FIRST YEAR OF ISSUE AMATEUR RADIO (HAM) CALL SIGN AUTO LICENSE PLATES

by MIKE LUDKIEWICZ - W1DGJ - ALPCA #5340

(Complete story is below the photograph)

After completing an article about Amateur Radio Call sign auto license plates for the January 1995 issue of the American Radio Relay League’s official journal, QST, I felt it would be appropriate to put together a collection of first year of issue ham plates from all the 50 states. My intentions were to also document this information for posterity. This unique collection had been attempted by plate collectors in the past, but to my knowledge it has never been successfully completed. Not something for the Guinness Book, but I feel it is an important part of Amateur Radio history.

There were some problems associated with collecting first year of issue ham plates. Many states issued their first ham plates in small numbers, maybe due to the lack of communications and many states had a relatively small number of Amateur Radio operators licensed at the time. Not every ham chose to pay the extra fee for a special call sign plate and numerous states had strict restrictions on the use of their specially issued ham plates intended for emergency communications during the "Cold War" period. Some states required mobile radio installations while using the special ham plates. Several first year of issue ham plates are 45 years old and this makes the original owners over 65 years old. Most of them are now Silent Keys (deceased) and their old plates were often thrown out after their death. Besides, who saves their expired auto license plates?

I have to thank the many thoughtful hams who helped me with this unusual collection. Without their help it would not have been possible. A few plates were received from family members of Silent Keys, donating the plates to my collection in the deceased ham’s memory. I can sympathize with some who did not care to part with their first ham plate as being a ham myself I think I might feel the same way. I do not begrudge anyone for not caring to give up their first ham plate for my collection. I offered to pay a "reasonable price" to anyone who had a sentimental attachment to their vintage ham plate, but less than 5% wanted more than the shipping cost, that generally ran less than $2. Many wanted nothing in exchange and were delighted to add their plates to this prestigious collection, but I always reimbursed them for any expenses. Two hams asked $1000 for their ham plates and this gave me a very strong message.

One Old Timer in his nineties misunderstood my request and sent me his original 1951 FCC Amateur Radio license. He hoped it would fit my needs. I returned the ham ticket to him with my thanks for his interest in helping me along with a thorough explanation of what I was trying to collect. Two other Old Timers, also in their nineties, donated their first ham plates to my collection saying their plates would have a "better home" in my collection, rather than being discarded later. One ham sent me his first year plate along with 27 other plates representing the 27 following years he had ham plates issued on a yearly basis.

One first year of issue ham plate was sent to me by the widow of a Silent Key asking the plate be added to my collection in his memory. The only problem was the plate had been repainted in silver with his call sign in black paint. He had displayed his expired ham plate on a second vehicle and did not want to be stopped by the authorities for using an expired plate on his automobile. I tried a little lacquer thinner on the back of the plate and found it removed his paint without effecting the original paint underneath (most likely an enamel paint). Under his workmanship I found an excellent condition first year plate for my collection. Unfortunately I did not have the foresight to photograph his repaint job that protected the plate for many years.

Almost every plate in my collection has a very personal story connected with it. One plate came from a judge who asked me to excuse the poor paint job on his plate that was produced at the state's prison. I responded that he was the person responsible for the painter by incarcerating him in the prison that made the plate, and the painter could not he too smart for committing a crime to be placed there.

Another plate came from the XYL (eX Young Lady = wife) of a ham who was terminally ill. She wrote she did not normally read her husband's mail but found my letter "intriguing" She had recalled seeing the plate I had described among her husband’s "radio junk" just the previous week in the garage. She sent me one of his first year issue plates for my collection and said the matching plate of the pair she would have buried with her husband upon his death. I don' t consider myself to be an emotional person but this letter brought me close to tears as I regarded her husband as a "brother ham". He has recently passed away.

Most of the information about first year of issue ham plates was gained at the American Radio Relay League's library in Newington, CT. I searched QSTmagazines from 1937 thru 1973. I found information obtained from some hams not always reliable since time has a way of clouding memories. A few hams were extremely helpful by sending me copies of legislation authorizing plates in their state. In some cases I believe the passing of laws allowing the issuing of ham plates was not always directly followed by the immediate action of the motor vehicle authority in providing the plates. A good example is in Oklahoma where the ham call letter plate bill was signed into law in mid 1953 and the first ham plates were not made available until 1958.

I had heard stories of a ham plate being issued in Oklahoma during 1938. I did find there were a few confirmations of 1938 Oklahoma ham plates that were black on yellow (the same color scheme as the 1935 passenger plates) but the state/date was at the bottom of the plate and the state abbreviated to OKLA . My investigation was not able to confirm this as an "official" issue so I have to assume it was a booster type plate.

The first plates with ham call signs on them were issued in Michigan for 1939. The Great Lakes Amateur Radio Telephone Association of Detroit under the leadership of James Strang, W8NFR, proposed the special plates for hams . They petitioned the Secretary of State, Leon D. Case, to allow the request be granted under legislation that allowed a maximum of 3 letters and 3 numbers. It was more correctly a personalized or vanity type and 400 to 500 of these plates were issued to hams (ref. March 1939 QST). After the first year the officials felt the system not administratively workable and Michigan discontinued issuing them the following year. Michigan did not start issuing official ham plates until 1954. The next plate issued with a ham call sign on it was a 1950 Florida plate that is generally considered to be the first "true" ham plate. This was made possible through the efforts of Florida's State Senator Lloyd F. Boyle, W4IMJ (ref. January 1950 QST), and Eddie Collins, W4MS, a good friend of mine. I was not aware of Eddie's achievement until after his death. Mississippi followed Florida by issuing ham plates in November of 1950 that expired in October of 1951.

