BILL'S HISTORICAL RADIO SITE

CANADIAN THREE LETTER CALL SIGNS

UNDER ACTIVE CONSTRUCTION IN APRIL 2008

LAST UPDATED APRIL 23, 2008

The information on this page has come from a number of sources.  Some are official list publications.  These are dry but very interesting to look through.   The others mentioned are not just interesting, they are extremely fascinating, and I cannot thank the authors enough for writing these histories, which go far beyond lists.   

Spud Roscoe, VE1BC, has provided me with lists and clarifications of various kinds.  His wonderful and extensive historical account is entitled "Radio Stations Common? Not This Kind".   This is a .pdf file of several chapters and includes many many photographs.  This is essentially the story of Canada's coast radio system and of marine radio, both civil and naval.    This site from a veteran radio operator has to be seen!  

Also extremely important is Jerry Proc's extensive site on Canada's naval radio history: Radio Communications and Signals Intelligence in the Canadian Navy.   This covers both land and shipboard radio.  While I am not dealing specifically with ship callsigns here on my site, those who are interested will find a huge list of Canadian naval ships and their callsigns, both the international type and the tactical voice type, and is up to the minute.     Like Spud's site, this is a great source of information on call signs, equipment, procedures, and just wonderful history.

From the west coast comes Rough Radio: History of Wireless Along the British Columbia Coast, written by Jack Statham, VE7VAZ.   

My intent here is to list as many three letter call signs in alphabetical order, with a bit of information about each station.   This is a slightly different twist on the subject and is quite bare compared to the richness of the above sites.   As the saying goes, "you simply MUST" visit these sites.  I enjoy them  very much.  Both Jerry and Spud have kindly responded personally to my queries, and I am sure they will be happy to answer your questions or receive any input you can give. 

I also used Bill Hepburn's list of Continuous Marine Broadcasts in Canada.  This excellent list does in effect show all the active call signs for Canadian Coast Guard radio stations including all the peripheral transmitters.  It shows clearly that there really are very few 3-letter calls in use any more outside the military.

Another excellent site with links to various Canadian Army Signals historical pages is one entitled RCSigs Militaria.  This site includes a link to Major  John MacKenzie's 90 Years and Counting: The History of Canadian Military Communications and Electronics.

See the Hammond Museum of Radio for the history of radio in Canada, including radio apparatus built in this country.

The United States Early Radio History from Thomas H. White is also fascinating, and gives amongst other things a good outline of the early days of radio when the marine service was paramount, and as well contains several official lists of stations and call letters.   This is a huge site that also deals as much with early broadcasting as it does other topics.  This is where I came to find out about the early international conferences that resulted in radio regulations and call letter allocations.   Included in this site is a reproduction of Wireless Telegraph Stations of the World, from the US Department of the Navy, corrected to January 1, 1912.  This includes the Canadian stations, which at that time were using the Marconi call letters.   White's site has a large number of links to other sites of interest.

I also consulted a publication I have had for more than 30 years, the Alphabetical List of Call Signs of Stations Other than Amateur Stations, Experimental Stations and Stations of the Maritime Mobile Service , 4th edition, January 1970.  International Telecommunications Union, Geneva, 1970.    I recall purchasing this in the early 70's direct from Switzerland, and that the payment was in Swiss francs.

Admiralty List of Radio Signals, Volume I, 1969.  Hydrographer of the (Royal) Navy, 1969.  This publication was also known within the service as N.P. 275 (I)

Radio Call Letters (as of May 9, 1913). Department of Commerce, Office of the Secretary, Washington, 1913.

Radio Navigational Aids 1943. United States Navy Department, Hydrographic Office, and known as H.O. 205.

Some information is recollection from when I was a Communications Officer in Canada's navy in the mid-70's, or taken from various official lists and from unofficial websites, that I am now unable to cite properly.

Introduction

From the advent of radio to 1912 the identification of radio stations was ad hoc, or at best organized in a national or company system.  In the case of radio coast stations many were operated by the Marconi company and after a time of using 2 letter call signs such as CR for Cape Ray, Newfoundland, and HX for Halifax, they changed to 3 letter calls.... the same two letters preceded by M, such as MHX for Halifax. 

In 1912 an international conference set an international allocation of letter series to any interested country. At first all call signs or call letters appear to have been 3 letters i.e. two letters to identify the country and a one-letter suffix.  Countries received several two letter groups, for example Canada received VA to VG at first.  Some countries received all 26 groups beginning with a particular letter.  For example the United States received NA to NZ and therefore any call sign beginning with N was American.    At first the major user of radio other than experimenters was the marine service and therefore most call signs were for ships and coast stations.   A coast station is one that is licenced to communicate with ships.  As will be seen in the following lists, here in Canada both coast stations and ship stations received 3 letter call signs in the early days.  Later when the need for call signs dramatically increased, ships received 4 letter call signs instead, and the 3 letter ones were rescinded and re-assigned to land stations.   I say land stations because stations other than coast stations came on the air, including broadcasters and military stations.  In time various different forms of call signs came into being, and these various forms, as well as the evolution of international prefixes, are covered in my general call letters page.    

You are now reading my 3-letter call signs page written because this is the type of call letters that interest me the most.  

Canada received VA to VG in 1912 but later also received VX and VY, CF to CK, CY and CZ, and XJ to XO.  When Newfoundland joined Canada, her VO prefix came along, so that it is now Canadian.  There is also an unofficial use of CB by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

3-letter call signs exist or did exist in all of these series except for the XJ-XO group.  I have not seen any mention anywhere of 3-letter calls in this group.

The purpose of the following table is to show in alphabetical order all the 3-letter call signs from CBA to VYZ including their use and re-use.

Please note that this table is under construction.  I am not citing references for specific statements, other than to direct you to my opening comments re my sources.

VG

Royal George
Royal Edward
Keewatin
Hamonic
Huronic
SAronic
Athabasca
Manitoba
Assiniboia
Prince Arthur
Prince George