okay so i just passed my general last month and upgraded from tech, and ive been thinking about applying for a vanity call. my current sequential call is kind of a mouthful and honestly i just want something shorter for when im doing HF work. 1x2 or 2x1 would be ideal but i know those are basically impossible to get without waiting forever.

anyway i went through the ULS system and looked at some of the available calls in my district and there are actually a few 1x3 calls sitting there that i kind of like. my question is — when you apply for a vanity do they actually process them in the order received, or is it more like a lottery if multiple people apply for the same call on the same day? i read something somewhere that said there was a 30 day window thing but i cant tell if thats still how it works or if that changed. the FCC docs are... not exactly light reading lol

also does it matter that i only have a general and not extra? like will they deprioritize my application or is it just first come first served regardless of license class

the 30 day filing window thing is definitely still how it works, at least last time i checked which was maybe a year ago so someone correct me if thats changed. basically if more than one person applies for the same call during that window they do a random selection — so its not strictly first come first served in the traditional sense. its more like everyone who files in that window gets thrown in a hat.

as for license class, it absolutely matters for certain calls. 1x2 and 2x1 calls are restricted to extra class, so you wont even be able to apply for those as a general. 1x3 and 2x2 calls are open to general and above i believe. so youre on the right track already looking at 1x3. just pick a few you like and check them on the AE7Q vanity HF page, that site is way easier to navigate than ULS and shows you application history and everything.

good luck, the process isnt too painful once you figure out the FCC form 605. just double check everything before you submit because mistakes can delay things quite a bit

yeah what he said about AE7Q, that site saved me so much headache when i was doing mine. i got my vanity call about two years ago and honestly the hardest part was just picking which one i wanted haha. i had like a list of 6 or 7 that i was okay with and ended up getting my second choice which was fine.

one thing i'll add — some calls look available in ULS but they're actually in a cooling off period after the previous holder let them expire or passed away, and theres a two year wait on those i think. AE7Q will usually flag that. so dont get too attached to any one specific call until you verify its actually open and not in that window