[BC] First Phone Licenses

[brew@theMode.com]

Bob.....

> I doubt they even offer replacements, and I wouldn't want to begin going
> thru the beaurocratic nightmare of finding out, but if someone happens
> to just know if replacements are avialable I'd love to get one.

By co-incidence I just today got my replacement GROL in the mail.

I had a First Phone since 1970, receiving the Lifetime General in 1985.
I kept all my 3rd, 2nd, and expired Firsts in the frame behind my Lifetime
General.  I'd been in Radio and TV RF most of my life until 1995 when I
left the WCBS-TV transmitter to work in CBS-TV Master Control maintenance
in NYC.  I left my license posted (with the frame full of expired
licenses) at the WCBS-TV transmitter on the 110th floor of the WTC so I'd
always know where they were if I needed them.

Well, that didn't work out when the building came down and they went lost.

Lately it occurred to me that I should replace the GROL, even though it's
not required it would be nice to have some 'proof' that I once had a First
Phone.

I searched under my last name on the FCC website, going through about ten
pages until I found the record, with the number.

Then I had to associate my FRN (FCC Registration Number, I think) with it.
I already had an FRN associated with my ham license, I just had to get a
password.  I called the number for TIN help and they gave me a password,
then I logged in under my FRN number.  I could have gotten another FRN
online, but why have two separate FRNs for the two licenses?  My ham
license was listed already and I associated my GROL with the FRN, too,
using the license number which I'd found and then that showed up on my
list of licenses, too.

Then I simply requested a duplicate license.  There was no charge.

It showed up in the mail today.  It's on off white paper, looks exactly
like my Ham license, I think, except it says General Radiotelephone
Operator's License across the top.

And luckily, the date when the license was issued still shows as 1985.

brew

Bruce Schiller CBS-TV, NYC and WA2ZST