The history of Amateur Radio has been long documented with the changes varying from a slight rule change to a major restructuring. However, not many people have looked into the history of the call sign that is either randomly selected for them or which they applied for through a vanity license.

This story starts out with a 15 year old kid studying for the technicians test. Me. My father is a ham, N5ABO, and was the person that first introduced me to the hobby. I was 15 the first time I ever listened to a long distance transmission between my father and a man across the State of New Mexico. This was also during a decent period of solar activity with a good amount of propagation, which made the experience even better.

So I started studying for the tech test when I moved to Roswell NM. I was a sophomore in high school at Robert H Goddard HS. Neat school with the rocket out front and the second floor being underground but that’s another story. My father and I had been driving back and forth between Roswell and Farmington so frequently, it was common for us to just hop in the truck and drive across the state. We met up with a few Hams here and there but there was one that always stuck out. Julian, AE6OE, was an old Ham from California. He is the person that really got me wanting to figure out how things worked. The best example I can give is we were all sitting around talking about whatever it was we talked about back then. He’s sitting there just rewiring a microphone in the middle of conversation like he’s making a sandwich or something. It blew my 15 year old mind.

So I have started studying and due to some circumstances I was forced to move back to Austin, TX in December. I continued to study for the tech test. 2 months later, I walked into a college classroom on the St. Edwards university campus (still a sophomore in HS) and take the technician test. 02/24/2004 at the age of 15 I made it. KE5ALC was me. I could so what was I to do now, should I immediately start finding a radio and start transmitting like crazy, start studying for the general test and get lost in Morse code. Nope I sat on it doing a bit of transmitting here and there, largely letting the license collect dust. I would tell people if it came up but I was still a kid. I didn’t know the world that I had opened up for myself at the time. During the writing of this piece, I discovered I was among the ranks of many great and famous people.

So fast forward it is 2018 (it is a long gap, I know), I am working for a restaurant in Austin. I still have my technicians license and have decided I have had enough of the restaurant industry so I look into changing careers. I find a job as an SMT operator at a local Contract Manufacturing company in Austin. This starts the events in motion for me to go ahead and start studying again and upgrade my license. I start to learn about circuits and how they are built. I learn even more about components and what they do and how they interact with each other.

I must say, before working in contract manufacturing, even with the technicians license, I didn't pursue near enough knowledge to really understand anything that was studied to get my license. I was basically a clean slate, a new mind for molding. I ended up being forced into a new job in the same field. Better everything as far as the job was concerned, so I decided it was time to upgrade to General. I met up with the VE’s at the downtown Austin location of Cirrus Logic and took my general and passed but missed the extra test my one question. I hadn't had sufficient time to study for let alone understand. Even so, I didn't want to pass the extra test without studying. I would have felt like I cheated by just guessing half the test.

So I have a newly issued general license and new privileges to utilize but until I can get the proper equipment, I cant operate on HF. So UHF and VHF is where I’ve been. I had always wanted an N or a W call sign as I was never really fond of the K prefix. So I start searching for a new call sign for my new era of operating and I came across a few that I liked but none that really stood out to me so I continue my search. I talk it over with my father, who is also looking to get himself a new call sign also, at which point he tells me he always liked the suffix ALC for me so I decided to start searching for available call signs in my district that ended with ALC a couple of the ones I found were less than ideal.

Then I come across W5ALC. I like the sound of the ITU Phonetics Whiskey Five Alpha Lima Charlie. It rolls smoothly off the tongue so I decide this is going to be my choice. I notice the call signs former operator was also from Austin which is cool but at the time I didn't have a radio to ask anyone about him. so I went ahead and applied for the call sign W5ALC, Once the update went through and It was official that was my new call sign I start to get curious and start to search for information regarding the previous owner(s) of my new call sign. The Universal License System showed his name was Billy Millis of Austin TX. Unfortunately he had passed away a few years before. So off to Google I go, to search for the previous operator and anything I could find about him. Little did I know, I just acquired the call sign of an amazing man. I first found out he was a pilot in the Air Force. I soon found out this was only a tiny sliver into the life of this amazing man. The following is an excerpt from the words published about his life in the Austin-American Statesman

