Yesterday morning, I replied to a message from a reader planning to obtain a vanity callsign. He asked, “Which [suffix] letters would make an easy callsign to send [in CW] and copy in your experience?”
This is a great question. I do have a few suggestions.
My previous call
I suggest avoiding ending your callsign with a “K.”
I speak from experience.
I was not an avid CW operator when I upgraded to General over two decades ago. I was auto-assigned the following callsign by the FCC: KF4TZK
It was a mouthful in SSB, especially when articulated phonetically: Kilo Foxtrot 4 Tango Zulu Kilo.
When I started operating in CW, I realized how confusing it can be to have the letter “K” at the end of one’s call. If your sending isn’t near perfect—or even when it is—people will assume the “K” is simply “OK, back to you,” and they copy “KF4TZ.”
I got tired of correcting my call by sending back “KF4TZK K” to let them know the K was part of my suffix.
If your call ends with a K, there’s no reason to change your callsign unless you also find it gives you trouble. If you have a ‘2 x 1 call (a callsign with two letters, a number, and a letter) ending in K, it’s not a problem.
I would also suggest not combining too many letters similar in dit patterns, like “HSI” or “HSH.” Strings of dits can be complex for some to copy.
Best advice?
When I decided to apply for a vanity call and ditch KF4TZK, I consulted my dear friend and wise Elmer/mentor, Mike (K8RAT).
He said:
Write down all available callsign options you’re considering, then practice sending them. You’ll know which one “feels” right.
He was spot on: K4SWL felt right, and since SWL (shortwave radio listening) is what started my radio journey, it was a no-brainer.
If you feel comfortable sending a callsign—if the rhythm and cadence feel right to you—then it’ll likely be easy to copy on the other end.
Final thoughts
Remember, this is a fun and creative process. Enjoy the journey of deciding on a new callsign!
In the end, very few “bad” calls are out there. It’s incredibly rare that I copy a call and think, “Wow—that’s a stinker!”
Even if your call sounds a bit awkward in CW—many do—rest assured, others won’t have difficulty copying you if your sending—your pace and spacing—is accurate.
What do you think?
Do you have any suggestions? Feel free to comment.
Interested in applying for a US vanity call? Check out this article from the ARRL.
Hi Thomas,
You are right when choosing a good “cw callsign” suffix.
I also have some thoughts about it.
Don’t take a combination like T+A (K?) or E+A… and so on.
These an other combinations can be misheard and be taken as one letter.
That’s my experience…
Mine is often misheard as: DL9USA (I would be a happy about but it’s already taken by an other guy).
73 Bernd • DL9UAS/K9UAS
Got my first vanity. It has a zero in it. Wish I hadn’t done that! W0DEL
Actually, a 0 is one of the easiest numbers for most to copy!
0 takes too much time in contests.
It’s only long for the other side if they operate 2BSIQ. Or if you send at 12WPM.
73, Martin PE1EEC/PE6X
Unfortunately, you are a bit too late with your advice for me 🙂
What do you do when you are stuck with the name you got from your parents, you want a vanity callsign with your initials in it, and more importantly, you got that call long before you realized that CW might actually not as bad as you thought back when the you learned from the horrible 5WPM ARRL cassette tapes (BTW: I still have a set in mint condition if anybody is interested 🙂 )?
Just learn to live with it! And realize that others might have a problem with your call, so listen carefully when they send your call back. Look for the common mistakes that people make (e.g. transposing letters, leaving off the final K and similar things). When you correct the missing K at the end, send your call followed by a very pronounced final “K” to make it obvious that your call ends on a K.
And most importantly, work the same people over and over again, they will eventually learn to recognize your call 🙂
de Karl Heinz – K5KHK
Great comment and advice, Karl.
Honestly? A POTA activator only needs to copy your call once; then, it always sticks out in a pileup. In a sense, it’s an ideal call for hunting POTA and SOTA stations!
Hi Karl,
Thomas is exactly correct. Your call is a difficult copy the first time, then it is impossible to miss! Don’t change a thing!
