Those of us who are not hams are curious: Are the numbers and letters
in a ham call sign selected at random or do they indicate some
information?

--Georgs

The first letter, or set of letters, is assigned by country;  W and
K are for the US.

The US is subdivided into 10 zones, numbered 0 thru 9.  Within each
zone, call signs are assigned sequentially.

In the US, we ran out of calls signs a long time ago in several of
the zones (ie, we hit W1ZZZ).  So there's a 2d letter in the prefix
now for new licensees, as in WB1PRS.

On Mon, 7 Feb 2005, Georgs Kolesnikovs wrote:

Call signs are assigned automatically.  The number in the call refers to the
US region where the call was issued.  For example, I tested for my ham
license in Nebraska and so my call has a 0, but I live in Alaska now, so
most people up here have a 7 in their call.

Also, US call signs are signified by starting letters (W, A, N and K).
However, if one wishes, they may request a call sign that they want,
referred to as a Vanity Call (as in Vanity Plates for a car) if it is
available.  A cat lover would try to find somthing like K7CAT or you could
try to get your initials or something of the sort.

You might find more info here: http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/vanity.html

Brian Hartmann
KC0HOJ

Hi Georgs,

An overview of the FCCs call sign assignment policy can be found at:
http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/amateur/callsigns/sequentialsystem.html

The call signs are not assigned at random, and follow the assignment procedure
found at the above reference. A couple of basic points:

. the first or two letters are governed by international treaty, and
are used to identify the country that issued the call.
The US has W, K, A (except AM to AZ), and N assigned to it.
. The number identifies the geographic district where the station is licensed.
Note, when a ham moves, they have the option to keep their old call, so
seeing a ham call with a '2' in it only says the ham was first licensed
in NY or NJ, not that he's there now.
. the combination of letters and numbers, as well as the length of the call
is governed by the class of the licensee.
. There is a 'vanity call' system whereby hams can request a specific
user-chosen sign (and pay a fee). With vanity calls, you really can't
tell the location of the user from the call.

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL), maintains a call sign search engine. If
you go to www.arrl.org, and at the top of the page enter a call sign, it will
return the name, license class and address of the license holder.

Kevin Redden
W2WOR

--- Georgs Kolesnikovs georgs@trawlering.com wrote:

Georgs:

The first letter is usually a K or W.

The general demarcation line is the Mississippi River.

W is usually east coast and K is west coast for the
location of the initial licensee. If he or she moves
after they issued, it has no further bearing.

The next letter usually referred to general wavelength
that are hoping to be using. For example, a friend
from a long time ago was K9PQR. He was from Chicago
and he operated a ham station in Mississippi in the
service
in Biloxi MS. The PQR was assigned by the FCC and
had no real designation. He normally operated in
a certain frequency band, however was not limited
to that band. He had taken all the tests and had
passed his ham license.

What do the last three letters mean? It's basically
an identifier that uses the the three letters.
Three letter times three letter times three letters
gives the FCC over 15,000 licensee capabilities.

What the designation is today, is something I am
not sure of, but do remember that this the FCC
and not the rest of the world.

I am also certain that some one else will explain
it in much greater detail. Forty years ago ham
operators
had to know Morse code and I do not know if that is a
requirement anymore. It could be.
That is the  basics of a HAM license designation.

=====
Regards,

Rick Redfern
714.840.4737

Advanzio Development LLC
Color management for the person
who is too busy to worry about it

Advanzio also produces photography
workshops where you get to work
side-by-side with some of the finest
photographers in the world for six
days at wonderful locations.
Want more info? Go to:
http://hopeworkshops.com

In addition to what others have already said, "vanity" calls are a fairly
recent phenomenon.  When I was first licensed in 1955 or so, calls were
assigned in strict order, and region 6 (California) had used up all of the
W6xxx and most of the K6xxx calls.  I got in on the tail end with K6UWH.
This series with three-letter suffixes was used for technician and general
class licenses.  (A few years later, after K6ZZZ was issued, they started a
new series starting with KA6AAA I suppose.)

When I upgraded to Advanced class after I had moved to Washington I received
a new call sign, KD7IM, as my old license had previously expired.  The
two-letter suffix denoted the Advanced license class.

A few years later the vanity program was started.  Initially, the FCC opened
up a window for prior holders of call signs to obtain their old call sign by
application.  I applied for my old call sign and it was duly issued.  There
were then a few more short (around six month) windows for increasingly large
categories of eligibility, until eventually some time later, the vanity
program was expanded to let anyone apply for any vacant call sign in their
class of license.

Hal
Original holder of call sign K6UWH (and proud of it).

[This E-mail was scanned for viruses.]

This convention was (is?) true for Broadcast band licenses, but to my
knowledge it has never been applied to the Amateur Radio Service. When the W
prefixes are used up, the FCC starts with the K prefix.  As has been stated
previously, the number is the only geographic indicator.

Hal

[This E-mail was scanned for viruses.]