So I upgraded to General about three weeks ago and got my sequential callsign assigned, which is fine but its kind of a mouthful and honestly just not very memorable on the air. I started looking into the vanity call process and I think I understand the basics but there are a few things that are tripping me up.

From what I can tell you submit through the ULS on the FCC site, pick your preferred callsign from whichever pool you're eligible for, and then there's like a filing window where other people can also apply for the same call. After the window closes if nobody else applied you just get it, but if multiple people applied it goes to whoever has some kind of preference based on license class or whether you held the call before or something like that. Is that right? I feel like I read like five different explanations and they all contradicted each other a little bit.

Also I read somewhere that 1x2 and 2x1 calls are only available to Extra class, is that still the case? I'm General so I'd be looking at a 1x3 or 2x2 format I guess. Just want to make sure I'm not wasting my time applying for something I'm not even eligible for. Been using AE7 lookup tools trying to find something decent thats not already taken but the pickings are slim in my district.

Yeah you pretty much have it right. The filing window is 18 days and during that time anyone can throw in an application for the same call. When the window closes the FCC processes them and if theres only one applicant, boom, you get it. If there are multiple applicants it goes by preference — previous holder of that exact call gets first priority, then it goes by license class with Extra at the top. As a General you can still win a contested application if nobody with higher preference applied, which happens more than you'd think for less popular calls.

And yes, 1x2 and 2x1 formats are Extra only. For General you're looking at 2x2 or 1x3 like you said. Honestly some of the 2x2 calls are really clean sounding, dont sleep on them. W6XX type formats can sound great on CW especially. The ae7lookup site or the callsign search on radioreference are good for checking availability. Just be patient with the FCC processing side — sometimes it moves fast, sometimes it feels like the application fell into a black hole for a few days before anything updates in the ULS.

went through this exact process last year, took me like two tries to get something i actually wanted. first call i applied for someone else had also applied and they were an Extra so i lost out. second try i picked something a little less obvious i guess and it went through no problem after the window. the 18 days of waiting is kind of agonizing when you're excited about it lol but thats just how it goes. good luck finding something good in your district