Amateur radio call signs of Canada - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

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 the 68,000 licensed operators in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. 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 Industry Canada, which regulates all aspects of amateur radio in the country. It assigns call signs, issues amateur radio licences, conducts exams, allots frequency spectrum, and monitors the radio waves.

Call sign blocks for telecommunication

The International Telecommunication Union

International Telecommunication Union

The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...

has assigned Canada the following call sign blocks for all radio communication, broadcasting or transmission:
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Call sign block
CFA - CKZ
CYA - CZZ
VAA - VGZ
VOA - VOZ
VXA - VYZ
XJA - XOZ

While not directly related to call signs, the International Telecommunication Union

International Telecommunication Union

The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...

(ITU) further has divided all countries assigned amateur radio prefixes into three regions; Canada is located in ITU Region 2.

These regions are further divided into two overlapping zone systems: the ITU zone and the CQ zone.

Call sign assignments for amateur radio

Industry Canada from the Canadian federal government allots the individual call signs to the radio amateurs it licenses. There are 24 possible 2-letter prefixes and 240 2-letter/1-number prefixes available to Canadian operators based on the ITU blocks (CF, CG, CH, CI, CJ, CK, CY, CZ, VA, VB, VC, VD, VE, VF, VG, VO, VX, VY, XJ, XK, XL, XM, XN, and XO). There are potentially approximately 4,340,000 call signs available in Canada.

Of these prefixes, 5 are currently assigned (CY, VA, VE, VO, and VY) for normal amateur radio operation. Industry Canada assigns regular operating call signs from 25 prefix/numeral blocks (eg. VE1, CY9....). The other prefixes are assigned for special event operation for a time-limited period.

For Canadian amateur licences, suffixes of radio call signs usually comprise two or three letters, the former being available only to amateurs who have been licensed for 5 years or more. Amateurs can hold only one two-letter suffix call sign, but as many three-letter suffix call signs as they wish.

There are 18,252 possible combinations of two- or three-letter suffix call signs per prefix. Industry Canada follows Article 19 of the ITU Radio Regulations by disallowing 156 suffix-combinations because they may be confused with 3-letter communications signals (i.e. Q-codes) or other combinations which can be confused with distress signals. The Recommendation ITU-R M.1172 lists groups of letters from QOA to QUZ as abbreviations and signals to be used in radiotelegraphy communications. 'SOS' is also generally excluded, however the old distress call of 'CQD' can be allocated.

For occasional special events, 1-, 4-, or -5 letter suffixes can be assigned to a licensed operator for a specific period of time.

Canada is assigned DXCC

DX Century Club

The DX Century Club, or DXCC, is an amateur radio operating award earned by making contact with 100 or more geographic entities around the world....

entity #1, with the exception of Sable Is. and St.-Paul Is. which are DXCC entities #211 & #252 respectively. Call sign prefixes are issued according to one's province or territory of residence by the following table:
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Prefixes	Province/Territory	ITU Region	ITU Zone	CQ Zone	# within prefix issued	# amateurs
VE1 VA1	Nova Scotia	2	9	5	2,986	2,536
VE2 VA2	Quebec	2	4, 9	2, 5	17,031	16,975
VE3 VA3	Ontario	2	3, 4	2, 4, 5	20,623	20,752
VE4 VA4	Manitoba	2	3	4	1,844	1,810
VE5 VA5	Saskatchewan	2	3	4	1,465	1,452
VE6 VA6	Alberta	2	2	4	5,942	5,967
VE7 VA7	British Columbia	2	2	3	13,836	14,130
VE8	Northwest Territories	2	2, 3	1	113	73
VE9	New Brunswick	2	9	5	1,447	1,853
VE0*	International Waters				582	0*
VO1	Newfoundland	2	9	5	1,260	1,242
VO2	Labrador	2	9	2	179	66
VY1	Yukon	2	2	1	186	172
VY2	Prince Edward Island	2	9	5	273	335
VY9**	Government of Canada				5
VY0	Nunavut	2	3, 4	2	37	19
CY0***	Sable Is.	2	9	5	0	0
CY9***	St-Paul Is.	2	9	5	0	0
	Overseas addresses					29

*	VE0 call signs are only intended for use when the amateur radio station is operated from a vessel that makes international voyages. First assigned in 1954, Canada is the only country to assign a special prefix to operators on its ships in international waters. None of the operators reside at sea, but have residence within one of the other call-sign areas.
**	Industry Canada lists five (5) call signs with VY9 prefix issued to individuals related to that government department. These individuals reside in or near Ottawa, as well as Sherbrooke, Quebec, and Fort Smith, NWT.
***	Sable Is. Sable Island Sable Island is a small Canadian island situated 300 km southeast of mainland Nova Scotia in the Atlantic Ocean. The island is a year-round home to approximately five people... and St-Paul Is. are assigned separate call sign prefixes by virtue of being directly under the authority of the federal government of Canada. They are respectively DXCC DX Century Club The DX Century Club, or DXCC, is an amateur radio operating award earned by making contact with 100 or more geographic entities around the world.... entities #211 & #252. St.-Paul Is. used to be covered by the VY9 prefix and Sable Is. used to use VX9 (which is now used by experimental stations).
	Note: calls issued do not reflect the actual number of amateurs in a call area - some amateur operators have more than one call sign, and due to lag in reporting changes some might currently be issued to an operator living in another call sign area

Special event call signs

Industry Canada reserves the right to issue temporary special event call signs to licensed amateurs using the other available prefixes.