Best 73 de Brian – K3ES
I got my vanity call in 2003 (KK4Z). I always wanted a Z (Zed) in my call. This call works well both for voice and CW. Most people pick up the KK for a partial. The only issue I have is sometimes people are expecting a 2×2 or 2×3 call and not a 2×1. I guess I like it as I have had it for over 20 years. Previous calls were KC5RKS and KM5AV.
I upgraded to Extra over the summer and soon after got a new call: N3MT. Didn’t think about the fact that M and and T could easily be swapped if not sent correctly. Oh well!
I run into the same problem with mine, which I originally thought would be great for CW (and generally is pretty easy) — unfortunately, sometimes operators can hear the IE as an S, so I usually exaggerate the spacing between the I and E to try to help avoid that problem.
I still have my original (~40 yrs ago), KA8VLW. I like the rhythm and it rolls off the fingers well. Plus the “8” works well in something like “Ken always ate very little worms”. As for sending CW, I’ve wondered about that and tried several other numbers with the same letters, and of course, “5” is the shortest number but I’d lose the “ate”. So, I am going to stick with it. Maybe when I finally pass my Extra after failing the 20 wpm 4 times when code was required even though I passed the written part all 4 times. Now that I don’t have to do that, I seem to have lost interest in acquiring that extra 25 kHz at the bottom edges of the allocation. Maybe I’ll get busy on that soon, eh?
When I upgraded to extra last year I was like ‘Yes, I’m going to get a short call sign!’
But then I thought about it and realized that I am so used to keying and hearing my 2×3 that I would be in for another learning curve.
I figure that I will think about it later, once I am ‘fluent’ in CW.
Another, perhaps secondary, point of advice is to not end your call with the same letter that it starts with. In crowded and noisy band conditions it can be difficult to discern the beginning or end when the call is sent multiple times.
Other op: “w1aw w1aw” + qrm and/or qrn
Me: “was that w1aww? or maybe it’s ww1a?”
Of course, there are plenty of good reasons to ignore this point.
“Choosing Your Ideal Callsign” Plus a little callsign history, most “busted” letters and more.
Video- https://youtu.be/BmI9LGdt6aY
Slideshow- http://tiny.cc/idealcall.
I would suggest trying to have letters with two or three characters (e.g., A, N, D, G, etc.) and avoid E (too easy for a single dit to get lost). Also avoid letters with four characters, especially with lots of dashes, in the interest of speed (e.g., J, P, Z). Try to have letter combinations that create a rhythm of alternating dots and dashes (my “KR” works very well, for example). Remember that at higher speeds H and 5 can be confused. as can Z and 7 (probably more of an issue for DX callsigns). A big string of nothing but dits can be confounding to the listener.
A 2×1 or 1×2 is nice to have!
Don’t forget about other modes, though. On phone my KR8L is often repeated back to me as K8RL. For some reason the L is frequently misheard as a different letter, even using phonetics (no idea why).
I agree with avoiding K at the end. Back when US park numbers started with K I don’t know how many times I would send my park number as part of the exchange only to find that as soon as the other operator heard the K he stopped listening and started sending.
I go way back as an SWL and still tend to think of W calls as senior to K calls. When I got my first call sign (KA8GMJ) I was kind of disappointed. I still felt that way a little bit when I upgraded to KR8L, but it turns out that K just seems to “flow” better than W, and as I mentioned above, KR has a great rhythm.
———-
Funny story about the “L”: Many years ago I was running three watts on six meters with a three element yagi. There was a big pileup on a KH6 (I was in Michigan). There were so many stations calling that he (for some unknown reason) decided to ask for only stations with suffix beginning with L. OH, BOY! But there were still too many calling, so he asked for suffix second letter L. Still too many, so he asked for third letter L. So there I am calling “Kilo Romeo Eight Lima Lima Lima” and he comes back to me! Then I have to quickly explain that my call really isn’t KR8LLL. Somehow the info got across and to this day I have his QSL card in my “WAS QRP” collection. 🙂
Totally agree on avoiding the K at the end of the suffix. It can cause confusion & delay, however I agree that once a call is known and familiar it ceases to be a problem.
