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INTERNATIONAL SERIES See Also: International Callsign Allocations International call signs are formal, semi-permanent, and issued by a nation's Telecommunications Agency . They are used for Amateur , Broadcast , commercial, maritime and sometimes Military radio use (including Television in some countries). Each country has a set of alphabetic or numeric International Telecommunication Union -designated Prefixes with which their call signs must begin. For example:
AVIATION Call signs in Aviation are derived from several different policies, depending on the type of flight operation being conducted, and depending on whether the caller is in an aircraft or at a ground facility. In most countries, unscheduled General Aviation flights identify themselves using the call sign correseponding to the aircraft's registration number (also called ''N-number'' in the U.S., or ''tail number''). In this case, the call sign is spoken using the ICAO Phonetic Alphabet . Aircraft Registration numbers internationally follow the pattern of a country prefix (''N'' in the U.S.), followed by a unique identifier made up of letters and numbers. For example, an aircraft registred as ''N9876Q'' conducting a general aviation flight would use the call sign ''november niner eight seven six quebec.'' Alternatively, pilots may use the aircraft type in lieu of the ''N'' in the registration number, i.e. ''Cessna niner eight seven six quebec''. After making initial contact to a ground facility, air traffic controllers may choose to use an abbreviated call sign (omitting all but the last two or three digits) for an aircraft under his or her control, so long as it is unambiguous. In the United States, a registration number begins with the letter ''N'', followed by up to five digits and/or letters in one of these schemes: one to five numbers (''N12345''), one to four numbers and one suffix letter (''N1234Z''), or one to three numbers and two suffix letters (''N123AZ''). The numeric part of the registration never starts with zero. To avoid confusion with the digits ''1'' (one) and ''0'' (zero), the alphabetic letters ''I'' (india) and ''O'' (oscar) are not used in registration numbers. Commercial operators, including airlines, '''air cargo''' and '''air taxi''' operators, will usually use an ICAO or FAA -registered call sign for their company, which is used together with the flight number. For example, British Airways flight 75 would use the call sign ''Speedbird seven-five,'' since ''Speedbird'' is the registered call sign for British Airways. '''Air taxi''' operators in the United States sometimes do not have a registered call sign, in which case the prefix ''T'' is used followed by the aircraft registration number (e.g. ''tango november niner eight seven six quebec''). Some variations of call signs exist to express safety concerns to all operators and controllers monitoring the transmissions. Aircraft call signs will use the suffix "heavy" to indicate a large aircraft, e.g'. ''United Two-Five Heavy.'' For '''air ambulance''' flights, the callsign prefix ''Lifeguard'' is used before the normal callsign, e.g. ''Lifeguard three three alfa.'' Glider pilots often use a supplementary number (the competition number) in their call signs. Military flights use a variety of registered call signs with flight numbers, just like commercial operators. e.g. ''Navy Golf Alfa Kilo 21'', ''REACH 31792''. Ground facilities identify themselves by the name and function of the facility: e.g. ''Seattle Tower'' for the tower Control ler's position, or ''Boston Center'' for an Area Control Center . SHIPS AND BOATS Merchant vessels are assigned a call sign by their national licensing authority. In the case of states such as Liberia or Panama, which are Flags Of Convenience for ship registration, call signs for larger vessels consist of the national prefix plus three letters (for example, ''3LXYZ''). United States civilian vessels are given call signs beginning with the letter ''W''. Originally both ships and broadcast stations were given call signs in this series consiting of three or four letters, but gradually American-flagged vessels were given callsigns with mixed letters and numbers. Leisure craft with VHF radios may not be assigned callsigns, in which case the name of the vessel is used instead. AMATEUR RADIO Amateur Radio call signs are in the international series and normally consist of a one- or two-character prefix, a number (which sometimes corresponds to a geographic area within the country), and a 1, 2, or 3 character suffix. The number following the prefix is normally a single number (0 to 9). Some prefixes, such as Djibouti's (J2), consist of a letter followed by a number. Hence, in the hypothetical Djibouti call sign, J29DBA, the prefix is ''J2'', the number is ''9'', and the suffix is ''DBA''. Others may start with a number followed by a letter, for example, Jamaican call signs begin with 6Y. The numbers are sometimes assigned geographically. In the Italian call sign, IK1TZO, ''IK'' is the prefix, the number component is ''1'' and corresponds to the Piedmont , Aosta Valley and Liguria regions, and ''TZO'' is the suffix. Another example is WB3EBO. ''WB'' is the prefix, the number ''3'' most often indicates that the station is located in Delaware , Maryland , Pennsylvania , or the District Of Columbia , and the suffix is ''EBO''. For district numbers within the United States, see ARRL map . BROADCAST CALL SIGNS North America See Also: North American call sign Broadcast stations in North America generally use call letters in the international series. There are some common conventions followed in each country. In Canada, call signs begin with the letter ''C'', except for four stations in St. John's which begin with ''VO''. Mexican call signs begin with an ''XE'' for medium-wave (AM) radio stations and ''XH'' in other cases. In the United States, the first letter generally is ''K'' for stations west of the Mississippi River and ''W'' for those east of the Mississippi. There are a number of exceptions, such as KYW in Philadelphia and WFAA in Dallas, but most of these exceptions are located in the states immediately to either side of the river. Government-operated international broadcasters, such as Radio Canada International and Voice Of America , are not assigned call signs; however, privately-operated shortwave stations, like WWCR and CFRX , are. Australia In , ''xABCRN'' for Radio National , and ''xABCRR'' for ABC Local Radio - the ''x'' being the state number.) Television station call signs begin with two letters usually denoting the station itself, followed by a third letter denoting the state. For example, NBN 's call sign stands for Newcastle '''B'''roadcasting, New South Wales. There are some exceptions:
Letters and numbers used by Australian stations:
New Zealand The use of broadcast callsigns in New Zealand historically consisted of a digit, and two letters for AM or three for FM. The usage was:
For example - 1ZB was a Radio NZ commercial station in Auckland; 4XF was Foveaux Radio in Invercargill (now More FM); 4YC was the Concert Programme in Dunedin. FM stations appeared to have no standard format for the letters, just picking three that 'fit' the station. To make matters more confusing, some stations such as 4ZA-FM (now Classic Hits Southland 98.8FM) and 4XO Gold (now More FM Dunedin) retained their AM callsigns. Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin as major centres for the four regions had specific Radio NZ callsigns used:
During the early 1990's the use of callsigns became less common, to the point that most broadcasters do not use them at all. Some are retained in some form for branding - for example, 4XO Dunedin (until it was rebranded More FM Dunedin in 2004), Newstalk ZB (using the old 1ZB, 2ZB, 3ZB, 4ZB and various other Radio NZ commercial frequencies) and ZM (originally ZMFM, replacing the old 1ZM, 2ZM and 3ZM, now nationwide). Stations licensed since 1990 have not had callsigns allocated. Europe/Asia In Europe and much of Asia, call signs are normally not used for broadcast stations. Japan , South Korea , the Philippines and Taiwan are exceptions to this general rule. Other countries have yet other formats for assigning call signs to domestic services. MILITARY CALL SIGNS In wartime, monitoring an adversary's communications can be a valuable form of intelligence. Consistent call signs can aid in this monitoring, so in wartime, military units often employ Tactical Call Signs and sometimes change them at regular intervals. In peacetime, some military stations will use fixed call signs in the international series. U.S. Army The United States Army uses fixed call signs which begin with ''W'', such as WAR, used by U.S. Army Headquarters . U.S. Air Force Fixed call signs for the United States Air Force stations begin with ''A'', such as AIR, used by USAF Headquarters. The USAF also uses semi-fixed identifiers consisting of a name followed by a two or three digit number. The name is assigned to a unit on a semi-permanent basis; they change only when the U.S. Department of Defense goes to DEFCON 3. For example, JAMBO 51 would be assigned to a particular B-52 aircrew of the 5th Bomb Wing, while NODAK 1 would be an F-16 fighter with the North Dakota Air National Guard. The most recognizable call sign of this type is '' Air Force One '', used when any Air Force aircraft is transporting the U.S. President . Individual military pilots or other flight officers usually adopt a personal Aviator Call Sign . U.S. Navy/Coast Guard The United States Navy and United States Coast Guard use a mixture of tactical call signs and international call signs beginning with the letter ''N''. For example, the carrier USS ''John F. Kennedy'' has the call sign NJFK. British Army Tactical voice communications ("combat net radio") use a system of callsigns of the form ''letter-digit-digit''. Within a standard infantry battalion these characters represent companies, platoons and sections respectively, so that 3 Section, 1 Platoon of B Company might be F13. In addition, F13A might be the 2ic of that section, in charge of its Delta Fire Team . Note that the letter part of the callsign is ''not'' the company's own letter (B vs F in the above example) - indeed, the letter designations are randomly assigned using BATCO sheets and change along with the BATCO codes every 24 hours. This, together with frequency changes and voice procedure aimed at making every unit sound the same, introduces a degree of obfuscation against simple traffic analysis and eavesdropping. Not all radio users fit into the standard battalion model, but in order to continue the obfuscation they will be assigned a callsign that appears to be part of such a system. Presumably, the well-known B20 falls into this category. Finally, the controller of each net has the callsign 0 ("zero"). There may also be a second controller - either a backup station or a commander who has delegated communication tasks to a signaller but may occasionally wish to speak in person - with the callsign 0A ("zero alpha"). TRANSMITTERS REQUIRING NO CALL SIGNS No call signs are issued to transmitters of long-range navigation systems (LORAN-C, Decca, Alpha, Omega) or transmitters on frequencies below 10 kHz, because frequencies below 10 kHz are not subject to international regulations. In addition, in some countries low-power personal and broadcast radio ( Citizen's Band , Part 15 , and the like) is allowed; a call sign is not always required for such stations, though especially on personal radio services it is considered a matter of etiquette to create one's own. SEE ALSO
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