Call sign question

[SailingTerrapin]

I'm a total noob at this so please bear with me. I have an SSB radio on my boat that I don't really know how to use. The first thing I was told to do was get my operators permit and ship station license from the FCC, which I did. My stupid question is this: It seems like my call sign from my station license has more characters than others. Mine is WDH6960. In fact, when I try to set up RMS express, it tells me that "call signs longer than 6 characters cannot be used for packet conditions. What am I missing here? Am I using the wrong call sign? Thanks -- Phil

[Dsanduril]

Welcome to the world of radio. What you have is a proper marine station license/call sign. It's the right number of characters, etc.

If you are trying to set up RMS Express to use Winlink, however, it is looking for an amateur (ham) radio call sign, which is a whole different beast.

You can (let debate begin) use the same SSB radio in marine and ham service, but you will need separate licenses and call signs for the two separate services.

Edit - For SSB e-mail your marine call sign would generally be used with Sailmail or one of the other similar services.

[SailingTerrapin]

Thanks. I was under the impression that RMS express would work for both SSB and Ham. Guess not!