[Lf] FAA denies vanity call request

[David L. Wilson]

Note that an airport's identifier (called "code" in the article) used on its
NDB and other places is not the same as a call sign.   Federal owned NDB's
do not have callsigns assigned and as federal owned, the FCC has nothing to
do with them.  Privately owned (i.e., non-federal) NDB's are indeed assigned
callsigns by the FCC but are not used on the air and are different from the
NDB identifier which is used on the air.

The Sioux City, IA NDB is non-federal and its callsign is WRLB2722, though
the identifier is 'SUX'.  The FCC assigned carrier (which is transmitted)
frequency is 233 kHz and its cw identifier keys a 1020 Hz tone that appears
on both sidebands (appearing as 231.98 and 234.02 kHz).

As another example, consider Sioux Center airport.  Its NDB is WRLD3189 and
its FAA assigned frequency is 0.36851.  Its identifier is 'SOY'.  In this
case, it is one of the beacons that has a carrier frequency (which is
transmitted) of 368 kHz and only keys a 1020 Hz on the usb (appears as
369.02 kHz), thus the center frequency is 368.51 kHz.  Some NDB's transmit
only the usb while others transmit both.

--
David L. Wilson         dlwilson at erols.com
AC4IU      http://www.erols.com/dlwilson