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51-616: CKCX was the call sign used for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 's shortwave transmitter complex near Sackville , New Brunswick at the Tantramar Marshes . The Sackville Relay Station was operated by Radio Canada International and broadcast its programming around the world as well as relay transmissions from several foreign shortwave broadcasters. Domestically, it transmitted broadcasts on 9.625 MHz to northern Quebec by CBC North ,

102-637: A general aviation flight would use the call sign November-niner-seven-eight-Charlie-Papa . However, in the United States a pilot of an aircraft would normally omit saying November , and instead use the name of the aircraft manufacturer or the specific model. At times, general aviation pilots might omit additional preceding numbers and use only the last three numbers and letters. This is especially true at uncontrolled fields (those without control towers) when reporting traffic pattern positions or at towered airports after establishing two-way communication with

153-548: A Great Britain call sign prefix, 90 and MGY to commemorate the 90th anniversary of historic 1912 radio distress calls from MGY , the Marconi station aboard the famed White Star luxury liner RMS Titanic ). The late King Hussein of Jordan was issued a special amateur license number, JY1 , which would have been the shortest possible call sign issued by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. When identifying

204-468: A call sign for broadcast stations; however, they are still required for broadcasters in many countries, including the United States. Mobile phone services do not use call signs on-air because the phones and their users are not licensed, instead the cell operator is the one holding the license. However, the U.S. still assigns a call sign to each mobile-phone spectrum license. In the United States, voluntary ships operating domestically are not required to have

255-425: A call sign or license to operate VHF radios , radar or an EPIRB . Voluntary ships (mostly pleasure and recreational) are not required to have a radio. However, ships which are required to have radio equipment (most large commercial vessels) are issued a call sign. A directory of radio station call signs is called a callbook. Callbooks were originally bound books that resembled a telephone directory and contained

306-690: A convention that aircraft radio stations (and, by extension, the aircraft itself) receive call signs consisting of five letters. For example, all British civil aircraft have a five-letter registration beginning with the letter G, which can also serve for a call sign. Canadian aircraft have a call sign beginning with C–F or C–G, such as C–FABC. wing-in-ground-effect vehicles and hovercraft in Canada are eligible to receive C–Hxxx call signs, and ultralight aircraft receive C-Ixxx call signs. In days gone by, even American aircraft used five-letter call signs, such as KH–ABC, but they were replaced prior to World War II by

357-406: A few times a day, but this practice is becoming very rare. Argentinian broadcast call signs consist of two or three letters followed by multiple numbers, the second and third letters indicating region. In Brazil, radio and TV stations are identified by a ZY, a third letter and three numbers. ZYA and ZYB are allocated to television stations; ZYI , ZYJ , ZYL , and ZYK designate AM stations; ZYG

408-457: A geographical area, class of license, or identify a licensee as a visitor or temporary resident), and a 1-, 2-, or 3-letter suffix. In Australia, call signs are structured with a two letter prefix, a digit (which identifies geographical area), and a 2, 3 or 4 letter suffix. This suffix may be followed by a further suffix, or personal identifier, such as /P (portable), /M (mobile), /AM (aeronautical mobile) or /MM (maritime mobile). The number following

459-448: A last resort we would dismantle the facility, return it to bare land as it was when we first acquired that site." The transmission site was officially closed on October 31, 2012, at the conclusion of several contracts leasing transmitter time to international broadcasters. The site, however, continued to be used until December 1, 2012, for transmission of CBC's Northern Quebec service until the installation of several low power transmitters in

510-463: A one-letter company identifier (for instance, 'M' and two letters as a Marconi station ) was later added. By 1912, the need to quickly identify stations operated by multiple companies in multiple nations required an international standard ; an ITU prefix would be used to identify a country, and the rest of the call sign an individual station in that country. Merchant and naval vessels are assigned call signs by their national licensing authorities. In

561-484: A similar brand, and the name of a broadcast station for legal purposes is normally its internationally recognised ITU call sign. Some common conventions are followed in each country. Broadcast stations in North America generally use call signs in the international series. In the United States of America, they are used for all FCC-licensed transmitters. The first letter generally is K for stations located west of

