I was confused by this very issue a few months ago, when I heard a station ID as M/W8XYZ (not actual call), and I immediately thought he was portable in England. He was, however, mobile in the US of A. This was on PSK31. I certainly hope that his XYL was driving! Over the years I've seen numerous PSK stations -- both domestic and foreign -- id as MM/, meaning "martime moble," but this was the first time I'd seen M/ on PSK that I can recall. When I do portable PSK (or JT65A) operation I tend to use /P, and with JT65 you have to remember to change your grid square, which is part of the normal exchange in that mode. Those are my experiences, and I'm probably only adding to the confusion and static. Sorry. :-)
73, Carl N8VZ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Larry E Price Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 12:12 PM To: 'Jim WA9YSD'; 'DXBASE' Subject: Re: [Dxbase] M/callsign - What's With This? Last try: I am still concerned that you have misunderstood the points under discussion. We were discussing identification of stations under their CEPT reciprocal authority in countries other than where they were originally licensed. IARU has a recommendation to place the national identifier first, instead of last, to make it quicker to figure out what country they are operating from. For reasons not clear to me personally, the RA in the United Kingdom, has decided the proper prefix for England should me "M" place before the call sign, not "G" which has been traditionally understood as the prefix for England which is perfectly valid from the standpoint of the ITU Radio Regulations since M is one of the prefixes allocated to the U.K. A few large countries have multiple Alpha prefix assigned such as the USA with W, K, N, and a portion of A. The FCC directs that an amateur station operating in the USA under CEPT authority should use "W" before the call sign, which is perfectly logical as "W" is traditionally associated by radio amateurs with stations in the USA. For amateurs it would seem odd if the FCC selected "N" as the leading character under these circumstances. To me, therefore, is seems odd that the RA selected M, but who cares? It is valid and appropriate and is a letter under their control and it is exclusively assigned to their country. The only problem seems to be that some computer logging programs are 'confused' as in the amateur service "M" was often used AFTER a call sign to designate a mobile station (actually all amateur stations are Mobile within the context of the International Regulations but let's not get started on that pointless discussion). Since you know where YOU are, and you tell your logging program in which DXCC entity you are located, the only question becomes, when you 'work another station' where are THEY located. Since you only need ONE USA contact, if you are in the USA DXCC entity, the question is, what DXCC entity is the other station located in? FCC Rules are interesting examples of governmenteese but have no relevance to these questions. >From the standpoint of the FCC, I have been told by high-ranking officials: all we care about is if your stations is causing harmful interference, you can't cause interference without being on the air, if you are on the air, we can find you. So the FCC no longer cares if you are /m. /p/ or /anything else that doesn't cause confusion about your location. M/ in front of a call sign means you are operating from the U.K. Why is this a problem to log and or understand? I am a traditionalist and is a little jarring to me to hear the call sent this way but I can get over it! Larry W4RA > -----Original Message----- > From: Jim WA9YSD [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2011 8:35 AM > To: DXBASE > Subject: Re: [Dxbase] M/callsign - What's With This? > > Looked here at FCC Part 97 no mention on how portable or Movable > vehicle and /P or /M See FCC Part 97.119. > I am reading this as the /P or /M is self assigned and has no official > meaning. > > In a 1979 version of FCC Part 97 that is no longer valid. look up > Logs > 97.103 and 97.105 also 97.95 Station Operation Away From Authorized > Location , Reference Part 97.61, 47. Have not found a reference to > using a /P or /M designator on call sign. I had paid $1.40 for a copy > of Part 97 back in 1979. > > Stay on course, fight a good fight, and keep the faith. Jim > K9TF/WA9YSD > ______________________________________________________________ > Dxbase mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email > list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html _____ avast! Antivirus <http://www.avast.com> : Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 6/1/2011 Tested on: 6/1/2011 12:12:09 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2011 AVAST Software. ______________________________________________________________ Dxbase mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Dxbase mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
