Amateur radio call signs of Antarctica

Amateur radio or ham radio

Amateur radio

Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...

call signs

Call Signs

Call Signs is the third studio album by Melbourne electronica band Black Cab, released in 2009.The album evokes the atmosphere of the former totalitarian state of East Germany, set to a soundtrack of post-punk and atmospheric electronics. In an interview, the band explained the album's sound was...

are unique identifier

Unique identifier

With reference to a given set of objects, a unique identifier is any identifier which is guaranteed to be unique among all identifiers used for those objects and for a specific purpose...

s for licensed operators in Antarctica. Call signs

Call Signs

are regulated internationally by the ITU

Itu

Itu is an old and historic municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2009 was 157,384 and the area is 641.68 km². The elevation is 583 m. This place name comes from the Tupi language, meaning big waterfall. Itu is linked with the highway numbered the SP-75 and are flowed...

as well as nationally by governing bodies within each country who may have nationals operating in Antarctica. Call signs may also be issued by a local Antarctic authority (ie. base commander) who chooses from a block reserved by their national body for that purpose. The Antarctic Treaty

Antarctic Treaty System

The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System or ATS, regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land...

signed on December 1, 1959 (and entered into force on June 23, 1961), established the legal framework for the management of Antarctica, including allocation of amateur call signs.

Call sign assignments for amateur radio

The International Telecommunications Union does not assign call letter blocks to Antarctica since there is no single government there which can send delegates to ITU conferences. However, some individual countries reserve Antarctic prefixes or call letters from within their own call letter blocks as per this table: In some cases the assignment of call letters is made locally at an Antarctic base and the relevant national body is notified.
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Prefixes	Country	Notes
ATA, ATN, ATØ	India	unofficial allocation, as part of special event designation, see VU, below
CE9	Chile	ITU 67, 69-74; CQ 12, 13, 29, 30, 32, 38, 39
DPØ	Germany	expeditionary calls, only for outside of Germany in international territories or in space, other DP numbers used in home country
ED	Spain	also used in home country
EM	Ukraine	also used for special events
FT8Y	France
HFØ	Poland	HFØPOL - Polish Base, South Shetland - King George Island
HL8	South Korea
IA, IR, IY	Italy	usually 2x1 calls; IY prefix is reserved for Marconi Memorial stations, IA for certain Italian islands, IR for special events
KC4AAx, KC4USA-KC4USZ	United States	KC4AAA-AAF for Byrd, McMurdo, Palmer ITU CQ zones 12-13, 30; KC4USA-KC4USZ for US Naval bases
LU#Z	Argentina	'#' is any numeral
LZØ	Bulgaria	also for special event stations
OAØ	Peru	also for special event and club stations
OJ1	Finland	ABOA suffix. OJ9 rarely used. OJ1 also used for World Radiosport Team Championship World Radiosport Team Championship The World Radiosport Team Championship is an amateur radio contest. WRTC is an invitation-only event in which the world's elite contesters compete against one another using amateur radio stations that are in one geographic area of the world and are equipped with similar antennas and operating...
OR4	Belgium	Other OR4 calls have been used in home country
R1A	Russia	usually three letter suffix in the form of Axx
VKØ	Australia	also Heard Island and Macquarie Island Macquarie Island Macquarie Island lies in the southwest corner of the Pacific Ocean, about half-way between New Zealand and Antarctica, at 54°30S, 158°57E. Politically, it has formed part of the Australian state of Tasmania since 1900 and became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 1978. In 1997 it became a world heritage...
VP8	United Kingdom	VP8 also used in Falkland Islands Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland... and its dependencies
VU	India	not distinctive to Antarctica, see AT above
ZL5, ZL9	New Zealand	ZL9 is for sub-Antarctic territories, operators must have permission to land before call is issued
ZS7	South Africa
ZVØ, ZXØ	Brazil	for ZXØ, suffixes not starting with F, S, or T
3Y	Norway	also Bouvet Island Bouvet Island Bouvet Island is an uninhabited Antarctic volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean, 2,525 km south-southwest of South Africa. It is a dependent territory of Norway and, lying north of 60°S latitude, is not subject to the Antarctic Treaty. The centre of the island is an ice-filled crater of an... and Peter I Island Peter I Island Peter I Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Bellingshausen Sea, from Antarctica. It is claimed as a dependency of Norway, and along with Queen Maud Land and Bouvet Island comprises one of the three Norwegian dependent territories in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic. Peter I Island is ...
8J1	Japan	RL suffix from Syowa Station, also used for special events

Reciprocal agreements

Although Antarctica is considered international by treaty, amateur radio operators in Antarctica are often subject to the reciprocal licensing requirements pertaining to the country under which the camp is flagged.