Typically, for national or regional observances licensed amateurs add their suffix to the assigned special event prefix as per the following explanation. An individual amateur may apply for a single special event callsign that has any of the 24 prefixes and an appropriate suffix related to the event. For instance, VA3OR received the special event call CF3NAVY from 4 June to 3 July 2010 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Canadian Navy.

For the special national event commemorating the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, from 1 Feb to 31 Mar 2010 amateurs could substitute VG for VA, VX for VE, XJ for VO, XK for VY so that an amateur with call sign VE3AAA could use VX3AAA, or VY0AAA could use XK0AAA.

Call Signs with more than one numeral

Some special event call signs have been issued by Industry Canada with more than one numeral. For instance, VE2008VQ was issued for the 400th anniversary of the founding of Québec City from 2008-06-28 to 2008-07-27. Also, CG200I was issued for the 200th Anniversary of the Lighthouse of L'Ile Verte (Green Island), Québec.

Technically speaking, the first digit is the numeral separating prefix from the suffix, and the rest are part of the suffix.

Automobile licence plates for amateur operators

Canadian provincial and territorial motor vehicle licensing authorities can issue special licence plates to amateurs resident in their jurisdiction. In British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, The ICBC

Insurance Corporation of British Columbia

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia is a provincial crown corporation in British Columbia created in 1973 by the NDP government of British Columbia. The original purpose of ICBC was to provide universal public auto insurance in British Columbia...

application form clearly allows only call signs beginning with VE7 or VA7, but calls from other jurisdictions sometimes slip through.

Reciprocal agreement with the United States

Under a reciprocal agreement with the United States, Americans licensed by the FCC can use their call sign within Canada as long as they affix the appropriate Canadian area-prefix to the end of their American call sign. For instance, a California amateur operating in British Columbia would sign as W6AAA/VE7.

History of call sign allocation

The following paragraphs outline the history of amateur call sign allocation in Canada.

before 1913

Before 1913 amateur and experimental operators in Canada identified with the initials of their name.

1913

The first regulation came in 1913 which required that an operator begin the call sign with an "X" (for "experimental"), followed by the first letter of their surname. The last letter in this 3-letter code was assigned in alphabetical order as people applied for a call sign.

The Berlin and London Radiotelegraphic Conventions of 1913 assigned the block VAA-VGZ to Canada; however, amateur radio stations were not yet part of this international lettering scheme.

1920

In 1920 a preceding number was added to the call to indicate the region within Canada the operator resided.
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1920 Prefixes	Province/Territory
1	Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
2	Quebec
3	Ontario
4	Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba
5	British Columbia, North West Territories and Yukon Territory
6	Training Schools
9	Experimental
10	Amateur broadcasting

As international communication became more frequent, Canadian amateurs by habit put a prefix of 'C' in front of the number above, and Americans similarly used a 'U' as a prefix. On 1 Feb 1927, European countries began using a two-letter prefix beginning with 'E' in front of their regional identifying numbers. Following that practise North American operators put a leading 'N' in front of their calls, so that Canada's prefix became 'NC' and Americans used 'NU'. For example a British Columbia amateur would sign their transmissions with a prefix of NC5.

1929

At the International Radiotelegraph Conference (Washington, 1927) Canada was assigned the ITU blocks of CFA-CKZ and VAA-VGZ. These came into force 1 Jan 1929 and amateur radio was now included in the ITU lettering scheme. The amateur radio prefix used was 'VE' which replaced the prefix 'NC', as the N series had been allocated to the United States.

1946–1949

Following World War II, the International Radio Conference (Atlantic City, 1947) met and refined the international call sign blocks. Canada was issued with CFA-CKZ, CYA-CZZ, VAA-VGZ, VXA-VYZ, XJA-XOZ and 3BA-3FZ. These came into force 1 Jan 1949. The 3BA-3FZ block eventually was reallocated between Mauritius, Equatorial Guinea, Kingdom of Swaziland, Fiji, and Panama.

The Canadian government reformatted amateur call signs according to this table.
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1946 Prefixes	Province/Territory
VE1	Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
VE2	Quebec
VE3	Ontario
VE4	Manitoba
VE5	Saskatchewan
VE6	Alberta
VE7	British Columbia
VE8	Yukon and Northwest Territories
VE9	Experimental, transferred to NB in 1990s

1949–1999

In 1949 Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...

joined with Canada and the VOA-VOZ block of prefixes came with them. In 1954 the federal government made VE0 available to Canadian operators in international waters

International waters

The terms international waters or trans-boundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regional seas and estuaries, rivers, lakes, groundwater systems , and wetlands.Oceans,...

. The additions to the 1946 prefixes are summarized as:
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Date	Prefix(es)	Province/Territory	Comment
1949	VO1	Newfoundland	Newfoundland entered Confederation
1949	VO2	Labrador	entered Confederation with Newfoundland
1954	VE0	International Waters	for Canadian operators at sea
1977	VY1	Yukon	Northwest Territories retained VE8
1990s	VY2	Prince Edward Island	Nova Scotia retained VE1
1990s	VE9	New Brunswick	Experimental prefix transferred to NB, NS retained VE1
1990s	VY9, VX9	Government of Canada	Reserved for Government of Canada operators and St.-Paul Is.; Sable Is. assigned VX9
1990s	CY0, CY9	Sable Is., St.-Paul Is.	Now considered separate DXCC entities (#211 & #252) so assigned unique prefixes, VX9 given to experimental stations
1995	VA3	Ontario	VA3 prefix adopted to increase number of available call signs
1999	VY0	Nunavut	Nunavut recognized as a territory on Apr 1, NWT retains VE8
1999	VA	NS, QC, MB, SK, AB, BC	VA1, VA2, VA4, VA5, VA6, VA7 prefixes adopted

External links

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