“He joined the Army Air Corp on February 1, 1941. He was sent to weather observers' school and then flight school. Upon graduation on 9 October 1942 (Class 42-I), he began a beloved career as a military pilot. He was proud of his 9000 air hours and the planes he flew- BT-13 Vultee, Fairchild PT-19, BT-14, AT-6, BC -1, AT-17, AT -9, B-25, B-17, B-29, C-47, DC-3, C-97, C-124, C-54, C-118,C-124, TY-39. While stationed at Altus Air Base, OK as a flight instructor he met and married Bette Jo White. After their June 18, 1944 wedding day, the couple quickly moved regularly throughout his 30+year military career.

In the Admiralty Islands, he had an amateur radio license and the call sign KG6AV/VK9 - rare because it was an Australian/American call sign. At that same time, he perfected air to ground communications in military aircraft.

As a MATS pilot, he flew the Berlin airlift, in and out of Korea and Vietnam and all over the world fixing telecommunications problems. He frequently attributes his success and happiness in the military to his wife, Bette, who took it all in stride and looked at every move and every TDY as an adventure.

Some of his favorite assignments were Air Attaché to the US Ambassador (MAAG) in Tokyo (1959-64). He attended Japanese language school at Yale for a year before the assignment and maintained a lifelong fluency in Japanese - speaking, reading and writing. The family embraced and loved Japan. Lifelong friendships were made with the following people: Tome Kojima, who lived with the family, Tutor Sugime, a cousin of Emperor Hirohito of Japan, Minou Genda, the designer of the raid on Pearl Harbor and leader of the Japanese Air Force, and Edwin O Ramsey, an American guerrilla fighter who organized 50 thousand Filipinos to overthrow the Japanese army and allowed General McArthur to retake the Philippines.

After Japan, he was given the command that the Col. Millis loved the most. He was assigned CO of the 5th Mobile Communication Command (now the 5th Mobile Combat Unit - 5th MOB) in Warner Robbins, GA. That unit continues to provide outstanding combat communications support to the Air Force. In 2014, Col. Millis was honored by the command at a reunion in Georgia.

After another overseas assignment, the family retired from Bergstrom (12th Air Force), Austin, TX where they made their home for 45 years. Billy then worked for the State of Texas, implementing TEXAN and TELPAC telecommunications networks throughout the state.”

After reading this I begin to think I have made a huge tactical error by choosing the call sign of a man with this much History and knowledge behind him. He was the commander of Mobile Communications for the Air Force. He worked for the State of Texas implementing communications networks. The feelings of inadequacy with my own qualifications or lack thereof side by side with Col. Millis are a constant reminder that I should utilize every chance I can to learn more about the hobby we all enjoy day after day.In addition to many other people, the contributions of these people and the millions of other licensed Hams make the hobby what it is today.

Upon learning of the distinguished career of Col. Millis I decided to delve further into the Life of my call sign to find out if Col. Millis was the first to be assigned W5ALC. Well, as it turns out he was not the first to have the call sign nor was he the second. He was indeed the not the first person to identify their transmissions over the airwaves under the W5ALC call sign.

The earliest I was able to find an issuance of the W5ALC call sign was in the 1928 Amateur radio Call book to a man named Maurice Artzt of 2025 ½ Main St in Dallas, Texas. At the time Mr Artzt was running 7.5 watts. It seems that this was the first year they started issuing the W prefix. I looked into the 1927 call book and found Mr Artzt under “5ALC” which prompted me to take my search back even further. We are carrying around little computers in our pockets that have exponentially more computing power than was required to put a man on the moon and the first person to be assigned this call sign is running 7.5 watts. It’s incredibly fascinating. This is the same year the United States was plunged into the Great Depression. For more information on the evolution of the Ham call sign visit this eHam article, written by Mike Ritz (W7VO)

