Ham I am (and Kelsey is KE7SXY)

Kelsey and I decided that we wanted to get our Amateur Radio (“Ham”) licenses for when we go sailing so we can call home (or anywhere else) when we’re thousands of miles from land.

We’d attended part 1 of a class on Thursday night, but skipped the second part on Friday and had dinner with her mom (Gulash) and hung out with friends afterward since we wouldn’t be able to take the exam in Issaquah since we’d be in Montana.

We’d both taken practice exams online at eham.net on Friday and passed on our first try. A look on arrl.org showed that there was a test in Kalispell, and my dad was also interested in becoming a Ham. Monday night we drove 1 1/2 hours to Kalispell with my dad and Christine. She went just to eat at the Chinese buffet, but we went to take our Amateur Radio Technician license tests. We also ate at the Chinese buffet.

We all passed. Dad missed 1 question and the administrators asked if he wanted to take the General exam (the next level of Ham radio license). I missed 2, and Kelsey scraped by despite having the hardest test questions, including areas we hadn’t studied. She was worried, but didn’t need to be.

She’d been talking about getting a “vanity” call sign, similar to a vanity license plate. At class, we learned that we could, and that our region code was KE7. She hoped to get “KE7FOX” and I suggested “KE7SEY” — her name with the L as an upside down 7. It’s only $14 to get a vanity call sign, and as everyone knows, you have to have a cool call sign when talking on the radio.

Since Ham radio is more regulated than CB, cool names like “smokey”, “bandit”, or “maverick” weren’t an option, and you’re going to have to have a number.
Unless you pay for a vanity call sign, you get assigned a sequential series of numbers and letters. A quick search discovered that KE7FOX was taken, and we were told in class that KE7- was used up and that new call signs would start KF7-.

We’d have to wait until we passed the test and get sequential call signs before Kelsey could trade hers in on a vanity call sign. I decided I could make due with whatever I was given, but hoped for something easy to remember.

It turns out that KE7- wasn’t used up yet, so we got KE7 call signs. My dad found out this morning at qrz.com that his license had been processed and his call sign was “KE7SXW.” Mine is KE7SXX and Kelsey is KE7SXY.

She decided that she doesn’t need a vanity call sign after all.