ok so i passed my general last month and got my sequential call which is fine but ive been reading about vanity calls and now im kind of down a rabbit hole and confused. from what i can tell you apply through the FCC ULS system and pick from available calls but the part i dont understand is whether theres like a waiting period after you get your sequential call before you can apply for a vanity. some posts i found said 18 days, some said something different. also do you have to pay the $35 application fee for a vanity on top of the original license fee or is that separate. my sequential call isnt bad or anything i just always wanted a short 2x1 or 1x2 if i could get one. im in the 7th district if that matters for call availability.

also side question — if i apply for a vanity and dont get the one i want does the application fee still get charged or only if you actually get the call. sorry if this has been asked a million times i did search but got conflicting answers

so the waiting period thing — you're thinking of the old system. there used to be a 60 day wait after initial license grant before you could file for a vanity but that went away a while back. now you can apply for a vanity pretty much as soon as your license shows up in the ULS and is in Active status. the $35 fee is separate from whatever you paid for the original license yeah, each application is its own thing with the FCC. as for not getting your first choice — yeah the fee applies regardless of outcome because you're paying for the application not the specific call. so if you apply for something that's already taken or gets snatched up in the same filing window you still paid for the attempt. the way the vanity system works there's actually a 30 day filing window and if multiple people apply for the same call in that window it goes to a tiebreaker based on relationship to the previous holder first, then just random selection i think. 1x2 calls in the 7 district are pretty competitive but not impossible, worth checking ae7q.com for availability searches, way better than trying to dig through ULS directly.

went through this exact thing like 8 months ago. ae7q dot com is your best friend seriously, just go there first before anything else. i spent way too long on ULS trying to figure out whats available when that site just shows you everything in a much more usable way. i ended up getting my vanity on the first try which i was surprised about, applied the day my license went active. the 7th district has a ton of calls if you're flexible about the letter combo you want