Amateur callsigns [was Re: [gentoo-project] New Developer: Christopher "cbrannon" Brannon]

[Stuart Longland]

On 03/23/11 22:27, Rich Freeman wrote:
> Hmm, and from the little I know not unlike Slashdot there is a certain
> level of notoriety from having a shorter call sign (within a
> particular jurisdiction).  Looks like they're up to 6 in the US now -
> my father actually has one with 4.

Yep, depends on the juristiction.  Often the shorter callsigns are more
expensive or otherwise harder to come by.  i.e. once upon a time to have
a "two letter call" (e.g. VK4BA, my club's callsign) you had to be able
to copy CW (morse code) at over 15 words per minute or so.

Now that they've abolished the CW requirement, here in Australia the
two-letter calls are on a first-come-first-served basis.  You still need
the top-level license class (Advanced) to qualify however.  In some
states of Australia, no two-letter callsigns are available as they're
all allocated.

http://www.wia.org.au/licenses/licensing/publiclist/  In most states,
most of the callsigns are taken.  (In fact, all the nice callsigns are
taken, a bit like the women really.)

Mine is a standard call, denoted by the M in the callsign suffix (any
call matching the regex VK[0-9][HLMNPV][A-Z]{2} is standard)... meaning
I'm allowed 100W PEP, 30W average, and all modes on 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m,
10m, 6m, 2m, 70cm and 23cm.  I'm a regular on 80m and 2m, particularly
the latter bicycle-mobile, although I have tried 80m and 40m on a bike
too (and succeeded).

Foundation calls (lowest class) have a 4-letter suffix starting with F
(regex: VK[0-9]F[A-Z]{3}).  They're allowed 10W FM/SSB/CW (no digital
modes) on 80m, 40m, 15m, 10m, 2m and 70cm, and must use commercial
equipment (no homebrew transceivers).  Advanced calls here are allowed
400W PEP, 100W average, on pretty much all amateur bands, the callsigns
are basically any two letter suffix, or three letter suffix not matching
that of a standard call.

I used to hold the call VK4FSJL... (Which a mouthful when in phonetics:
victor kilo four foxtrot sierra juliet lima — versus victor kilo four
mike sierra lima.)

I was initially looking for VK4HAT when I upgraded to standard, the one
I have now was my second choice.  VK4RH is taken too.  If I upgrade and
decide to go for a two-letter call, I have the choice of VK4CT, VK4QX or
VK4UE.  I was thinking of VK4DTM (Deadly Treadly Mobile), but I think
that's taken too.

In the US, as far as I know you pay for the privilege.

> I believe the first letter(s) are assigned per international treaty so
> within a jurisdiction (like the US) you'll find that they all start
> with only one or two letters.  That's why all your US TV and radio
> station callsigns start with K and W I believe (if nothing has changed
> in the last 20 years since I studied this stuff).

Yep.  VK is Australia:

http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/wianews-2011-03-20.txt has some details
(beware, whoever typed this up fails at line feeds and carriage returns).

> According to "History of Australian Radio Callsigns"
> by K3HZ, Dave, it came from a block of prefixes beginning with the letter V,
> assigned to British Commonwealth countries in 1912 to commemorate the death of
> Queen Victoria.

Canada have VA though to VE I think.  India has VU.

US is either W, K or N, with all the "free" ones (random assignment, you
pay to choose your callsign in the US) coming with a K prefix.

UK is either a G or M prefix (e.g. G5RV, who invented the antenna
bearing that name), G being for the "advanced" calls, M being the lesser
grade AFAIK.  Japan have JA onwards, not sure how many prefixes.  China
has BA, BT and probably numerous others (I know I've heard them on with
BT calls).  New Zealand is ZL.
-- 
Stuart Longland (aka Redhatter, VK4MSL)      .'''.
Gentoo Linux/MIPS Cobalt and Docs Developer  '.'` :
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   .'.'
http://dev.gentoo.org/~redhatter             :.'

I haven't lost my mind...
  ...it's backed up on a tape somewhere.