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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). See below for pages containing these country allocations.
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. If this sounds confusing tables of call sign allocations will be given later in this section to make things clear.
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 N2MG has a prefix of N2 and suffix of MG. 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.
| 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. |
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The table below contains the generally used prefixes for Canadian Radio Amateurs. Note that all calls have two letters followed by a single digit.
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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.
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Prefixes beginning with both letters and numbers are allocated to countries around the world that have Amateur Radio licensing. For a complete list of these allocations see the International Call Sign Allocation table.
In many countries special call sign allocations may be made to commemorate a special event. These special event call signs usually have an unusual prefix so that the station using the call will be easily recognized. For example the calls M2000A and 7S2000M were heard quite often commemorating the year 2000. CI3O was used in 1996 for the Charles Island DXpedition. Many of these special events also have unique QSL cards that are well worth the effort to make the contact and to send for the card. See the section on QSL cards to get more information on this aspect of the hobby.
| Another type of call sign is the vanity call as it is called in the United States. The FCC in the U.S. and Industry Canada permit hams to apply for a call that has special meaning to them. For example, Bob R. might apply for the call KA5BOB or Pam W. might ask for VE3PAM for obvious reasons. Although my call is VE3BUC my name is Don and not Buc so not everyone with a name in their call has a vanity call. |
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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?
In most areas of the world the portable prefix comes before the call. Thus if VE3BUC was active in Australia the call would be VK1/VE3BUC pronounced "VK1 portable VE3BUC" or ZL1AM in California might use W6/ZL1AM although ZL1AM/W6 would also be acceptable there.
When working mobile you would use a call such as VE3BUC/M pronounced as "VE3BUC mobile."
One of the important decisions to make when operating is what band to use. The section Amateur Radio Bands looks into this topic.
