Yesterday, June 12, 2019, ARRL Western Washington Section member Christian, AK7VV, notified me of an issue with his Washington State Amateur Radio Service license plates. His vehicle registration was annotated as being a "MARS" license plate. Along with AK7VV's efforts and my email to Washington State Department of Licensing the issue has been acknowledged. If you have a call sign prefix starting with an A or N you may have your vehicle registration marked with "MARS." DOL will correct the error(s) as quickly as they can. Please be patient with DOL as they work through the problem to identify/implement a solution to correcting their data base. It is very important that our plates and documentation be accurately identified as Amateur Radio Operator. -------------------------------------------------------------------- ARRL Western Washington Section Section Manager: Monte L Simpson, AF7PQ af7pq@arrl.org
Washington State Amateur Radio License Plates
Where may I learn about the WA vehicle license program for amateur radio licensees?
Hello Doug,
Great Question! For Washington State, please refer to the following link:
https://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/spham.html
I hope this helps.
73,
Michael – KG7HQ
Glad DOL was responsive to the issue.
Getting HAM plates in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon is easy-peasy compared to Hawaii. I finally gave up dealing with Hawaii DMV and got vanity plates with my wife’s and my call on them.
Is it possible to get a COMBINED plate with Ham AND Disabled Person identifications?
Hello Rick,
The short answer is no. The plate types are classified to be for specific usages as I found out when I was trying to combine my Ham plate with a Navy plate.I then attempted to use the Navy plate as a vanity, but found that Washington state would not allow for the starting letters used in amateur radio to be used on any vanity. Now for my Yes answer….
I used a Navy plate and then prefixed it with the number 1 and space and then KG7HQ. This defeats the rule for using the ham callsign on a different vanity style. This will only work if your callsign is 5 characters or less… 1×3, 2×2, 1×2, or 2×1. I hope this helps you out at the DMV!
73 de Michael – KG7HQ