Call Letters - K & W

[MarioMania]

I'm just wondering how did the letters K & W Become??

Who had the idea for K going to the West & W going to the East??

Any Sites for it??

 

[LKellerIII]

I'm just wondering how did the letters K & W Become??

Who had the idea for K going to the West & W going to the East??

Any Sites for it??

I wasn't sure myself so I Googled "call letters k, w history" - found these in about 10 seconds:

http://www.oldradio.com/current/bc_k&w.htm

http://www.primermagazine.com/2010/...-history-of-radio-and-television-call-letters

There are a bunch of others.

 

[The King Bee]

One reason why there are several "W" stations west of the Mississippi River and "K" stations to the east; During the days of the Federal Radio Commission, which was dissolved into the FCC with the Communications Act of 1934, the W-K dividing line was at 100 degrees west longitude, or roughly as far west as Amarillo, Texas (for reference, St. Louis is just off 90 degrees, or halfway around the world from London, UK). Also, the earliest stations were assigned W or K calls regardless of location until around 1926.

The dividing line was changed to the Mississippi River in 1934, but all stations established prior to the effective date that year with "W" calls west of the river and "K" calls to the east were granfathered in. That's why KDKA's in Pittsburgh, WFAA's in Dallas, WBAP's in Fort Worth, and so on.

 

[Prais]

Note; the first letter of call letters is assigned by country WORLDWIDE. See the World Radio Handbook for more info, or Google.

 

[KeithE4]

Note; the first letter of call letters is assigned by country WORLDWIDE. See the World Radio Handbook for more info, or Google.

In most cases, it's the first two letters/numbers, with the exception of B (China), F (France), G/M/2 (United Kingdom), I (Italy), K/N/W (USA), and R (Russia). Before WW2, D (Germany) and J (Japan) were also full blocks. Q has never been used, since they might be confused with Q-signals.

In two cases, three characters are significant: The 3D block is split, with 3DA-3DM being Swaziland and 3DN-3DZ assigned to Fiji. The SS block is also split, with SSA-SSM being assigned to Egypt and SSN-SSZ to Sudan (along with the ST block).

 

[MarioMania]

Thanks for the Replys

Australia has 1-8

 

[w9wi]

Australia has 1-8

That's what they use but those are not internationally recognized.

**I think** the numbers are technically preceded by the letters "VL". (which *are* internationally assigned to Australia) So, I *think* the Sydney station known as "2UE" is actually "VL2UE".

 

[BRNout]

(for reference, St. Louis is just off 90 degrees, or halfway around the world from London, UK).

A minor nitpick to your otherwise accurate description, but St. Louis, at 90 degrees west, is 1/4 of the way around the world from London. Halfway around the world would be 180 degrees E/W - somewhere over the Pacific. Remember that longitude is measured as a total of 360 degrees - described as 0 - 180 degrees East and 0-180 degrees West.

 

[KeithE4]

Australia has 1-8

That's what they use but those are not internationally recognized.

**I think** the numbers are technically preceded by the letters "VL". (which *are* internationally assigned to Australia) So, I *think* the Sydney station known as "2UE" is actually "VL2UE".

New Zealand used to do the same thing when they assigned callsigns to their stations, which they stopped doing in 1990. They officially used the ZL prefix (like Australia, the prefix was never used on-air), the numbers 1 thru 4, then an X, Y, or Z, and one (AM) or two (FM) more letters.

Hams there also use the ZL prefix, but with A thru W after the digit, then one or two more letters.

 

[The King Bee]

Nitpick, my eye! If it wasn't for you, I'd be looking for Buckingham Palace in Kansas! Good catch of my error.

 

[Ai4i]

K/N/W (USA

Do we also share thre "A" block, like AA through AL (I should be the one to ask this with my screen name)?

Re, Nitpicking:
I suppose if one lived on the international dateline, their east and west walls could be as many as 24,900 miles apart, well...maybe!

 

[cd637299]

The Australia 1-8 designates the state/territory used, but I'm not sure what the 1 is for:

1 ?
2 New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory
3 Victoria
4 Queensland
5 South Australia
6 Western Australia
7 Tasmania
8 Northern Territory

Papua New Guinea used to have the "9" as well, but I don't know if it was any relation to Australia.

There's also 2AP in Western Samoa (no VL in front, I assume), and an AM in Queensland, 4VL, which Haiti could protest!

cd

 

[KeithE4]

K/N/W (USA

Do we also share thre "A" block, like AA through AL (I should be the one to ask this with my screen name)?

Yes. The A-block is as follows:

AA–AL United States
AM–AO Spain
AP–AS Pakistan
AT–AW India
AX Australia
AY–AZ Argentina
A2 Botswana
A3 Tonga
A4 Oman
A5 Bhutan
A6 United Arab Emirates
A7 Qatar
A8 Liberia
A9 Bahrain

All callsigns beginning with A were assigned to Germany when callsign blocks were first assigned in 1913. I don't know when Germany lost its rights to it, probably after one of the World Wars.

 

[w9wi]

The Australia 1-8 designates the state/territory used, but I'm not sure what the 1 is for:

1 ?
2 New South Wales/Australian Capital Territory

The same district numbers are used by hams, and among hams district 1 is the A.C.T.. Not sure why broadcast stations there use 2.

Papua New Guinea used to have the "9" as well, but I don't know if it was any relation to Australia.

It was at one time under Australian control.

There's also 2AP in Western Samoa (no VL in front, I assume), and an AM in Queensland, 4VL, which Haiti could protest!

This was once a New Zealand dependency, so it probably would have been ZM2AP or something like that. Today 5WA-5WZ are assigned to Western Samoa. Today, 2AP is probably just a station name, like "Newsradio 78" or "103.7 Kiss FM".

 

[cd637299]

Fair enough!

cd