Surprisingly, the rights to some call signs turn on degrees of relatedness. Most of our postings here deal with grave concerns of policy and regulation. Once in a while, though, a not-so-grave item catches our eye. From one such we learned that, even in the American meritocracy, it really all depends on who you’re related to. Just ask the FCC. Our topic here is amateur radio call signs, those combinations of letters and numbers that amateur radio operators use to identify themselves. You may have seen them on car license plates. One example is KD7HLX, formerly held by Joshua A. Babb of Maricopa, Arizona. We’ll come back to Mr. Babb. In the ordinary case the FCC determines the call sign. The initial one or two letters and (usually) one numeral relate, respectively, to the licensee’s “operator class” and the licensee’s part of the country at the time of issue. Details are here. The rest of the call sign, consisting of one to three letters, is…
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