FARA is proud to announce that it has added a second club call to keep K1RK company. While K1RK belonged to a former member and forefather of FARA, K1AIR has very special significance to Cape Cod. K1AIR was once the call sign of the amateur station at the Otis Air Force base when it was a part of the Air Defense Command. The squadron based at Otis was part of the Air Early Warning Group. There was also a Fighter Interceptor Group, the 60th, based at Otis. This all started when Roger Mundy (K8AIR) contacted us and asked if FARA might like to take the call on as a club call. Roger was based at Otis with the Early Warning Group. He explained that the SAC veterans group, particularly the ET's from the group, had a vested interest in trying to get the remaining "AIR" calls picked up by clubs local to the bases that previously owned them, or by SAC or AF veterans. Many of the "AIR" calls have already been released to individuals with no particular connection to the bases that formerly held them

I contacted the FCC to see if they might possibly have anything that indicates how the "AIR" call assignments to SAC and ADC bases came about. The reply I got was interesting, in that it seems that nobody is aware of any written policy that might have existed back in the late 50's and early 60's. Anything in the way of special call signs was apparently handled "under the table" and at the discretion of whoever did the assignment at the time. There were obviously some "unwritten" policies concerning informal call sign reservations for various military branches and national organizations. Here's the email I got back from the FCC.

"Saul:

You got me on this one. What I can tell you based on discussions with staffers who proceeded me, was that there were a lot of informal and unwritten call sign assignment policies in the 50s and 60s and before. The AIR, USN, USA, BSA call signs are probably part of all that. Whether LeMay was involved, I have no idea.

All of those policies and undisclosed arrangements ended in March, 1978 when we went to the sequential call sign system. i can find nothing in that Public Notice that detailed that call sign system that sets aside those blocks of call signs for Air Force bases, Boy scouts etc. About the best I can suggest is researching using old call books and see if you can construct a pattern. I can tell you that we have in our database 68 call signs ending in AIR that are assigned today to individuals. Many of them are 2X3s that end in AIR that were generated sequentially.

At this time, any call sign available to the sequential call sign system that is not assigned but is assignable, can be assigned to a station under the vanity call sign system. this would include the ones you are inquiring about, as you have already found out.

Bill, [FCC]"

K0AIR did some research in old call books back in the early 60's and found these AIR calls assigned to Air Force installations and it certainly indicates that it was more than just a coincidence that AIR calls got assigned to Air Force bases:

* Courtesy of both Roger Mundy, K8AIR and Andy Guidry, N5GA, from early Call Books. Thanks to both Andy and Roger, we have the complete list of AF AIR calls plus the one CG call. As far as we know W2AIR is still a Coast Guard Training facility and we did work them in the 1999 and 2000 AF QSO parties, although I don't think W2AIR was worth extra points as an AIR call.

We had fun speculating on and collecting rumors about how the reservation of AIR calls for SAC/ADC might have come about, and certainly there were some notable figures in the Air Force or high Federal office with amateur licenses at the time, such as General Curt LeMay (K0GRL) and Senator Barry Goldwater (K7UGA). Since receiving a sort of definitive statement from the FCC on the subject, it's time to remove the speculation and move on. I know from experience that the FCC did in fact take liberties with the assignment of call signs in that era because my Dad and I obtained our licenses several years apart (I was first), and were assigned W3 call signs one letter apart in Pennsylvania and again in New Jersey when we moved in the mid 50's we received sequential K2 calls. I guess the FCC employee who assigned our calls was attuned to father and son teams (who knows). When I moved to Massachusetts back in the late 50's I know they were working on issuing sequential WA calls and I wound up with a reissued K1 call that was very close to my original call in New Jersey. My original Massachusetts ticket carried the letters R1 out in the margin of the license, which I presume meant reissued once. I know many transplants who just got the next sequential call in line from the block they were working on. By the time my son was licensed in the mid to late 70's they were working on WB calls and, I guess, there was no sympathetic FCC employee around when his call was issued because he simply got the next sequential call in the WB1 block. This sort of jives with Bill's statement about the end of unwritten "policies and undisclosed arrangements" in March of 1978.

In any case, K1AIR is now back on the Cape and it's fitting that the call now belongs to one of the oldest active radio clubs in Massachusetts. What will we do with the call? Well there are many possibilities for special operating events where use of the call would be very fitting. In the mean time, since many FARA members are ex-Air Force (and Air Corps as well), we're supplying pointers to several resources that you can feel free to explore. K0AIR now belongs to the SACMARC (SAC Memorial Amateur Radio Club). They have a home page maintained by Paul Schleck, K3FU. If you visit the SACMARC home page you'll find lots of interesting stuff there, especially if you're a military history or nostalgia buff.

We would like to acknowledge a special individual who was instrumental in setting us off on the quest for K1AIR. Roger Mundy, now K8AIR, was on the Cape this summer vacationing. He contacted Jim, WA1GPO and put the bug in his ear about the effort being made to try and get the remaining "AIR" calls in the hands of either Air Force club stations, Air Force veterans, or clubs in the vicinity of the airbase that once owned the calls. Jim reciprocated by putting the bug in my ear (W1SBD) and off we went.

Otis AFB was home to the 551^st Air Early Warning and Control Wing during the period of 1955 to 1969. They flew radar picket duty on the AF version of the Super Constellation out of Otis over the N. Atlantic. There was some interesting electronic hardware on board these planes, if you recall names like SAGE and the DEW line. I remember them all too well being a junior engineer at RCA at the time, since I burned many long hours doing hardware and software design work on the ground based systems for SAGE, DEW, and BMEWS. They used high speed digital RF links between the planes and the ground control centers. You can visit the home page for the 551^st AEW & CON WG and find lots of memoirs about Otis there too. It was also home to the 60th Fighter Interceptor Squadron during the latter part of the period. Other pages you can visit that are related to Otis activities are:

Pages on the Super Connie used at Otis: http://www.dean-boys.com/ec-121.htm

Air Force Interest and links to other Air Force sites of interest: http://www.dean-boys.com/

de Saul, K1BI

Updated: 02/13/2002

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