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612-521: A station by voice, the call sign may be given by simply stating the letters and numbers, or using a phonetic alphabet . Some countries mandate the use of the phonetic alphabet for identification. In wartime, monitoring an adversary's communications can be a valuable form of intelligence. Consistent call signs can aid in this monitoring, so in wartime, military units often employ tactical call signs and sometimes change them at regular intervals. In peacetime, some military stations will use fixed call signs in

663-557: A station's identity. The use of call signs as unique identifiers dates to the landline railroad telegraph system. Because there was only one telegraph line linking all railroad stations , there needed to be a way to address each one when sending a telegram . In order to save time, two-letter identifiers were adopted for this purpose. This pattern continued in radiotelegraph operation; radio companies initially assigned two-letter identifiers to coastal stations and stations on board ships at sea. These were not globally unique, so

714-536: A transmitter time exchange agreement. The site at Sackville was originally built in 1938 for CBC local broadcasting over radio station CBA . In 1943, two RCA shortwave transmitters were installed. In 1970, all CBC operations moved to Moncton . This move was necessary so as to allow new Collins transmitters to be installed. In the mid-1980s, the RCA transmitters were replaced by the three, more modern, Harris transmitters. Radio Canada International's shortwave service

765-416: Is a type of Modulation-Dependent Carrier Level control, or MDCL. All modern high-power (>50 kW) shortwave radio transmitters incorporate DCC of some kind, as well as some mediumwave (MW) transmitters. DCC causes the carrier wave level to be automatically reduced when the audio is very weak or no audio is present. During periods of silence (no audio), the carrier power is reduced by 50%, so

816-425: Is marginal loss of coverage, comparable to running slightly less power. Also in lower signal strength parts of the coverage area, a station using Dynamic Carrier Control may be more likely to be skipped on digital-tuned radios during seek/scan tuning (if the frequency is passed during carrier reduction), an issue compounded by manual tuning (instead of seek/scan) selection not being easy on some receivers. When running

867-767: Is not issued to such stations due to their unlicensed nature. Also, wireless network routers or mobile devices and computers using Wi-Fi are unlicensed and do not have call signs. On some personal radio services, such as CB, it is considered a matter of etiquette to create one's own call sign, which is called a handle (or trail name). Some wireless networking protocols also allow SSIDs or MAC addresses to be set as identifiers, but with no guarantee that this label will remain unique. Many mobile telephony systems identify base transceiver stations by implementing cell ID and mobile stations (e.g., phones) by requiring them to authenticate using international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI). International regulations no longer require

918-683: Is used for shortwave stations; ZYC , ZYD , ZYM , and ZYU are given to FM stations. In Australia, broadcast call signs are optional, but are allocated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and are unique for each broadcast station. Most European and Asian countries do not use call signs to identify broadcast stations, but Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan do have call sign systems. Spanish broadcasters used call signs consisting of E followed by two letters and up to three digits until

969-544: The Dominion of Newfoundland government retain their original VO calls. In Mexico, AM radio stations use XE call signs (such as XEW-AM ), while the majority of FM radio and television stations use XH . Broadcast call signs are normally four or five alpha characters in length, plus the -FM , -TV , or -TDT suffix where applicable. In South America call signs have been a traditional way of identifying radio and TV stations. Some stations still broadcast their call signs

1020-712: The James Bay Cree Communications Society and Taqramiut Nipingat , the Inuit communications society of the Nunavik region of northern Quebec. The CKCX designation was assigned after CBC Radio's CBA , under whose licence the Sackville complex originally operated, moved to Moncton in 1968. Sackville was also used by Radio Japan , China Radio International , Voice of Vietnam , BBC World Service , Deutsche Welle and Radio Korea as part of

1071-1681: The Mississippi River and W for eastern stations. Historic exceptions in the east include KYW in Philadelphia and KDKA in Pittsburgh, while western exceptions include WJAG in Norfolk, Nebraska , and WOAI in San Antonio. All new call signs have been four-character for some decades, though there are historical three-character call letters still in use today, such as KSL in Salt Lake City; KOA in Denver; WHO in Des Moines; WWJ and WJR in Detroit; WJW-TV in Cleveland ; WBT in Charlotte; WBZ in Boston; WSM in Nashville; WGR in Buffalo; KFI ; KNX and KHJ in Los Angeles; and WGN , WLS and WLS-TV in Chicago. American radio stations announce their call signs (except for rare cases in which would interfere with

