Subj : Hamming
To   : Dave Drum
From : Ray Quinn
Date : Sat Mar 05 2022 08:04 am


   Hello Dave!

05 Mar 22 05:01, you wrote to me:

 DD> -=> Ray Quinn wrote to Dave Drum <=-

 RQ>> 73 Ray Quinn W6RAY
 RQ>> Visalia, CA DM06ii

 DD> You've been at this for a bit, I can see. When I got my licence
 DD> District 9 was out of "W" designators and had started on "K". I really
 DD> wanted to have one of those "grandfather letter" licences.  Bv)= Now I
 DD> note that they're using two letters prefixes.

 DD> Last night I commented on a customer's ham plate - W9 RAY. Asked him
 DD> if the Funny Candy Company was doing "vanity" call signs. He told me
 DD> his name is Bill. Then said he had been friends another ham who had W9
 DD> BIL. But the FCC wouldn't let them swap.   Bv)=

Mine is indeed a vanity call. My original call was KF6KMY, issued in April 
1997. When W6RAY was made available, I snagged it. The previous possessor 
was/is named George Palmer from Parumph, NV, and had been available for a very 
short time when I applied for it. It had been invalid for slightly over two 
years in 2007. The FCC removed the Morse Code requirement and I took my General 
class test the very next day. By the end of the month, I had applied and was 
granted the vanity call. I was a Technician Plus for about 24 hours. In 1997, 
there was still the Novice class, so I had to take the Novice test AND the 
Technician test.

My friend Scott took the tests the same day. His call is (still) KF6KMX.

In a previous message, you mentioned you are more into computers (confusers) 
than radio. I am responsible for three DSTAR gateways, a packet BBS (currently 
offline), and multiple 5 gHz microwave links (for the aforementioned DSTAR 
gateways), along with computer controlling my radios - I can sit in my living 
room and talk on my radio in the "shack".

I started my first BBS on a C=64 with two floppy drives and a 300 bps modem, 
then on a 128 along with my brother. I still have my first 9600 bps Practical 
Peripherals modem that was in service 30 years ago. My first Fidonet node 
number was 1:205/222, then 205 was broken up and was 1:214/222, then, and 
still, 1:214/22. I found a copy of the first nodelist I was in in 1990 or 91.


Oh WOW. Sorry for the rambling. Any way, you can combine more than one hobby 
together and have some real fun.

73 Ray Quinn
Visalia, CA DM06ii


--- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707
 * Origin: Ham Radio operators do it with frequency! (1:214/23)

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