I watched a YouTube video of one ham discussing the history of his callsign, so I thought I would do mine, as I was unaware of previous holders of K2AS.
I obtained the call in 1997 after passing the Extra Class exam. It is a vanity call, as my old call of W2CRR could have been maintained.
I don’t have detailed history, but I believe I have found all previous owners. But I don’t know exactly what year they were issued, but just an idea after checking about 15 Callbooks from 1935 to 1994.
There were no K2 callsigns until sometime in the 1940s. I researched by finding old callbooks located at https://archive.org/details/dlarc
The first holder I found was Carroll E Leedy of Millington, NJ. That was in the 1948 Callbook. He was not in the 1958 Callbook, and no one had the callsign K2AS. So Carroll had it for something less than 15 years.
The next time I found K2AS, was in the 1970 Callbook (not assigned in 1969), and it was held by William C Harney of Convent Station, NJ.
In 1971 Callbook, the listing for K2AS and William Harney said “Now W2EDD”. Huh, what?? I have no idea why and extra class assigned call of K2AS would be replaced by a 1 X 3 within a year. I don’t believe there were vanity programs back then, so not sure why. W2EDD is in the same call district, so it isn’t that. Newer FCC data shows him in South Carolina as W3EDD as a vanity call in the 1990s, with K4UP as his previous call, so he did it again at some point.
1971 was the year I received my novice ticket as WN2CRR.
K2AS was spotted again in the 1982 Callbook, as the vanity program was now in place. It was acquired by Allan Eberle of Millington, NJ. In 1994 he was living in Silver Spring, MD. I acquired the call in 1997, so I would guess the license expired in 1995 or he became a SK. It was not assigned in 1977, so Allan probably had the call 15-17 years.
So it looks like I am the 4th holder of this call, and at this point, I have held it the longest.
It might be interesting to find out more about the previous holders, but it might take some more research.
I can’t remember if in those days you could request a new randomly assigned call or not. Possibly 1 x 2 calls were not available? 2 x 1 calls were not being issued at that time. Comment if you have any ideas why an extra license holder would go from a 1 x 2 to a 1 x 3 call and under what circumstances the FCC would allow it or reassign him a new call.
If you have a W or K 1 x 3 or 1 x 2 call, it might be interesting to see if your call has been issued before. Any of the newer callsigns like a N 1 x 3 or 1 x 2, or 2 x 2 starting with A, or any 2 x 3 starting with K (except KN2) are at most 40 some years old, and I don’t think the FCC has started reissuing any yet.