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1122-518: The 1960s when flight radio officers (FRO) were no longer required on international flights. The Russian Federation kept FROs for the Moscow-Havana run until around 2000. Currently, all signs in aviation are derived from several different policies, depending upon the type of flight operation and whether or not the caller is in an aircraft or at a ground facility. In most countries, unscheduled general aviation flights identify themselves using

1173-444: The 25% to 75% range, and with more carrier during peaks and pauses. DCC can work with frequency modulation (FM), but was never adopted for high-power FM stereo transmission. The main reason for using either MDCL method (or the combination of the two) is to save power and money. Alternatively, for the same total power consumption, the transmission coverage can be somewhat improved. The AMC method has two other advantages. It limits

1224-480: The 250 kW transmitter is putting out a carrier of 125 kW during audio pauses. This carrier power reduction saves electricity. This amplitude modulation (and vestigial SSB modulation) energy-saving mode was devised in the late 1930s. The system was originally referred to as the Hapsburg Carrier System. DCC was not implemented in transmitter designs until the 1980s, because of some of

1275-577: The ITU HR antenna notation, see the HRS type antennas guide. Call sign In broadcasting and radio communications , a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters —and historically as a call signal —or abbreviated as a call ) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station . A call sign can be formally assigned by a government agency, informally adopted by individuals or organizations, or even cryptographically encoded to disguise

1326-470: The Internet to instantly obtain the address of another amateur radio operator and their QSL Managers. The most well known and used on-line QSL databases include QRZ.COM, IK3QAR, HamCall, F6CYV, DXInfo, OZ7C and QSLInfo. Dynamic Carrier Control Dynamic carrier control ( DCC ) is a method of reducing power consumption in radio transmitters during periods of low audio activity or silence. It

1377-754: The amateur radio service as a citizen of their country has been assigned there. The first amateur radio call sign assigned to the International Space Station was NA1SS by the United States. OR4ISS (Belgium), DP0ISS (Germany), and RS0ISS (Russia) are examples of others, but are not all-inclusive of others also issued. Broadcasters are allocated call signs in many countries. While broadcast radio stations will often brand themselves with plain-text names, identities such as " Cool FM ", " Rock 105" or "the ABC network" are not globally unique. Another station in another city or country may (and often will) have

1428-539: The broadcast of very long works of classical or opera music) at or near the top of each hour, as well as sign-on and sign-off for stations that do not broadcast 24 hours. Beginning in the early 2000s, digital subchannels were assigned a -DT# suffix, where # is the subchannel (starting with the number 2). In Canada, the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation uses the prefix CB ; privately owned commercial broadcast stations use primarily CF and CH through CK prefixes; and four stations licensed to St. John's by

1479-551: The call sign corresponding to the aircraft's registration number (also called N-number in the U.S., or tail number ). In this case, the call sign is spoken using the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) phonetic alphabet . Aircraft registration numbers internationally follow the pattern of a country prefix, followed by a unique identifier made up of letters and numbers. For example, an aircraft registered as N978CP conducting

1530-527: The carrier to quieten the channel when no audio is present, while still realizing power savings. Both DCC and AMC have been a staple in European MW broadcasting for many years, and now AMC is now being used by stations in North America. Both the above MDCL methods (DDC and AMC) can be used simultaneously if desired. Some stations choose a mixture of DCC and AMC which uses a complex carrier vs. modulation curve, typically running less carrier for modulation in

