Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2003 17:03:04 -0600
From: RAC-Bulletins from HQ
From: RAC Headquarters
Subject: RAC Bulletin 03-015E - WRC-2003 Revises Call Sign Formation
At World Radiocommunication Conference 2003 held in Geneva, Switzerland, 9 June to 4 July, 2003, two principal revisions were made to the ITU Radio Regulations concerning the formation of call signs in the Amateur Services.
The prohibition against prefixes of amateur station call signs commencing with a digit when the second character is the letter O or the letter I, has been removed. This has little direct impact for Canadian amateurs but will provide additional prefix options and greater flexibility for administrations assigned prefixes beginning with a digit followed by a letter. Thus 7O7 is now a legitimate amateur radio prefix.
Of more direct interest to Canadian amateurs is the fact that, provided Industry Canada approves, call signs may now be formed with a group of four characters (suffix), of which the last must be a letter, following the national identifier. Thus call signs such as VE5RCMP, VE3IARU, VE3P27U and VE200AA now will be permitted.
RAC representatives in the negotiations were RAC Vice-president Regulatory Affairs, Jim Dean, VE3IQ, on the Canadian delegation, and RAC Vice-president Government and International Affairs, Ken Pulfer, VE3PU, who attended as a member of the IARU team. The leadership and support provided by the Canadian delegation headed by Industry Canada, was outstanding and instrumental in the success achieved.
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Comments to: rachq@rac.ca
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Created: Monday, July 7, 2003
Web Page by: Vernon Erle Ikeda
© 2003 - Vernon Erle Ikeda