Although a shorter call has been tempting, I stick with my OG call. It is just too integrated into my identity.
Great topic on call signs. I live in Canada, and hold 2 calls. I wanted an “easy one” for others to copy.
I picked VE3IIM..simple and easy. It works well with my 10m beacon as well.
Great advice, Thomas.
My Advanced call was auto-assigned by the FCC, but it works well for me on SSB and I like the CW rhythm. And, my daughter has my call tattooed on her lower leg, so no temptation to ever change it!
73, Vic KB7GL
When I chose my contest call (we have no vanity here in Italy for your “main” callsign), I was operating only with a microphone or digitally. My thought process was: since it’s a contest call let’s pick up a multiplier in some contest I love, and I do love WPX. So a quick glance at the score and IB6 was for sure a multiplier. How about the letter… Mmmh, a nice one could be… B! D’oh! IB6B is bit confusing in the hustle and bustle of a contest run!
dit dit
Not quite like K, but close. But, Thomas always gets it right. 🙂
When I selected my vanity call I tried to find a call that had characters with only 2 or 3 elements. However, I didn’t think about the combination of characters and so ‘MA’ can easily become a ‘Q.’ I’ve just tried to intentionally create an ever-so-slightly longer pause between the M and A. I think it works and creates sort of an interesting rhythm.
73, Jared, N7MAW
Don’t pick one with double letters like GGx. You will have to repeat it several times on voice.
Once upon a time, I had WN5ENR. I learned very quickly to be careful with spacing…got called WN5RRK more than once.
Now I have K5ZC, and it works very well on CW.
I actually did this when I decided that I wanted a call sign that, in my own mind, would be better for CW operation. I scoured the available call signs and spent days trying them all out on my oscillator. Then I would say them phonetically to see how the sounded for SSB, VHF & UHF. The process took me a few weeks to determine the best one for me, but I found the one I wanted and love it.
I got lucky with my novice callsign, WN4SBE. The suffix flows nicely, however, BE is dah-dit-dit-dit dit, which translates to the ever-popular ‘knock knock’ and frequently gets answered with ‘dit dit’!
Nevertheless, when I upgraded to Advanced, in those days you got a ‘coordinated’ callsign, thus WB4SBE, which I held onto for 30+ years, until I finally upgraded to Extra.
In the meantime, I had migrated from Tennessee, to Kentucky, and then to Michigan, so I figured I should get an 8-land call. Thus, my vanity is now N8SBE, which maintains the original suffix. Also, SBE stands for ‘Side Band Engineer’, or ‘Society of Broadcast Engineers (of which I’ve never been a member), and also lends itself to lots of other interesting phonics. I had a doctor tell me on 20M one day that SBE is a throat infection, Subacute Bacterial Endocarditis!
The only real issue I’ve had is in phone contests, where for some strange reason stations copy my ‘sierra’ phonic as ‘kilo’, and thus they copy my callsign as N8KBE! What’s worse, it has shown up in the super-check partial database, so it looks like an active contest callsign. Sigh. I’ve take to using ‘sugar’ instead of ‘sierra’, but then I get Spanish-speaking operators ‘correcting’ me with repeating my callsign back to me with ‘sierra’.
Can’t win for losing, I guess.
I need to get back on the air with CW, I will say my call is pretty easy for me to send, it feels like it flows well. I feel like it stands out, not just on CW but voice as well.
My call is W1ASP
I agree with your comments Thomas. My novice call was WD5IES . My FCC general call was N5BPB. my extra call and the want I still have is KD5CQ. As you said it is what seems to work best for you.
Andrew
I got my call, N9EE, when in 9 land and had to get a call in your call area. Was part of FCC allowing Extras to apply. I am EE, but got for CW. At the time was shortest call on CW in 9th call area, now can get AE9E, but not A9EE. But I do find most dont send my call correctly and leave long spaces before each E. Also I often have to repeat it for guess too quick for some. If I got another call it would a 1×3 with prefix of W and 4 since I am in 4 land now. 2x1s or 1x2s are for newbies. They often got their Extra 3 weeks ago. 73, ron, n9ee
In Spain you can apply for some short calls to be used in certain contests (yearly) I’ve been applying for ED2A usually, but some years I applied for EG2A. My biggest mistake. Durind a whole year I’ve been copied as P2A. I turned again to ED2A and never changed.
