[Elecraft] OT OT OT OT Vanity call question OT OT OT OT

[Fred Jensen]

Having lived through much of it:

W and K -- all of them -- were assigned to the US.

"W" calls were assigned sequentially by call area, with some exclusions 
[e.g. W#X** calls were reserved for experimental stations ... W6XAO was 
Don Lee's television station in Los Angeles in the late 30's atop Mt 
Lee**, home to the "HOLLYWOOD" sign]. When the W's ran out, the FCC 
began with the K's, again by call area, and got to K6DGW in 1953.

Those ran out at various times depending on call area, and they more or 
less standardized on WA#***.  My brother got WA6QJY [not much of a CW 
call] while I was at college, maybe 1960 or so, I don't remember 
exactly.  Novices got WV#*** which they converted to WA# upon upgrade.  
WA's were followed by WB's.  They sort of skipped WC's, issued a few 
WD's [at least in CA], and then started in of the KA's.  That seems to 
have been a fairly straight progression except for having to skip some 
of the Kx prefixes that were already assigned to US territories ... KG4, 
KH2.

East of the Mississippi, broadcast stations were/are generally but not 
always 4 characters beginning with W.  West, they were/are 3 or 4 
characters beginning with K, but note KDKA in PA and WOAI in TX, KSL in 
SLC, KFI in Los Angeles, and KOH in Reno NV.  Coastal Marine stations 
followed the same pattern with 3 characters. Ships were 4 characters, 
those that floated mainly in the Pacific began with K, the Atlantic was 
home to the W's.  Ships do move around, while most of the ones I worked 
in 56/57 from KOK in Los Angeles were K's, there were a few W's 
occasionally.

The Navy, which owned all the N's eventually gave them up for calls that 
followed the recipe for ham calls.  The Navy's/CG's coast stations still 
use N** calls [e.g. NMC at Pt Reyes CA, right next to KPH].

The US was also assigned AAA-ALZ, I don't remember when ham calls from 
that block became available, but they followed the ham call recipe.  
Hope this helps a little.

73,

Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

**Don Lee was wealthy ... very ... from selling automobiles, and he 
owned a goodly part of the ridge called Mt. Lee.  W6XAO became KTSL on 
Channel 2 about the time I was 8 or 9, and was joined by KTLA on Channel 
5 shortly after.  CBS bought KTSL and it was KNXT for a long time, it's 
now KCBS-TV [KCBS-AM is on 740 KHz in San Francisco].  KTLA was still on 
the air from Mt Wilson last time we were in SoCal.

On 7/13/2018 2:46 PM, kevinr wrote:
> OK then.
>
> I have been curious about the history of the assignment of call signs.
>
> In prior times there were only 9 call 'districts' (for want of the 
> correct term).  Then came district Zero.
>
> What I am interested in finding out is the history of W, N, K, and A 
> calls.  I am fairly certain A calls are a recent development while K 
> is a bit older.  Does anyone know the whens and whys of this history?
>
>    Kevin.  KD5ONS
>
> -
>
>
> On 07/13/2018 02:34 PM, Wayne Burdick wrote:
>> A certain amount amount of uplifting, meta-level, or otherwise 
>> tangentially related subject matter is tolerated, just to keep 
>> everyone on their toes.
>>
>> Wayne
>> N6KR
>
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