Unidentified callsigns?

Activation Reports Issues/Errors
21

Most UK calls are of the form letter number letter letter letter. Most UK hams are aware of the bizarre way we insert letters to show Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland, IOM, Guernsey & Jersey. Only the criminally stupid fail to understand this.

Before WWII calls were of the form letter number letter letter., G5RV being a famous example of this. 35 years ago when I started there were plenty of GnXX calls about still with their original ageing owners. Now those owners have to be around 100 years old at least… not many originals if any left. These short calls are highly desirable because they are vintage. Until very recently, we did not recycle calls by default in the UK but you could get old calls reissued under some circumstances.

There was a brief window in 2018/19 when the UK licencing body mucked up its rules and erroneously issued two letter calls. There was quite an indecent rush by people trying to get such a vintage call and Ofcom soon stopped it. But as they had taken £20 off people and would have to refund that if they cancelled the call, they allow them to remain. I had been working on Ofcom over the years to get them to release the call M0TA or G0TA as a club licence and finally I happened to pester them when this was happening so I got M0TA. No M + two letter calls were ever released so it cannot be confused with a reissued old timer call and I am not sure if M0TA is the only such M+ two letter call. And it’s a club call. And it’s used in Scotland. So (ta da) I can be MS0TA which was the purpose of the effort. Not to be confused with M5OTA. I was going to get G0TA for use as GS0TA but missed out as they stopped issuing them.

That’s a lot of words to get here, so here’s the point. Using it can be a real millstone around my neck due to the inability of many UK hams to understand how their licence / call allocations work. Non UK stations hear MS0TA on voice or key and “copy and log what he sends”. This seems beyond many numbers of UK stations. They don’t know of the S RSL for clubs and they cannot cope with a short call. It’s got to the point I wont use it on 40m SSB and 2m FM if possible because the difficulties getting hams in the UK to understand it.

One occasion on 2m FM the exchange of MS0TA had been running for a few minutes and I recall saying
“Mike Sierra Zero Tango Alpha Portable”
“Ok Mike Zero Sierra Tango Alpha you’re 57”
“No. Mike Sierra Zero Tango Alpha Portable”
“Sierra Mike Zero Tango Alpha Papa you’re 57”
“It’s a short UK club call with just two letters.”
“No there’s a character missing”
“It’s a short call. Just write down Mike Sierra Zero Tango Alpha Portable and check it online later.”

So I have a cute and cool MS0TA call but I avoid using it if my own countrymen will be in the target zone :frowning:

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22

I once had a rig that cut my first G to an R. Dit dah dit rather than dah dah dit. I tried in vain to adjust the setup, but it wouldn’t play ball. Obviously a lazy relay. I had to resort to other ways of making sure the correct call got across like starting with a brief punctuation character, spaced dits or just sending my call twice. I still may be in a few people’s logs as R4OIG.

Reminds me of the first time I worked an MN0 call. :joy:

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23

There are various permutations of ‘standard’, contest, club and other special Callsigns.

Therefore I log calls based on what I hear and operate on the premise that no-one knows their callsign better than the operator using it.

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24

I always insist that maths students I teach NEVER do this! 1’s become 2’s or 7’s so easily whenever the flick and/or base is included. In fact I remember a painful battle I had with my youngest son Liam over this as he approached his GCSEs!

25

Has the much anticipated S2S QSO between MS0TA/P and M5OTA/P occurred yet?

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26

Sadly not but both of us are hopeful :slight_smile:

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