The FCC and Ham Licensing

by RICHARD NIXON (and his pet helicopter)

This article is dedicated to WA6RXE (SK - Ronald P. De Vreugd?) and N6NHG (SK - Kevin Mitnick) and all the diehards who are part or were part of that famous repeater on VHF in Los Angeles that has been transmitting for over 45 years.

Some of the information is true and some has been modified.  However, there may be errors.  I also do not condone illegal activity.  This is for informational purposes only.

It's kind of funny - there must be a ghost who pushes buttons or changes things.  I give you the ULS system, created by the FCC to streamline computer system functionality.  The Universal Licensing System, developed to aid in providing, modifying, updating, and entering information for licenses, specifically amateur radio - a.k.a. "ham radio."

Now, ham radio has been around for a bit, and has three types of licenses at the time of this article: Technician, General, and finally Amateur Extra.  In the early 2000s, they had a code requirement as well as many other types of licenses, but they removed the requirement for Morse code, as well as simplified down to three types of licenses as stated above.

With ham radio, you study for a bit, get your technician license, buy a VHF/UHF radio, and talk or transmit packet radio for the most part.  Then, if you decide to upgrade, you study for the general and maybe purchase an HF radio so you can talk to aliens (and sometimes famous people such as Art Bell (W6OBB - SK), or the guy from the band the Eagles... not naming names here, but it's been known to happen.  Then, if you really want to play HF dawg, you study and pass your Amateur Extra - which grants you access to pretty much every frequency available in the ham radio spectrum.

Anyways, a piece of history - X.25, the same protocol that came before the Internet as we all know it today, still resides on the amateur radio band plan, a.k.a. "packet radio," but does not operate like you think.

Nonetheless, you still would need the hardware on both ends to utilize it, and since this article isn't about that, I would invite you to at least educate yourself about the basic principles as well as the knowledge of using amateur radio, take the test, and then use it lawfully.

But it's fun to do IRC over packet!

There are many practical applications in ham radio: talk, packet, HF, Morse, talking to UFOs, and having a discussion about women with extraterrestrials - no coins required when talking directly to E.T.

O.K., so let's get to the meat and potatoes about this specific article.

So when you pass your Technician test, you are randomly assigned a call sign.  Call signs have specific prefixes assigned according to the geographical area you are in.  For example, let's say you are in California - your prefix would start out with a letter, such as W or K.

Some may even have KA, WA, KA6, and so on.  Usually they add letters in sequential order once the block has been used, i.e., KA, KB, usually 6 has a region specific designation - California region for the most part - by default.

Every region has at least one number assigned to it, geographic to where you reside.

There are basically two types of licenses, vanity and random.  Call signs, as stated before when you are granted one, are basically random, and when you want or request a certain call signs (one that's not being used or has not been granted to someone else), that's a vanity.

For example, let's say you wanted to shorten your LL#LLL call sign to L#LLL, you're going to a 3x2 - meaning you're getting rid of a letter or two and downsizing.

Now usually the shorter the call sign the better, and most of the time you will see Amateur Extras having shorter call signs.  Even Cuckoo's Nest has one, but his unique Klein bottles do not.  (another old school X.25 guy!)

Usually when you request a vanity, you pay the fee (a couple bucks), pick out the call sign you want, wait for it to get approved (electronically), and when the FCC approves it, you can start transmitting with it.  The old call sign gets thrown back into the public pool after a while.

Now, for those that do not have computer access, there is Form 605.

Form 605 allows you to fill out the form by ink, sign it, and mail it in.  The FCC reviews it, checks it out, and applies the update to your account.

So what's interesting about this is as long as you do not have a vanity and everything checks out, the modification will take place and a randomized call sign will be assigned to the call sign on the form, from what I have been told after talking to someone at the FCC on the phone.  What this demonstrates is that:

1.)  Only a signature is required.

2.)  The FCC does not verify the owner.  However, since it's a form, it's verified by a human who processes it as they are instructed to do.

3.)  The checks and balances are not what they should be compared to someone being granted a vanity.

This means that if you fill out a paper with your info, check a few boxes, sign the form, send it in from where you live, and the FCC approves it - your request will be accepted.

So in order to remedy this, I would make sure you request (and are granted) a vanity call sign.  Once you are granted a customized vanity, it adds a layer of protection and security.

I would also add that any call sign change be done by having the FCC perform a code-send procedure, one that snail mails or texts the code after the human has processed the application.  While not 100 percent safe, it reduces the amount of fraud.

In ham radio, there are a lot of interesting things to do and many other types of licenses to obtain.  For example, you can become a test taker for that region, which pays a couple bucks per test, or you can get temporary international licenses for different countries, or you can learn Morse code, even though it's not required to become a licensed operator.  (Learning Morse code is fun.  However, to learn it from scratch may take years of patience and dedication...)

Also, learning about electronics, especially the Henry Amplifiers, is really neat because some of the good ones run on tubes and vacuums.  So if you cut the wrong wires or wire it up like an idiot, you can blow shit up...

Anyways, use ham responsibly and remember not to jam people out.