Until an upgrade to General class is shown in the FCC database, when must a Technician licensee identify with “AG” after their call sign?

When a Technician class licensee passes the General class exam, they are immediately granted General class operating privileges. However, it takes time for the FCC's Universal Licensing System (ULS) database to reflect this upgrade. During this interim period, if the newly upgraded operator wishes to transmit on frequencies exclusively allocated to the General class, they must append 'AG' (Authorized General) to their call sign. This signals to other operators and monitoring stations that they have legally upgraded, even if the public database still shows them as a Technician. It is important to note that this identifier is only required when using the newly acquired General class privileges. If they are operating on standard Technician frequencies, the special identifier is not necessary.