Artifacts

So, now that I have passed my Element 3 exam for Amateur Radio General Class, when I operate on bands that are reserved for General Class hams, I am supposed to give my call sign as "XX#XXX Temporary General" (or "/AG" if using CW, which I don't) where "XX#XXX" stands in anonymously for my FCC-assigned call sign, until I receive my actual card and certificate in the mail from the FCC.

One question my fellow students in my class asked "So, do I get a new call?  How do people know I'm  a General after I receive my certificate from the FCC and I drop the 'Temp General'?"

Now, once upon a time you took your amateur radio license exams from the FCC itself.  You might have to travel to the Big City to do it, according to their schedule.  First came Element 1, which was CW, or Morse Code to non-hams.  Element 2, Novice; Element 3; Technician; Element 4, General; Element 5, Advanced; and Element 6, Amateur Extra. I may have gotten some of these license classes wrong, they changed them some time ago, and even the "Elmers" have to stop and think about how it was set up...

Each license class had it's own distinctive call sign format: You could tell what level of license a person had by his or her call.  Plus, the government gave the licensing exams, and you had to wait for what was not yet called "snail mail" to get confirmation that your license upgrade had taken effect, so you might be using that "Temporary General" or "/AG" suffix for weeks or months.

Nowadays, there are only three elements, 2 though 4, Technician through Amateur Extra.  (Why they didn't drop "Element 1" when they stopped requiring and testing for CW I don't know.)  The exams are given by Volunteer Examiners, certified by a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator, the largest of which is the ARRL.  You get a call sign and it is yours until either it expires you let it expire or you decide to get a "Vanity" call.  (Which is itself a fairly new innovation.)

But... The FCC also now maintains a Universal Licensing System database online, which you can use to search for calls signs, by call sign or by operator name.  So, the short answer to "How does someone know if I'm a General" is, they look you up.  Don't give them any reason to look you up, and you might get away with operating out of your allotted frequency band--but, frankly, I doubt you'd get away with it for long.  The hardest part of Amateur radio for me, worse than the math or circuitry, is the fact that hams are so damned gregarious.  Don't want to leave a curmudgeon alone...