall group with
> some history of call districts.
>
> When a new callsign is issued, it is based on your QTH for what call group
> the license comes from. Texas is in district 5. Florida is in 4, Maine is in
> group 1. Prior to 1978, when you moved your permanent QTH from one call
> district to another, you were required to get a new call in that district.
> When you heard a 9 call, you automatically knew this guy was likely in IL,
> IN, or WI unless he was mobile, etc. It also gave you an idea which direction
> to swing your beam. Or how your signal was propagating if you were using a
> vertical or wire.
> In 1978, that rule was dropped and they let you keep your original callsign
> as you moved around the country., I believe the districts were divided by
> population density. As the decades have passed, the 4 district has pulled
> ahead of the 5 because of the big cities like Atlanta, DC, and Miami. I
> believe we are currently in the later end of KJ5 today, but the 4 call
> district is now in KR4.. They have already been through all the KJs and the
> KQs, which indicates that when we get through the KJ5s, we will move to KQ5.
>
> The modern vanity call sign program started in 1996 and allows anyone to get
> any callsign in their license callsign classification not in use and not
> inside the 2-year expired grace period, from anywhere in the country.
> I encourage you to make your own decision on that. Some people get vanity
> calls for various reasons, and some keep their original callsign for the
> nostalgia or because everyone already knows them by that callsign so why
> change…
> Although you may be a native of Texas and decide to get a 6 call because it’s
> the only one that has your initials available, but then you may also get a
> lot of questions on the air asking when you moved here from California. I
> believe Blake, one of our BVARC Board Members, had this problem when he was
> first licensed and immediately applied for a 6 vanity call.
>
> You will also see that KP4 is reserved for Puerto Rico, KP2 is reserved for
> the USVI, KL7 is only issued to Alaska and KH6 is Hawaii.
>
> Also as an added bonus on this map are the Field Day sections, like Western
> PA, North TX, and South FL.
>
> I hope you learned something new today. The map is printable and suitable
> for framing and could make a beautiful addition to your shack.
>
> 73 Chris AC5CM
>
>
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