On page 176 of Triumph of the Straight Dope, which by now all of us should have purchased, Eddie DiLao of Los Angeles asked, “Why do broadcasting call letters start with certain letters depending on what part of the world the station is in, e.g., K in the U.S. west of the Mississippi, W east of the Mississippi?” And you badly let him down with a poorly researched, often erroneous answer. For example, you state, “The starting letters of radio call signs were parceled out to the countries of the world by the Berlin International Radio Convention of 1912.” In 1912 there may have been a few stragglers still in Berlin, left over from an international radio convention held there back in 1906. But the 1912 convention was held in London. [Long enumeration of other errors deleted.] I pray that the above errors I’ve documented are the result of a grotesque sequence of typographical errors. If not, then my faith in Unca Cece’s omniscience has been badly shaken. For a detailed review of U.S. call-sign policy, please see www.ipass.net/-whitetho/
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In the 19th century, ships, telegraph sta-tions, etc, adopted call signs to aid in signaling, a practice that continued when ships and the shore stations serving them began to use radio. At first users picked their own signs, but that led to duplication. In an effort to get organized, the 1906 Berlin International Wireless Telegraph Convention declared that all ship and shore stations should have unique call signs consisting of three letters. The U.S., no doubt bridling at the thought of being told what to do, declined to ratify the convention until 1912, with the result that we had stations with two- or even one-letter call signs, plus many duplicates.
