Known as "calls", "call signs", "call letters", "station I.Ds.", and the FCC's designation - "Call Sign Assignments", what they are is NAMES identifying individual radio stations.
In the Homeland, formerly the U.S., radio station call signs in the present day consist of four alphabet letters beginning with "W" for stations east of the Mississippi River and "K" for those toward the west.
What does the Mississippi River have to do with it? That's not what I'm here to discuss.
Prior to an earlier year K and W was assigned without regard to location, which is why legacy stations KDKA Pitsburgh, Pennsylvania, and WEW St. Louis, Missouri, are on the wrong side of the river.
No matter what side of the river Part 15 stations are on, they are not assigned call letters by the FCC. But, there is an FCC Rule governing the naming of Part 15 unlicensed radio stations.
Part 73 - RADIO BROADCAST SERVICES
(1) Users of nonlicensed, low power devices operating under part 15 of this chapter may use whatever identification is currently desired, so long as propriety is observed and no confusion results with a station for which the FCC issues a license.
A question was raised by Rich on this website regarding our use of the calls KDX to identify our part 15 operation, based on the notion that we might be confused with a licensed station. My answer at that time was in two parts: 1.) To avoid confusion I adopted the practice of adding the number "1", saying "KDX1", when referencing my part 15 stations, but, 2.) since the FCC does not require part 15 operators to broadcast any identifying information, I don't.
Today I am considering a different answer to Rich's original question... I am considering the thought that using letters of a non-existent station, in other words, letters not currently assigned by the FCC to any station, and in fact "KDX" is not known to be assigned to any licensed station, it would be "reasonably proprietary" to use such call signs for a part 15 station.
This subject arises from my intention of attaching separate calls to each of my stations, rather than calling them all by the same (kdx) name.
Already I have established KHZ 1640 AM, the official radio station of the indoor antenna experiment.
1550 AM is now KEGO, EGO - the Station Where You Listen to Yourself.
One of my FM channels has become KLPH-FM, the station where I edit and produce The LPH (Low Power Hour).
None of these call letters show up at radio-locator.com and are presumed to be officially unassigned.
One call-set I hoped to use was KCAM, the name of my original part 15 station back in 1957, in which I appointed myself the AM translator station for local KCFM, a licensed station. But today there are two KCAMs, one AM the other FM, assigned to Glennallen, Arkansas.
But if Rich and others still oppose using letters that resemble FCC authorized stations, maybe the part 15 community should self-impose some kind of restriction against "K" and "W", and have our own letter, such as "O."
I sort of like that: "This is ODX - Oh 1550."
How about Z or even X , I know that Mexico uses the X in there Call signs but that is south of the border of the Former US.
Or go to five letters for Part 15 Stations.
ZKLNJ AM 1610 ?
X-KLNJ AM 1610?
KLNJ - 1610 AM.
KX-LNJ-1610 ?
WX-LNJ 1610 , East of the big river .
I am using Banana Belt Radio for now , but I like the Letters better.
XK -LNJ AM 1610 could work.
I like this concept .
Lefty, XK has an important sound that actually trumps the dinky "k" and "w" sound of the licensed class.
Should we take it to ALPB?
Carl I think we should bring it to the table .
XK-LNJ AM 1610.
XK could be the call signs of ALPB Stations.
I like it.
I'm sure this would make no difference
in what you guys want to do.
For whatever it's worth - Mexico does
have some broadcast stations with
five letter callsigns, such as XHBST.
But I am sure nobody would care.
Actually, I like the idea a lot!
Bruce, DOGRADIO
Bruce come to the meeting this weekend and share you're thoughts ...
I think we are on to somthing here 🙂
Sounds great.
I have a few questions.
Aside from a few tests lately,
I don't have an operating station.
...So I haven't signed up for membership.
But I guess I could just go over to the
site and do that.
I'll have to see if the meeting time works.
Believe me, I would really llike to do this -
I know it would be fun. I just don't know
if I can yet.
Very best wishes,
Bruce, DOGRADIO
You are not required to sign up, simply tell us you agree with the Charter and want to be a member.
