Re: WJIB Night-time power

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Fri, 25 Sep 1998 00:27:26 -0400, Larry Weil <kc1ih@mediaone.net> said:

>> Where are the V-- call letters from? I thought Canada used C-- for
>> its call signs?

> I believe (I always use that disclaimer in case I'm wrong) that the "V"
> call signs are left over from before 1948, when Newfoundland was an
> independent country.  But, since all the ham callsigns in Canada begin with
> "V", and as far as I know always have, I'm not really totally sure if I'm
> correct.

The `V' callsigns were issued as a series to the entire British
Commonwealth.  Hence, Canada has (in addition to CF-CK) VE and VF;
Australia VK and VL; and several of the former British Caribbean
dependencies have other V calls.  Newfoundland had VO calls, which
Canada inherited, but no longer assigns.

By international treaty, all airplanes are identified by international
radio callsigns; that is the only context in which members of the
general public are likely to see some of these callsign series.

- -GAWollman

- --
Garrett A. Wollman   | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same
wollman@lcs.mit.edu  | O Siem / The fires of freedom 
Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame
MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA|                     - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick

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