|
Call signs in the United States employed to be very easy for one Ham Operator to tell
which area in the US the Ham they were talking to was from! A 6 call was from
California or numerous state near, or a 0 call was New York or a state near New York,
they did not even need to look at the call map! Today a Amateur Radio Operator
can move from North Carolina where it is a 4 call to Texas where it is a 5 call and
keep their 4 call.
Call signs (in the United States) consist of one or two letters, a number, and one
to three more letters. The firstborn share of the call sign referred what country they are
from, with the US being A, AA – AK K, KA – KK, KM – KW, KX – KZ, N, NA – NK,
NM – NW, NM – NW, NX – NZ, WA – WK, WM – WO, WQ – WW, and WX – WZ.
Also in the US, AA – AK was issued only to Amateur Extras.
Each country has been assigned a country identification by a governing body.
This group is made up from representatives from all over the world and is
not only concerned with ham communication but all communication. I am not
going to get into the designations for the countries. There are various charts
available that shows the dissimilar designations and the country it relates to.
The number in the Call Sign tells what portion of the US they reside in.
0 (zero) told they reside in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota.
1 in the call sign Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, Vermont.
2 is New Jersey, New York.
3 is Delaware, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania.
4 is Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Virginia.
5 is Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas.
6 is California.
7 is Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Wyoming.
8 is Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia.
9 is Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin.
Hawaii and Alaska have a little dissimilar scheme in their call sign.
AL0-7, KL0-7, NL0-7, WL0-7 is Alaska.
AH6-7, KH6-7, NH6-7, WH6-7 is Hawaii.
The initial part of the call sign told what country the Ham Call was from and the
number told what area, the last one to three letters of the call sign is never issued
to another Ham in a call sign that has the same primary letters and area number.
This makes a call sign only one of a kind in the world.
A valid call sign could consist of 1 letter, a number, and 1 more letter. In Alaska
or Hawaii a valid call could be two letters, a number, and one letter!
As was said before, it WAS very easy to tell with regards to the Amateur Operator you are
talking to! Now there also is a call sign we call a Vanity Call here is the US.
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) permit hams to utilise for a call
that means something to them. If your Dad, Aunt, or somebody you knew had a
call sign at one time that you wanted, you could request that call sign (for a little
fee) as long as no else had that sign. If your name was Joe, you could have those
letters for your last three in your call sign (if no one else had them with the rest of
the letters and number) underneath the Vanity Call system.
When applying for vacant Vanity call signs that may be available to you,
you have to be conscious that it depends on your license class. Extra class
licensees may pretty much choose any vacant US call sign. Advanced class
licensees can not seek the 1×2, 2×1 or 2×2 starting with letter “A” as they
are Extra class type call signs. What that means is that you cannot seek a
call sign that is above your current license authority, but may take a call
sign that is equivalent to or underneath the authority that you presently have!
As of April 2000, there was no longer a morse code requisite for any
of the Amateur Radio Operators tests, and there is only three levels
(Technician, General, and Extra Class) of licensing.
Examinations after that date will only be given for Technician, General and
Extra Class. Hams licensed under the categories that are no longer will be
“grandfathered” so that they may operate as long as the old license remains
in effect. This could be someplace around 10 years as that is the length of
a license.
So for the duration of that time or perhaps never at all may you ever tell anything about
the Ham operator that you or another Ham is talking to other than what
country they are from! Guess the best thing is to ask them where they are located!
104 Radio Projects Novice Technician Pic
104 Radio Projects Novice Technician Image
104 Radio Projects Novice Technician Pic
104 Radio Projects Novice Technician Pic
|