okay so i upgraded to General a few weeks ago and got assigned one of those sequential calls that's like 7 characters long and kind of awkward to say on air. nothing against it, it works fine, but ive been reading about vanity calls and im honestly pretty confused about how the whole thing works.

from what i can gather you go to the FCC ULS, file a 605 form, pick the calls you want, and then wait 18 days or something? but i keep seeing people say its a lottery and other people saying no its first come first served and i genuinely dont know which is right. like is there actually a period where everyone who applies in the first couple days is treated equally, or does it literally depend on who clicks submit at the exact right moment

also does it cost anything now? i thought i read they started charging fees but im not sure if that applies to vanity or just new licenses. sorry if this is a super basic question, im still figuring out all the FCC stuff

not a dumb question at all, it tripped me up too when i went through it. so the way it works is there's a 30 day filing window — actually wait, i think they changed it, it might be shorter now, someone correct me if im wrong — anyway within that window everyone who applies for the same call is treated equally, its not first come first served within that period. after the window closes if theres only one applicant they just get it. if theres multiple applicants it goes to a tiebreaker based on license class and a few other things, and yeah if its still tied after all that then it does come down to a random selection, so kinda lottery-ish at the end but not purely random from the start.

and yes the FCC does charge fees now, i want to say its $35 for a vanity application but double check that on their site because it changed a while back and i dont want to steer you wrong. the ULS system is a bit clunky but once you figure out where everything is its manageable. good luck, hope you snag a good one

went through this exact process last year. one thing i'd add — spend some time on RadioQTH.com before you apply, it lets you search available calls by district and filter by length and format. saved me a lot of time vs trying to guess what might be available through the FCC system directly. some of the 2x3 calls in less popular districts are still out there if you're not too picky about the suffix.