Amateur radio, often called ham radio, is both a hobby and a service in which participants, called “hams”, use various types of radio communications equipment to communicate with each other. An estimated two million people throughout the world are regularly involved with amateur radio.
Special Call Signs
In many countries special call sign allocations may be made to commemorate a special event. These special event call signs usually have an unusual prefix so that the station using the call will be easily recognized.
In Malta we have very few Operators who have a Special Call sign. Recently a very good friend of mine was given a Special Call sign to commemorate the Pauline Year Second Millennium and His Call sign was 9H9PYSM. A Special Call sign 1A0A which belongs to the SMOM – Sovereign Military Order of Malta is one of the most sought after contacts.
As a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, I felt that the Lieutenancy of Malta too should have its own Call sign. When I received the Licence from the MCA, I started to call with the Call sign that was allocated to us – 9HOHSJ and in just 3 days I am proud to say that I have almost worked 500 Stations from all over the world. Many of them knew about the Knights of Malta, but not about our Order.
Till this present day I have worked more than 1500 Stations altogether. I would also like to add that general information about the Order could be found in QRZ.COM Amateur Radio Callsign database (http://www.qrz.com/db/9HOHSJ).
Chevalier James Borg, KHS