You can quit when you want and don't even need to tell us. We figure it out after awhile if we never hear from you.
But, we'd really like to have people interested in broadcasting stick around and throw their 2 cents worth into the meetings.
Simply drop me a line and let me know what YOU think.
I have officially christened iron Range Country Radio as KEBS-AM. This call is not in use by any commercial station. Should one turn up (after all, we didnt' get them assigned to us, so some broadcast entity could apply for and receive and valid, available call) they're going to be bummed that I own KEBSradio.com. Worth noting, a domain name investor several years ago purchased all the 2, 3, 4 ad other letter abbreviation domain names, so, for example, if I wanted kebs.com I could have to buy it from him for several hundred dollars, rather than the few dollars through my web provider!
I chose KEBS because since 1973 my air name has been Tim Edwards (Edward is my middle name) and the EBS (aside from being the old Emergency Broadcast System -- which gives me a lot of vintage logo's to modify to my needs) it also stands for "Edwards Broadcast Services" which encompasses my other radio entities, the Roller Derby Radio Network (yes, we broadcast live derby bouts) and my commercial production and voice over company.
I had originally not really intended to use call letters and just use the name Iron Range Country, or "IRC Radio" as my only identifier, as many stations just use names/slogans but having at least some call seemed appropriate.
don't know why we would avoid K and W calls, their quite common in the ham community. We're radio stations. Why try to seperate ourselves? AM/FM/TV all use the same call format, I don't think it's all that odd for us to do so as well.
Tim in Bovey
There was a great guy on this board
several years ago that ran a Part 15
station called WOQ. I seem to remember
it was in honor of a real station that had
been off the air since the 1930s or 1920s.
WOQ stood for "With Out Question.
In my many many callsigns over the
decades, I also had WRL.
I still think it might be better to
run some kind of callsign that is
different from regular stations and
also has an explanation of Part 15 in the ID.
That way, hopefully, your set-up won't be
confused with a pirate station.
But again, i really don't think anybody would
really care. If I could honor a station with
a great 3 letter W call, I would take WJZ.
I just love that callsign. But it is in use.
It's atleast used by channel 13 in Washington, DC -
or somewhere around there.
Bruce, DOGRADIO
MRAM 1500 is the call, it was derived from my Project Recording Studio known as Miles Robert Audio (MRA.) I simply added an "M" to the end.
The by-line is More Radio And Music.
I don't think the call would be confused with any FCC licensed stations.
Calls are names. MRAM is the name of a Part 15 radio station.
Name is identity.
Then there are slogans, which MRAM refers to as "by-lines."
"More Radio and Music" is the by-line slogan.
A slogan describes something about what the station offers under its name.
I have a number of slogans. There's KDX "The Talking Point", KDX "The Official Radio Station of the New World Order," KDX "Voice of the Homeland", and KDX "The Bull Horn."
Some part 15 stations use slogans as names or names as slogans, i.e., "DogRadioStudio" - is that a good example? is it an example? maybe let's try "Banana Belt Radio." help me out here.
Some call letters are acronyms based on slogans, i.e., "WGN - World's Greatest Newspaper."
I know when to fold them.
I do want to come to an ALPB meeting and
talk about this subject. Right now -
medical stuff (family/friends) is going
to have to overide it - - which is
unfortunate.
I remember shortwave listeners had
"callsigns" even though they didn't transmit
at all.
This was in the 1960s/1970s. Popular Electronics
gave the SWL IDs out. I had a friend who was
WPE1HOH. His friend across the street was WPE1HRF.
Another magazine/organization came out with
WDX assignments, such as, WDX6ABC, or whatever.
These guys didn't transmit, but they sent in reception
reports to BC or utility stations and swapped cards somehow.
I had a friend with a big collection of WPE1___ cards.
They were all over his wall. Who knew?
It would be cool if the ALPB did "callsigns" for members,
or something like that, but I have no idea how that
would work, and I don't even know if it's a good idea.
A lot of people have station names that they are very
happy with right now.
Bruce, DOGRADIO