K9DUR

Novice Class
April 1960 to February 1961
Delaware Township, NJ (now Cherry Hill)

My 1st license. My "Elmer" was Earnest B. (Bart) Mayo, K2KTS. Mr. Mayo was the head of the Industrial Arts Department of Delaware Township High School where I was a freshman. I took the Novice test in a loft above Mr. Mayo's office, which doubled as the school's club station, W2MBC.

NOTE: The WV prefix for a Novice license was a unique bit of amateur history that only existed for a short period of time. Since the Novice class license was only temporary, the FCC issued a call based on the permanent call that the licensee would receive after they upgraded. In the lower 48 states, Novice call signs had an N inserted after the K or W of their permanent call sign. In Alaska, Hawaii, & the U.S. territories, the K at the beginning of the call sign was replaced with a W. The FCC was about to start issuing WA-prefix calls. The problem was that there were a lot of existing WN-prefix Novices who would become Ws when they upgraded, and the FCC was afraid of inadvertently issuing duplicate calls. There were no computers back then, and call sign records were kept on 3x5 index cards, one call per card. So, the FCC decided to make the WA novices have a WV prefix. This system went into effect in the 2nd & 6th call areas, the first call areas to go to the WA prefix. However, this caused a LOT of confusion. Many amateurs thought that the WV2 or WV6 prefix was a Novice call from some unknown US territory. Therefore, the FCC decided to give WA Novices a WN prefix starting with the 4th call district, the next district to go to the WA prefix.

In January 1961, my father's job took us back to Indiana. My WV2MBR license was modified & I was issued KN9DUR for the remainder of the license term. This was among the last K & W calls issued in the 9th call area. Shortly after I was issued K9DUR & KN9DUR, the FCC started issuing WA9 calls.

Technician Class
February 1961 to June 1969
Indianapolis, IN & West Lafayette, IN

I took my Technician written test sitting at my older sister's kitchen table the day before I got on an airplane to join my parents in Indianapolis. Under the rules in effect at that time, a General Class or higher amateur had to administer the code test, but any US citizen over the age of 21 could administer the written exam which was graded by the FCC. So, my sister gave me the test. Anyone who thinks that this allowed me to cheat, doesn't know my sister!

In the 1960's, if you moved your station to another location for more than 48 hours, you had to write a letter to the FCC District Engineer-in-Charge, notifying them of the temporary location and how you can be reached. We had a cabin on Cordry Lake in northern Brown County, IN, where we spent nearly every weekend during the spring & summer. To avoid having to write weekly letters to the FCC, I applied for an Additional Station License for the cabin. After the FCC deleted the requirement for notifying the district office if you moved your station, they discontinued issuing the Additional Station License.

In early 1969, I was transferred to New York City. Since I was back in the 2nd call district, I applied for the non-Novice version of my original call sign. In those days, the only way you could be assigned a specific call sign was to be a previous holder of the call. The only other ways to get a different call were to move to a different call district or upgrade to Amateur Extra and request a 1x2 call.

In August 1970, I was transferred back to Indianapolis, so I applied to get K9DUR back.

Advanced Class
January 1974 to February 2000
Indianapolis, IN to West Terre Haute, IN (with various stops between)

After 13 years as a Technician, I decided it was time to get off my duff & work on my code speed. I had attempted the General in May of 1961, but missed passing the code by 2 characters. I went to the Federal Building in Chicago, IL, as a Technician and came home an Advanced. Of course, in those days you had to wait to get the license in the mail before you could use your new privileges.

After 26 years as an Advanced, the FCC was dropping the code speed for Extra from 20 wpm to 5 wpm, so it was time to go for my Extra. This would be the only VE testing session that I attended as an applicant. The Extra written exam was actually less challenging than the Advanced exam. I knew that the new Extra exam pool was going to be a combination of the old Advanced & Extra pools. So, I decided to take the Extra written exam before the new rules went into effect on April 15, 2000 and do a paperwork upgrade after April 15th. Since I had paid the test fee, I decided to have a go at the 20 wpm test, even though I knew I didn't have a chance of passing it. But, miracle of miracles....I walked out of the test session as an Extra!

After my company had sent me to Shanghai 5 times, I had built up enough frequent flyer miles to make a ham's dream vacation come true for myself, my wife (K9JMA), and 2 friends (NT9T & KC9AOR). We all got Belize licenses and spent a glorious week of sightseeing, lying in the sun, playing in the surf, and operating from the other side of the pile-up.

Bob Fox, V31MD, had a house & a fully-equipped ham shack that you could rent, and we made the most of it. Unfortunately, Bob became a silent key in 2022.