BTW, nice article regarding call areas written by Don-VE3BUC is available on
the Eham.net.
This is only an extract, full article can be found at:
http://www.eham.net/newham/callsigns
Robert, S57AW
------------------
Call Signs
Every licensed Radio Amateur is given a call sign that is used to identify you
and your location of license. Each country that has Amateur Radio status is
allocated a range of call signs by the International Telecommunications Union
(ITU).
Prefix and Suffix
Call signs consist of a prefix and a suffix. The prefix is usually composed of
one or two letters and a number such as VE4 in Canada for the province of
Manitoba or K9 in the U.S. for the states Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
Some countries have prefixes that are composed of a number and a letter such as
4X for Israel or 9K for Kuwait.
While the prefix uniquely identifies a country the suffix is unique for the
individual. In Canada a call sign such as VE3ABC has VE3 (Ontario) as the
prefix and ABC as the suffix. In the U.S the call sign K6XYZ has a prefix of K6
(California) and suffix of XYZ. U.S. hams may also have a two letter prefix
thus AB2Z is a valid call. Suffixes may also be less than three letters so you
have call signs such as VE7AB in British Columbia and KH6Y in Hawaii.
Call Areas
In North America the number in the call sign generally refers to an area
of the country. The 3 in VE3 refers to Ontario and the 6 in K6 refers to
California. The number may be shared between states in the U.S. so that 1 as in
K1 or W1 can refer to the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Usually in Canada the number refers to a
single province although VE1 can refer to the Maritime provinces New Brunswick
or Nova Scotia.
Other countries follow a similar practice so you can have states in
Brazil and Prefectures in Japan.
U.S. Prefixes
Prefixes used by Amateurs in the United States are shown in the following
table. U.S. Radio Amateurs may have either a single letter or two letters in
the prefix. See the two letter allocations at the bottom of the table. The
single letter prefixes K, and N are also in use by U.S. Amateurs. To further
complicate matters Amateurs that have moved to a different area of the country
may retain their existing call sign so when you hear W8ABC you may be receiving
a signal from other than the W8 states.
Call Sign Prefix State
W0 Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North
Dakota, South Dakota
W1 Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island,
Vermont
W2 New Jersey, New York
W3 Delaware, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania
W4 Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
W5 Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
W6 California
W7 Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming
W8 Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia
W9 Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin
AL0-7, KL0-7,
NL0-7, WL0-7 Alaska
AH6-7, KH6-7,
NH6-7, WH6-7 Hawaii
--------------------------------------------------------------
Additional prefixes
A, AA - AK K, KA - KK
KM - KW
KX - KZ
N, NA - NK
NM - NW
NX - NZ
WA - WK
WM - WO
WQ - WW
WX - WZ
Operating Portable or Mobile
If an amateur operator is in a province, state or country other than his or her
own then he/she is working portable. So if VE3BUC was operating in Alberta then
he would use the call sign VE3BUC/VE6 pronounced as "VE3BUC portable VE6." If
he was in Florida then the call sign VE3BUC/W4 would be used. W5AX in New York
would use W5AX/W2 and in Quebec would use W5AX/VE2. Although a common practice
for U.S. hams who have moved to a new state is to continue with their old
callsign. Thus N2AB who moves to Texas might be using the same call without the
portable indication. But he could sign N2AB/5. Confusing?
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