Call Sign - From Wikipedia
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters, or abbreviated as a call) is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations. A call sign can be formally assigned by a government agency, informally adopted by individuals or organizations, or even cryptographically encoded to disguise a station's identity.
The use of call signs as unique identifiers dates to the landline railroad telegraph system. Because there was only one telegraph line linking all railroad stations, there needed to be a way to address each one when sending a telegram. In order to save time, two letter identifiers were adopted for this purpose. This pattern continued in radiotelegraph operation; radio companies initially assigned two-letter identifiers to coastal stations and stations aboard ships at sea. These were not globally unique, so a one-letter company identifier (for instance, 'M' and two letters as a Marconi Station) was later added. By 1912, the need to quickly identify stations operated by multiple companies in multiple nations required an international standard; an ITU prefix would be used to identify a country, and the rest of the call sign an individual station in that country.
nternational call signs are formal, semi-permanent, and issued by a nation's telecommunications agency. They are used for amateur, broadcast, commercial, maritime and sometimes military radio use (including television in some countries).
Each country has a set of alphabetic or numeric International Telecommunication Union-designated prefixes with which their call signs must begin. For example:
- Australia uses AX, VH–VN and VZ.
- Canada uses CF–CK, CY–CZ, VA–VG, VO (Newfoundland), VX–VY, and XJ–XO.
- China uses BAA–BZZ, XSA–XSZ, 3HA–3UZ, VR (Hong Kong), XX (Macao).
- India uses VU [Add your callsign to our QRZ Callsign Lookup Server at QRZ.VU2.IN]
- Japan uses JA–JS, 7J–7N, and 8J–8N.
- Mexico uses XA–XI, 4A–4C, and 6D–6J.
- Russia uses R and UA–UI.
- Sweden uses SA–SM and 7S, 8S
- The United Kingdom uses G, M, VS, ZB–ZJ, ZN–ZO, ZQ, and 2.
- The United States uses K, W, N, and AA–AL.
The earliest allotment of call letters was made at the 1912 London International Radiotelegraphic Convention, which provided that the call letters of stations in the international system must each be formed of a group of three letters, which shall be distinguishable from one another. The Convention made a partial allotment of call letters among nations that signed the Convention, and the International Bureau at Berne, with the consent of such nations, modified and added to this assignment of call letters by circular of 23 April 1913.
- Call Sign Wikipedia
- Add Your Callsign to QRZ Search @ qrz.vu2.in
| ← Special Prefixes CJ1 and CK1 |
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