1581-1074: The case of states such as Liberia or Panama , which are flags of convenience for ship registration, call signs for larger vessels consist of the national prefix plus three letters (for example, 3LXY, and sometimes followed by a number, e.g. 3LXY2). United States merchant vessels are given call signs beginning with the letters "W" or "K" while US naval ships are assigned call signs beginning with "N". Originally, both ships and broadcast stations were assigned call signs in this series consisting of three or four letters. Ships equipped with Morse code radiotelegraphy, or life boat radio sets, aviation ground stations, broadcast stations were given four-letter call signs. Maritime coast stations on high frequency (both radiotelegraphy and radiotelephony) were assigned three-letter call signs. As demand for both marine radio and broadcast call signs grew, gradually American-flagged vessels with radiotelephony only were given longer call signs with mixed letters and numbers. Leisure craft with VHF radios may not be assigned call signs, in which case

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1632-462: The complexities of the control circuit . There are two types of Modulation-Dependent Carrier Level (MDCL) control methods: DCC, as discussed above, and Amplitude Modulation Companding (AMC), developed by the BBC . The AMC design achieves the opposite effect of the original DCC system: the carrier is at maximum when no audio is present, and is reduced by up to 75% when the audio is loudest. The system uses

1683-517: The country/territory identifier is, instead, appended to the call sign; e.g., W1AW/VE4, or VE3XYZ/W1. Special call signs are issued in the amateur radio service either for special purposes, VIPs, or for temporary use to commemorate special events. Examples include VO1S ( VO1 as a Dominion of Newfoundland call sign prefix, S to commemorate Marconi 's first trans-Atlantic message, a single-character Morse code S sent from Cornwall , England to Signal Hill, St. John's in 1901) and GB90MGY ( GB as

1734-515: The current American system of civilian aircraft call signs (see below). One exception to the parallelism between registration and call sign is ultralight airplanes in France, who are not obliged to carry a radio and indeed often don't. Radio call signs used for communication in crewed spaceflight are not formalized or regulated to the same degree as for aircraft. The three nations currently launching crewed space missions use different methods to identify

1785-668: The design successor to PSM (partly based on PSM modulation). All modern Sackville SW transmitters incorporated Dynamic Carrier Control (DCC) of some kind. Sackville had a site layout similar to the Wertachtal Shortwave Relay Station , with a few substantial differences. This site configuration data is known to be accurate for 2004-2005. Transmitters (configuration not fully verified) It known that at least one SW transmitter had been outfitted to transmit DRM at this time. Antennas (Type, Bearing) (configuration not fully verified) To better understand

1836-743: The designated call sign, so F13C would be the Charlie fire team . Unused suffixes can be used for other call signs that do not fall into the standard call sign matrix, for example the unused 33A call sign is used to refer to the company sergeant major . No call signs are issued to transmitters of the long-range navigation systems ( Decca , Alpha , Omega ), or transmitters on frequencies below 10 kHz , because frequencies below 10 kHz are not subject to international regulations. In addition, in some countries lawful unlicensed low-power personal and broadcast radio signals ( Citizen's Band (CB), Part 15 or ISM bands ) are permitted; an international call sign

1887-563: The first two digits indicate the nominal length of the boat in feet. For example, Coast Guard 47021 refers to the 21st in the series of 47-foot motor lifeboats. The call sign might be abbreviated to the final two or three numbers during operations, for example: Coast Guard zero two one . Originally aviation mobile stations (aircraft) equipped with radiotelegraphy were assigned five-letter call signs (e.g. KHAAQ). Land stations in aviation were assigned four-letter call signs (e.g. WEAL – Eastern Air Lines, NYC.) These call signs were phased out in

1938-434: The ground and space radio stations; the United States uses either the names given to the space vehicles, or else the project name and mission number. Russia traditionally assigns code names as call signs to individual cosmonauts , more in the manner of aviator call signs , rather than to the spacecraft. The only continuity in call signs for spacecraft have been the issuance of "ISS"-suffixed call signs by various countries in

1989-509: The international series. The United States Army uses fixed station call signs which begin with W , such as WAR, used by U.S. Army Headquarters. Fixed call signs for the United States Air Force stations begin with A , such as AIR, used by USAF Headquarters. The United States Navy , United States Marine Corps , and United States Coast Guard use a mixture of tactical call signs and international call signs beginning with