The very first iteration of the W5ALC call sign, 5ALC, was actually issued in 1923 to a man named Hamlin K McWilliams of 305 S Madera St in Eastland, Texas; which is 96 miles (154 km) west-southwest of Fort Worth and 55 miles (89 km) east of Abilene. Hamlin McWilliams was the first baby born in the little town of Hamlin, Texas. He was elected Chief Instructor of the Eastland Oil Belt Radio Club in Mid 1921. He graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in Medicine. He went on to join the US Navy. During a long and distinguished career, he served in the Korean War and Vietnam and eventually rose to the rank of Commander. Mr McWilliams held this call sign apparently only for the year of 1923.

The next years call book, 1924, lists Davis Elliot of 618 Las Cruces Avenue in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He used the call sign 5ALC from 1924-1925 running 5 watts from his home. Not much could be found about Mr Elliot but his memory lives on through the life of this call sign. Bear in mind this is still when a lot of folks hadn't even seen many cars, never seen a plane but they were able to figure out they could put some weird pieces of metal and wire together and talk to other people near and far. Wireless communications have been around for a very long time. Wired communications even longer.

After 1925, the call sign was then issued to Maurice Artzt of whom we learned about previously. Upon further investigation of Mr Artzt, I uncovered that he was an inventor of many circuits and patents; applied for while working for Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Here are some of the Patents that were filed that he designed. He held 5ALC from 1926 to 1927 and through the transition to a W5 prefix in 1928.

With 1929 came yet another W5ALC Ham. The 1929 Amateur radio call book has the call sign registered to John C. Gabourel of 2320 Thirteenth street in Port Arthur Texas. So in less than 10 years we have already seen the iterations of this call sign change hands 4 times. Mr Gabourel held the call from 1929 through at least 1935. The 1936 call book has no entry for W5ALC. Mr Gabourel held the call for a strong 6 year before the call being lost to the system from 1935 through 1951.

During this time we saw World War 2, another devastating war that ravaged many countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. During World War 2, All amateur activity was officially suspended January 9th 1942 for the remainder of the war. The big difference here though, was that the FCC continued to issue and were allowed to renew amateur radio operator licenses. After all, that gave the government a ready pool of trained and certified radio operators and technicians for the war effort. There were no station licenses issued, and existing ones were considered revoked. Once again hams were forced to silence their stations but at least this time, unlike the previous war, receivers were still allowed to be used.

It was not until 1951, well after the war ended and our country was in the healing stages, when the call was assigned to Theodore Van Pelt of 1012 C Avenue in Lawton Oklahoma. The sudden re-emergence of the call sign has brought back to life the former operators the call sign has been used to identify. He held the license until sometime between 1953 and 1954. again with not much else to go on besides a couple call sign books, there is little information into the life of Mr Van Pelt.

It was at this point in the history of this call sign during the spring of 1954, Billy J Millis of 527 Williamsburg Place in San Antonio Texas was granted W5ALC. Which it seems he only held until 1957 as the 1958 call book is once again lacking an entry for W5ALC. It is not until 1960 we get another entry for the aforementioned call sign. During the year of 1960, we see that Clarence A Lyles of 5512 Mimosa Drive in Jackson Mississippi has now been assigned W5ALC. Mr Lyles held W5ALC from 1960 through 1963 and in 1964 we see another gap in the history of the call sign.

This gap continued until 1975 when Col. Millis, again, acquired W5ALC as his call sign. This is an amazing fact. He held this call sign for an amazing 41 years from 1975 until he recently passed away in 2016 . Upon learning this fact and the long line of names that came before me, I came to the conclusion I must do everything I can to learn and teach the things I’ve learned. I will learn to further not only my skills and techniques in the field of radio communications but also all the people that I meet and speak with in the amateur radio community. As the 8 Individual operators to hold this license, its hard to believe the things that the men before me have done to be able to talk to other around the corner or around the world.

W5ALC Call Sign Operators