Special Events

The Worldwide Antarctic Program keeps a list of special event call signs issued from various countries at various times. TM4IPY was issued in 2007 by France to celebrate the International Polar Year

International Polar Year

The International Polar Year is a collaborative, international effort researching the polar regions. Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, motivated the endeavor, but died before it first occurred in 1882-1883. Fifty years later a second IPY occurred...

as was IAØIPY, IA8IPY, IA7IPY & IP7IPY by Italy, GB4IPY by The United Kingdom, VYØICE/VE2 in Canada, LZØ7IPY in Argentina, EV5IPY in Belarus, CQ4IPY in Portugal, SNØIPY in Poland, YE2IPY in Indonesia, S5ØIPY in Slovenia, 5DØIPY in Morocco, and others. These callsigns were used by amateurs in their home countries.

History of call sign allocation

The Worldwide Antarctic Program maintains current internet Bulletins as to call sign activity in the south polar region, including 3,100 call signs used since 1945.

Australia - VKØ callsigns were used c. 1955 based on Antarctic treaties at the time. Before that Macquarie Island and Antarctic area call signs were known as VK1.
United States - prior to 1959 the FCC assigned KC4USx, McMurdo still uses KC4USV. Since 1959, the FCC reserves call letters in the block KC4AAA to KC4AAF for the National Science Foundation's use at the South Pole . South Pole uses KC4AAA and Palmer uses KC4AAC.
India - ATØA was used in 1983 for an expedition to Antarctica, as was AT3D and AT3ANT for a similar purpose from 1994 to 1996.
USSR - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics assigned '4K1' as its Antarctic prefix. Upon the USSR's dissolution in 1991, this call fell within the Azerbaijani Republic's ITU allocation. It is unclear if the Azerbaijani Republic still considers it as reserved for use by Antarctic stations.

Islands of the Air

The Radio Society of Great Britain

Radio Society of Great Britain

First founded in 1913 as the London Wireless Club, the Radio Society of Great Britain is the United Kingdom's recognised national society for amateur radio operators. The society's patron is Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and it represents the interests of the UK’s 60,000 licensed radio amateurs...

assigns islands into seven world districts, including Antarctica. It assigns IOTA

Iota

Iota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 10. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh . Letters that arose from this letter include the Roman I and J and the Cyrillic І , Yi , Je , and iotified letters .Iota represents...

Groups and Reference Numbers corresponding to these areas - Antarctic Islands are AN-xxx. Some of these IOTA groups have call signs assigned by a sovereign power, others have call signs assigned according to the Antarctic Treaty. Not all of these islands fall within the Antarctic Treaty area.
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IOTA #	Prefix	Location
AN-001	Various Callsigns	Graham Land West (Adelaide Island) group
AN-002	3Y	Bouvet Island
AN-003	VK0	Heard Island
AN-004	3Y	Peter 1 Island
AN-005	VK0	Macquarie Island
AN-006	Various Callsigns	Graham Land West (Biscoe Islands) group
AN-007	VP8	South Georgia Island
AN-008	Various Callsigns	South Orkney Islands
AN-009	VP8	South Sandwich Islands
AN-010	Various Callsigns	South Shetland Islands
AN-011	Various Callsigns	Ross Island group
AN-012	Various Callsigns	Graham Land West (Palmer Archipelago) grp
AN-013	Various Callsigns	Trinity Peninsula group
AN-014	Various Callsigns	Berkner Island
AN-015	Various Callsigns	Queen Maud Land (Prince Harald etc) group
AN-016	Various Callsigns	Antarctica (Main Island Only)
AN-017	Various Callsigns	Adelie Land group
AN-018	Various Callsigns	Palmer Land West (Alexander Island) group

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