[Elecraft] OT: W vs K broadcast station callsigns

[Phil Kane]

On 10/6/2020 1:04 PM, Mike Morrow wrote:

> Another interesting fact about US broadcast station callsigns is that
> back before U.S. maritime radioTELEGRAPHY ended (except for rare
> historical exercises) in 1999, most US-flag merchant ships with
> radiotelegraph stations were assigned four-letter callsigns beginning
> with K or W.

As others have posted, the convention was that Broadcast stations east
of the Mississippi were given W call letters and west of the Mississippi
were given K call letters (with noted exceptions).  Ocean-going ships
had the opposite according to their home port of registration.

> There are no longer many such calls that are still assigned to
> merchant shipping.

When I started doing ship safety radio inspections in 1967 there were
600+ such vessels in the US registry, not counting the WW-II-era Victory
ships that were owned by the U S Maritime Commission and were being
pulled out of "Red Lead Row" (deep storage Reserve Fleets) and operated
under contract to support the Vietnam War going on at that time.  New
ship radiotelegraph stations will be licensed as part of the ship's
radio station license under the now-standard XXXnnnn call letters.

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
Elecraft K2/100   s/n 5402

>From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon