G8LBT flies again, or is it nostalgia taken a step too far?

Those who have seen my QRZ.com entry will know that I have been planning to resurrect my old G8 call. This has now happened, the paperwork arriving today. So I am now the proud owner of TWO UK callsigns!

It's a wee bit curious why as to why this is permitted, and though I tell myself I am not one to covet another man's possessions, when I learned some while ago that some of my radio friends were in possession of both their old class B callsign and their more recent one, I felt I had to join this particular club.

I have had one or two arguments with folk who say they were told upon upgrading their licence when they achieved the Holy Grail of the 12 wpm morse test, or whatever, that they could NOT keep their old callsign.

However, the current regulations allow for (and this is quite clear from the text of the current Amateur Licence Application Form OF346) that a LAPSED licence (Class "A" or Class "B") previously issued to the applicant can be reissued upon production of certain documentary evidence that the applicant did at one time hold that callsign.

This latter condition wasn't too difficult for one such as myself who hardly ever throws anything away, and faded correspondence between myself and the then regulatory body (Home Office) was scanned and reprinted, catalogued with a covering explanatory letter and compiled into a dossier complete with OF346 filled in, and hey presto, two weeks later G8LBT was reborn!

I'm still not quite sure why I did it! Maybe it rolls off the morse key a little more nicely than my G4 one?