Easily Search for Vanity Ham Call Signs

Fri, Nov 3, 2017 One-minute read

When you first get your ham radio license, the FCC gives you a random call sign based on your location and roughly your date of application. The resulting call sign is usually pretty impersonal, but the FCC lets you apply for a “vanity” call sign for free.

While the rules for these vanity call signs change depending on your license class (Technician, General, Extra), most of the good (shorter) vanity call signs that fall under the “extra” rules are taken. So realistically, your options will be likely be a 2x3 callsign (group C or group D).

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One place to look for available call signs is at http://callsign.ualr.edu. Please be kind and don’t pound their server! If you want to do hundreds / thousands of lookups, you can download the FCC database directly.

But if you only want to look at tens / hundreds, here’s a PowerShell script to help out.

$final3 = "LEE"
$prefixes = "WX","KZ"
foreach($prefix in $prefixes) {
    foreach($number in 0..9) {
        $call = $prefix + $number + $final3
        $wr = Invoke-WebRequest http://callsign.ualr.edu/detail.php -Method Post -Body @{ call = $call }
        if($wr.Content -match "no records were found!") { $call }
    }
}