2040-465: The jurisdiction of a foreign government, an identifying station pre-pends the call sign with the country prefix and number of the country/territory from which the operation is occurring. For example, W4/G3ABC would denote a licensed amateur from the United Kingdom who is operating in the fourth district of the United States. There are exceptions; in the case of U.S./Canadian reciprocal operations,

2091-483: The late 1970s. Portugal had a similar system, their callsigns beginning with C ; these also ceased to be used in the 1970s. Britain has no call signs in the American sense, but allows broadcast stations to choose their own trade mark call sign up to six words in length. Amateur radio call signs are in the international series and normally consist of a one or two character prefix, a digit (which may be used to denote

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2142-464: The letter N . In the British military , tactical voice communications use a system of call signs of the form letter-digit-digit . Within a standard infantry battalion, these characters represent companies, platoons and sections respectively, so that 3 Section, 1 Platoon of F Company might be F13. In addition, a suffix following the initial call sign can denote a specific individual or grouping within

2193-430: The name and addressees of licensed radio stations in a given jurisdiction (country). Modern Electrics published the first callbook in the United States in 1909. Today, the primary purpose of a callbook is to allow amateur radio operators to send a confirmation post card, called a QSL card to an operator with whom they have communicated via radio. Callbooks have evolved to include on-line databases that are accessible via

2244-484: The name of the vessel is used instead. Ships in the US still wishing to have a radio license are under FCC class SA: "Ship recreational or voluntarily equipped." Those calls follow the land mobile format of the initial letter K or W followed by one or two letters followed by three or four numbers (such as KX0983 or WXX0029). U.S. Coast Guard small boats have a number that is shown on both bows (i.e. port and starboard) in which

2295-399: The peak voltages on transmitter and antenna circuits, possibly preventing damaging arcs. Also, if the degree of AMC is properly adjusted, the power drawn from the mains can be kept nearly constant with modulation. This is especially important when operating from a local generator. With conventional DCC the load variations on a generator are made worse. With both methods, the main disadvantage

2346-400: The prefix is normally a single number (0 to 9). Some prefixes, such as Djibouti's (J2), consist of a letter followed by a number. Hence, in the hypothetical Djibouti call sign, J29DBA, the prefix is J2 , the number is 9 , and the suffix is DBA . Others may start with a number followed by a letter, for example, Jamaican call signs begin with 6Y. When operating with reciprocal agreements under

2397-600: The target region could be completed. The CRTC granted a request by the CBC to revoke CKCX's license effective December 1, 2012. The site was subsequently dismantled. After failing to receive any bids to purchase the complex, the antennas were dismantled and transmission towers demolished in 2014. RCI's parent, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, was the owner and operator of the Sackville transmission site, call sign CKCX. RCI's only transmitter site

2448-513: The tower controller. For example, Skyhawk eight-Charlie-Papa, left base . In commercial aviation, the callsign is usually the ICAO Flight number . For example, Delta Airlines Flight 744 would have the flight number DL744 and the callsign would be Delta 744 . In most countries, the aircraft call sign or "tail number"/"tail letters" (also known as registration marks) are linked to the international radio call sign allocation table and follow

2499-574: Was controlled by computer automation which was centralized in the main control room. Frequencies, antennas, and input feeds are switched all according to internationally agreed upon schedules which were renegotiated twice per year with other countries. Sackville transmitter power level breakdown The newest Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) transmitters used a "pulse-step" type modulation (PSM). All Sackville ABB transmitters had 250 kW output, although there were some newer Thales transmitters that are 300 kW. Thales transmitters could use APDM (Adaptive PDM)

2550-492: Was located on the Tantramar Marshes several kilometres (miles) east of the town of Sackville , New Brunswick . RCI leased or bartered its spare transmission capacity with other international broadcasters. Sackville was the only high power shortwave relay station in Canada and also transmitted CBC North broadcasts to northern Quebec. The Sackville facility was an impressive mixture of diverse technologies. The whole facility

2601-508: Was shut down in June 2012 due to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation budget cuts as a result of reduced federal subsidies. As a result the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation sought to sell the Sackville site to either another international broadcaster or a wind farm company. According to Martin Marcotte, director of CBC Transmission: "[The Sackville complex] will be fairly costly to dismantle and as

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