Re: CHAT: Names of radiostations (was: Re: The young Tolkien)

taliesin the storyteller wrote:


> What's the deal with the four-letter codenames for US radio-stations?
> What happens when all possible four-letter combinations have been used,
> will everyone switch to 5 letter ones? In Yooroop (the pieces of it
> that I've been to at least), radio-stations got real names, nicknames
> and short forms/abbreviations.

The four-letter callsigns are part of a world-wide system; different
nations have different initial letters, so that they will not
collide.  For example, the U.K. has G, M, and 2 (the system is
really alphanumeric), Canada has parts of C and V, Mexico has
XA to XI, and Denmark has parts of O (letter) and 5. The number of
letters and digits following the internationally assigned part is
variable.

The U.S. formerly had K only, but with the growth of stations, the
K area was restricted to west of the Missisippi, and the eastern
part of the country got W.  A few Ks survive in the East, notably
KDKA Pittsburgh.  N is also assigned to the U.S., but is used AFAIK
exclusively for governmental (military and civilian) broadcasting.

The same system is used for amateur radio callsigns.  Country-level
details can be found at
http://www.co.umist.ac.uk/BDXC/lists/itu/itu.html .

ObConlang: Livagia uses X9.

--
There is / one art             || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
no more / no less              || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things             || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness           \\ -- Piet Hein

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