I consider the "key" plate in this collection to be the 1951 Nevada ham plate since there were only 182 hams licensed in Nevada during 1951 and only 30 of them are now listed in the 1997 Radio Amateur Call Book as still living in Nevada. Of the remaining 152 hams they are either Silent Keys (deceased), moved years ago to another FCC District and had to change their call signs, upgraded their class of license and requested a new call sign, or have given up Amateur Radio in past years. None of the current Nevada hams were able to help me with a 1951 Nevada ham plate. The only 1951 Nevada ham plates that were known in existence belonged to California plate collector (Rick Schofield, ALPCA #471) and to a Nevada ham who is the original owner. I located a California ham who had left Nevada in 1952. He eventually gave up Amateur Radio for 10 years and let his Amateur Radio license expire. After his retirement, he retook the FCC Amateur Radio exam and got back into ham radio with an entirely new call sign from California. Thanks to modern technology, I was able to locate him through a computer program that lists all the licensed Amateur Radio operators in the United States (QRZ!CD-ROM) . He felt his ham plate was better off in my collection rather than hanging on his garage wall where it had been for the past 44 years.

The last plate I was able to locate to complete this unique collection of ham plates was the 1950 Mississippi. There were 535 hams licensed in Mississippi at the end of 1950 and I was able to find 210 of them still licensed in Mississippi or in other states. Many acknowledged having had a 1950 Mississippi ham plate, but only one ham still had his original plate. Could it be that the 1950 Mississippi ham plate is the rarest in this unusual collection? I was very fortunate that WSPUI decided to donate his Mississippi ham plate so I could complete the collection.

I believe this collection of first year of issue ham plates from the 50 states and the District of Columbia may never be duplicated. The scarcity of some plates in this collection will further be enhanced with time as the original owners who held on to them for personal reasons are passing on, and their old expired plates are thrown out.

Amateur Radio call signs are very distinctive identifications. There are 715,462 Amateur Radio licensees in the United States listed in the 1997 Radio Amateur Call Book. There are 160 hams named John Smith and 149 named Robert Jones that are listed, but a ham's call sign is very unique as it is the only one like it in the entire world. There can never be 2 call signs that are identical.

Several states issued special ham plates as "add on" plates to be used with the vehicle's normal registration plate and they were generally displayed on the front of the vehicle with the regular plate displayed on the rear. These "unofficial" ham plates were issued as a compromise to the Amateur Radio operators who were trying to have their state issue ham plates. Both Arkansas in 1951 and Nebraska in 1952 issued undersized ham plates. Iowa in 1954 and North Carolina in 1955 issued full sized plates with the ham's call sign on them. After hurricane Hazel in 1954 North Carolina hams involved with emergency communications wanted a special ham plate as identification to access disaster areas not open to the general public. In 1955 they were issued undated silver plates with black letters similar to the police and other state vehicles. The hams were required to attach these plates over and covering the regular passenger plate. Theses special ham plates were replaced in 1956 with official ham plates similar in color scheme to the regular passenger plates. In light of this, it’s possible that the police did not like the idea of civilians using police type plates. Arkansas issued their official ham plates in 1954, Nebraska in 1956, followed by Iowa in 1960.

Two states, Massachusetts in 1965, and New Jersey in 1968, used windshield stickers to validate their plates. The Massachusetts plate bore an embossed 64 date while the New Jersey plate was undated on a 1959 base. The 1964 District of Columbia plate was and still is a vanity type. It was the only first year ham plate to use a sticker to validate the plate. It was also the largest validation sticker in the United States and measured 3/4 inch by 11 inches. Metal year tabs were used by 7 states: California for 1954, Connecticut for 1956, Delaware for 1953 (with a 1954 expiration), Hawaii for 1955, New York for 1963, Oregon for 1954, and Rhode Island for 1958. Seven states displayed the expiration date of the plates: Delaware had a 6-30-54 expiration, Maryland had 3-31-57, Mississippi had OCT 51, Missouri had JAN 53, Pennsylvania had 3-31-57, Wisconsin had JAN 53, and the District of Columbia had 3-31-65 on the large sticker.

Four states did not have their plates embossed. They included the 1952 Alaska, the 1951 Tennessee, the 1956 South Carolina's call sign only, while the 1953 Delaware used the same porcelain base introduced in 1942. Three states showed the outline of the state. They were the 1954 Kansas, the 1951 Tennessee, and the 1956 Pennsylvania, which had the state's outline embossed on the plate.

The 1957 Connecticut plate was the first ham plate to utilize a special ham related symbol, the spark, to individualize their ham plate. Many early wireless operators were nicknamed "Sparks". The following four states used used non ham related symbols. The 1952 Alaska used their Territory's flag, the 1953 New Mexico used the Zia Sun , the 1953 South Dakota used a graphic of Mt. . Rushmore, and the 1960 Wyoming used the bucking bronco and rider. The 1958 Montana had an embossed PRISON MADE to indicate it's manufacturer.

Six states used radio slogans on their first year ham plate. The 1951 Arkansas used AMATEUR RADIO, the 1957 Idaho used RADIO AMATEUR , the 1956 Illinois used AMATEUR RADIO, the 1973 Kentucky used AM. RADIO, the 1951 Tennessee used RADIO, and the 1954 Texas used AMATEUR RADIO OPR.

Both Alaska and Hawaii were Territories when they issued their first ham plates. Alaska's first ham plate issued as a state was in 1960 and Hawaii’s was an undated plate issued in 1961 that used a windshield sticker for validation. In 1973 Kentucky was the last of the 50 states to issue Amateur Radio call sign plates.

End