Moving out of area

[KL2NW]

I know this has been covered before (probably multiple times), but I have received conflicting information and would like to clarify. I was licensed while living in Alaska, so my call sign is KL2NW. I have now moved to Washington State, where call signs start with W7. Do I need to say "CQ CQ CQ this is W7 Slash KL2NW"? What are the rules for this exactly? Where on the FCC or ARRL or some other rule listing website can I find this? Thanks in advance for the help.

[N0IU]

Just update your new address with the FCC and you are good to go. Adding the "W7" before your callsign generally indicates that you are operating portable.

There are plenty of Alaskans who have moved to the lower 48 who have not changed their callsign. The only "problem" is people being upset over finding out that they have not reached a station in Alaska!

[N3QE]

The FCC no longer requires the /W7.

There are several active ex-Hawaiians and ex-Alaskans who regularly are on the bands operating from east coast using KH6 and KL7 calls without any portable-like suffix or prefix.

In some specific radio contests, it is required that you add the slash-DXCC-consistent-prefix or suffix as if you were portable. This is not a FCC requirement though, just a requirement of the contest organizers. Look at e.g. CQ WPX rules VIII(a).

The FCC rule that allows (but does not require) you to sign portable, is this:

47CFR97.119(c): One or more indicators may be included with the call sign. Each indicator must be separated from the call sign by the slant mark (/) or  by any suitable word that denotes the slant mark. If an indicator is self-assigned, it must be included before, after, or both before and after, the call sign. No self-assigned indicator may conflict with any other indicator specified by the FCC Rules or with any prefix assigned to another country.

[W3HF]

As others have said, the only thing required is that you notify the FCC of your new mailing address. And operation as either W7/KL2NW or KL2NW/W7 is a personal preference (unless required by an operating event like a contest), both in terms of whether it means portable/mobile or just that you're not in Alaska any more. You'll see stations operated with and without, portable/mobile and fixed. I'd personally recommend making your own decision and then sticking with it. Don't ask for a consensus opinion from the crowds because you won't get it.

As for where on the FCC site, it's a little tricky--they don't explicitly say it quite this way. Under (Amateur) Sequential Call Sign System it says:

- "Each new sequentially assigned call sign is sequentially selected from the alphabetized regional-group list for the licensee's operator class and mailing address."
- "The station is reassigned its same call sign upon renewal or modification of its license..."

The second one is the "rule" that says that your callsign doesn't change when you change your address, even if your callsign was originally assigned to an Alaskan address (unless you accidentally check the "assign new sequential callsign" box!)

[KL2NW]

Thank you all for the clarification. I think I'll just keep it simple. I already notified the FCC of the address change, so that's done.