Seems like I've heard lots talk through the years about "those
Argentine novice stations with the LW prefixes," plus during the ARRL
10 Meter Contest lots of guys asked about how the LU call areas are
set up, so here is a refresher on the LU callsign structure.
LU call areas are based on the first letter of the suffix.
A,B,C is the city of Buenos Aires, such as LU2AH, LU8AQE, LU6BEG
D,E is the province of Buenos Aires, such as LU8DQ, LU6ETB
F is the province of Santa Fe, such as LU4FM
and so on (they're listed in the ARRL Operating Manual, one of the
greatest ham radio *operating* publications of all time --
Joe Bob Marconi says "check it out.")
People operating outside their call area sign "stroke x" where x is
the new call area. For instance, LU6ETB/F is more likely operating
portable in the Santa Fe province than in France.
A while back, the LU's ran out of callsigns in the D/E district, so
they started issuing LW calls in this area. Same thing more recently
for the H call area. Therefore whenever you heard an LW, his suffix
should start with a D, E, or H. An LW station is *not* necessarily a
novice.
Callsigns such as like LR2DW (by LU2DW) in ARRL 10 Meters and and AY7D
(by LU7DW) for CQWW are contest/special event calls.
So there you have it! 73.
--Trey, N5KO
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