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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