Thanks Hans -- way back when --- amateurs had the X suffix for expermental
and Y for college and schools

What I have found is as follows:

In the 1920's and the 1930's, Stations in the 48 States had a 1x2 or 1x3
call sign beginning with W and containing a numeral from 1 to 9. Stations in
Alaska, Hawaii, or other US Possessions had a K prefix. See Pre WWII K
calls. The zero numeral was not available. Boundaries were considerably
different than today - for example the western sections of New York and
Pennsylvania were in the 8th call district. See Old District boundaries 4
Note that the suffixes beginning with X was reserved for experimental
stations.

In the 1954 callbook -- there are no listings in any district with the
letter X as the first letter of the suffix.

Eventually, the FCC relaxed their position on the 1x2 and 1x3 X suffix
calls, but the 2x3 call signs (such as KB6XYZ) are still reserved for
experimental use. W#X** calls were also portable calls - a separate
authorization was needed for portable operation and their suffixes began
with X. Apparently there was a very limited "vanity call" program - if a ham
wanted a 1X2 call and met several criteria, such a call would be issued. If
a ham moved to a different call area, he/she had to get a new callsign that
matched the district of the new location. Unlike today, you could always
tell where a ham station was located by the callsign.

At one time in the 1920's and 30's, college club stations were issued W#Yx
calls. So W6YX (1922) is Stanford, W9YB (1920) is Purdue, etc. Many of these
are still extant -- try QRZ.com for your college.


--
Keyboard In The Noise

Opinions are the cheapest commodities in the world. Author unknown but
"right on"
----------------------------
"KØHB" wrote in message
hlink.net...

"Keyboard In The Noise" wrote in message
news:U4Fxc.480$tI2.74@fed1read07...

Had an inquiry that sed his Dad's call was W10XEG

Before 1946 -- I think there were just call areas one thru nine.

Sometime around 1946, the 10th call area was established -- the zero
district, but was this ever the W10 area ??

No, the FCC never routinely issued amateur calls with "10" as the
numeric portion.

However, when ITU held their plenipot meeting here in 1998, we were
assigned the special-event calls N98ITU and W98ITU. Those are the only
examples I know which included two numeric characters in a US amateur
callsign.


Also the X in the suffix -- I thought was for experimental stations
???


Our company holds several experimental (non-amateur) callsigns in the
WB2X-- and KA6X-- formats. These callsigns are assigned from the
KA2XAA-KZ9XZZ and WA2XAA-WZ9XZZ 2x3 blocks which are not assigned to
amateurs. Note that amateurs **can** get calls with an "X" as the
leading character in the suffix any other call format (ie, W9XAA, K2XA,
WA2XA, etc.) or with a "1" or "0" numeric character (ie, KA0XAA,
WB1XAA).

73, de Hans, K0HB