Luckily I grabbed my “normal” call EA2CW in 1985!
73, Mikel EA2CW & AE2CW
Mine is a pain in cw at faster speeds. I have to slow way down quite often. KV8P is often copied as K4? . Take it from me that the second letter is important if you get a 2×1. 🙂
Thomas another great article. My original call sign is KO4PXH. When I started learning CW, I discovered it was a very long call sign to send. Two years later, when I received my General license I started looking for a better vanity call sign choice.
I had noticed that it was a popular trend for call signs to be based on an operator’s initials, so I could be K4ATG for example. Sadly that was not available and I wanted something short.
My middle name is also Thomas and growing up I was known as “T” in my family. The two shortest letters in CW are T and E and I discovered that the vanity call sign K3TEE was available. So KO4PXH became K3TEE.
One final CW note, my legal first name is Ashton, which also a lot to send in Morse code. So don’t be surprised, if I just send back ASH or TEE as an operator name.
ATG – K3TEE
I have already my CW vanity call sign: DL7CW 😉
My call is KC1NN. During contests it is hard to tell if they are calling me or are they giving a signal report. (5NN instead of 599)
I didn’t try that hard on my vanity and definitely didn’t get the win on the W1ME competition that day, but what I ended up with seems to work quite well. It was my second realistic pick on the vanity app from both a decent swing (each character begins with the same element type as the last element of the prior character) and a decent phonetic/morse length. Most of the copying trouble comes from me being a QRPer! Incidentally, it also comes in as low-bust characters on both sides of the contest analog modes. That’s coming from the somewhat painful sequential I was assigned after testing to /AE.
– Thomas / WN1C
I’ve had WN1E for 20 years now, just renewed it. Sometimes people miss the E when on CW, no biggie. It flows nicely too.
I like it, but when my dad passed away I had the chance to take his call KT1I. It went right down the the final month of the two year window, but I decided not to change.
The FCC issued my call in 1979 and I have kept it. I like it as it seems to flow nicely when sending but a lot of people have trouble copying it and I have a fair amount of question marks and
KB4VA’s. I believe it has to do with the number of decreasing dits as it is sent and being QRP probably not does not help.
Frank, KB4VU
I retired WB5OAU and replaced it with K5MO back when there was a “trick” to getting unused vanity calls, and never looked back. What a difference it made in CW Dxing!
I was considering W5IS at the same time and am so glad I got the K five dits and five dashes instead.
John
Which [suffix] letters would make an easy callsign to send [in CW] and copy in your experience?”
“AWJ” hands down, for me it is the best one.
Back in 1963/64, my first callsign was VE2AWJ.
One year and half, later, I passed my advance certificate, (the highest certificate in Canada) and I ask for a 2 letter call, which is VE2TH.
But, back then, when you change callsign for another one, you loose the other one. (the first you got)
Since the year 2000, it is no more the case. If you have a 3 letter callsign you keep it and you can buy a 2 letter call, you pay 60.00$ and your call is good for lifetime.
2024, I celebrate my 60th year as amateur radio operator.
And believe it or not, I checked the available callsign and
VE2AWJ, was available. So I ask for it anf got it.
This callsign flow nicely, and I never had to repeat , everybody understand it easily. CW OF PHONE no problems.-
It was my gift for the celebration of my 60 years as an amateur radio.
What a nice coincidence!!!!
Just for the fun I checked different callsign anywhere in QRZ, and there is not much, very few with the suffix AWJ.
But I checked those available in the vanity list,
https://www.radioqth.net/vanity/available
I found 7 with AWJ, as a suffix. = 1 X 3
And 41 with as = 2 X 3
I wish all, the best of Health, Happy Holiday Season and a prosperous and nice New Year.
Hope to meet you on the air on bands.
72/73 Mike VE2TH & VE2AWJ
The QRP’er for 60 years.-