Choosing your Callsign

Here in Australia and I'm fairly sure else were round the world, when you apply for you amateur radio license you have the choice of letting ACMA auto allocate a callsign to you or you can pay a little extra and nominate a set of 3 callsigns that you'd like to use and based on availability.

So if you choose your own, what would you choose ?  what logic to you apply ?

The following is not exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination, however was what I empoyed when coming up with my callsigns:

A. Status / Contesting - In Australia we have the 2 letter suffix which was is reserved for those who have obtained their advanced call VK$nn where $ is the Australian state/territory you are registering the call in  and XX is the 2 letter suffix.  After you have worked hard to obtain your advanced call then obtaining a 2 letter call clearly indicates you are advanced call were as the 3 letter callsign it not immediately clear.

As a little FYI the below is the Australian callsign format:

• VK$Fnnn - Foundation Call (4 letter call - large range of personalisation possible (ie FART, FAKE, FMAX etc )

• VK$Qnnn - Not allocated to reduce confusion with Q Codes

• VK$[H,L,M,N,P,V]nnn - Standard Call (3 letter call) - BTW the phrase "Hiring Lawyers May Not Prove Valuable" - is how I currently remember the standard call set !!)

• VK$[A-G,I-K,O,S-U,W-Z]nn - Advanced Call (3 letter call)

• VK$nn - Advanced Call (2 letter call)

• VK$Rnn- Repeater Callsign

• VK$RSn, VK$RTn - Beacon Callsign

A lot of advanced call operators prefer to have 2 (or more) callsigns and reserve the use of a 2 letter callsign for contesting etc especially in CW realm for more efficient sending of callsign. Then outside of contest use their 3 letter advanced call.

There are obviously a finite number of 2 letter callsign, and they do and are running out in some states. In my case there was only 6 two letter callsign available and they were reducing each day. So I err'ed on side of caution and did not just select set of 2 letter call as the sequence did not mean anything to me or suite me.

Many operators hold onto multiple callsign, especially callsigns belonging to ex-mates or club members as gesture of respect and ensuring the callsign get reallocated to a club member to ensure the callsign continues with in the club.
 

B. Initials - a fairly straight forward one that many operators are able to locate callsigns within their class of license that matches the initials of their name, family member(s),  or something other meaning to them.   In my case VK4TMZ (Tanya, Mark, Ziva) first initials of the Wife, myself and Daughter!!

C. Word, Phrase or Sound - The sequence of letters forms some funny word, phrase or sound (i.e. VK4FART,  VK4FWIT which is available, but I wonder if anyone would be willing to use it!!)

Logic / Sanity Check

The following are checks that to may consider when deciding if your callsign is going to be a good fit for you:

A. Sound - Does it role of the tongue, when responding and talking with others does the callsign flow.

B. Poor Condition Test - How would other operators go trying pull your callsign out under weak condition ?

C. CW - If your are intending on operating CW, are the sequence of character as DITs and DAHs clear and efficient ?  By this I mean is it easy to send and receive sending VK$HHH may not be the easiest for someone starting out in CW to send and receive.


Well that's all for now!!  and I hope this may have assisted in some little way to help narrow down and possible even select your callsign!!


73
de VK4TMZ