Call signs in Canada

Assignments

The International Telecommunication Union has assigned Canada the following call sign blocks for all radio communication, broadcasting or transmission:

While not directly related to call signs, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has further divided all countries assigned amateur radio prefixes into three regions; Canada is located in ITU Region 2.

These regions are further divided into two overlapping zone systems: the ITU zone and the CQ zone.

Four-letter call signs are the norm. Three-letter call signs are only permitted to CBC Radio stations or to commercial stations which already had a three-letter call sign before the current rules were adopted, and five-letter call signs exclusively identify CBC transmitters (which may be either rebroadcasters or Ici Radio-Canada Télé owned-and-operated stations outside of Quebec).

Stations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation tend to identify themselves as "CBC Radio One"/"CBC Radio Two" (English-language) or "La Première Chaîne"/"Espace Musique" (French-language) of a city, although they do have official three- and four- letter call signs. These generally (but not always) begin with "CB".

Call signs with four digits preceded by "VF" (for radio) or "CH" (for television) are only assigned to very-low-power local services, such as rebroadcasters or limited-interest stations similar to Part 15 operations in the United States; "VO" call signs may only be used commercially by stations in Newfoundland and Labrador which were licensed before that province joined the Canadian Confederation in 1949 (VOCM, VOAR and VOWR broadcast from St. John's long before confederation). Only one station, VOCM-FM, has been allowed to adopt a "VO" call sign after 1949. It was granted the VOCM calls because of its corporate association with the AM station.

All Canadian FM stations have an "–FM" suffix, except for low-power rebroadcasters which have semi-numeric "VF" call signs. Higher-power rebroadcasters are generally licensed under the call sign of the originating station, followed by a numeric suffix and, for FM re-broadcasters of an AM station, a "–FM" suffix. For example, CJBC-1-FM rebroadcasts CJBC (860 Toronto), whereas CJBC-FM-1 rebroadcasts CJBC-FM (90.3 Toronto). Some rebroadcasters, however, may have their own distinct call signs. Canadian television stations always use the "-TV" suffix, with the exception of those CBC-owned stations which have a call sign in the "CB-(-)T" format. Canadian digital transitional television undertakings have "-DT" suffixes, even where the base call sign is a CBC/Radio-Canada O&O in pattern "CB(insert third letter)T", "CB(insert third letter)ET" or "CB(insert third letter)FT" (respectively for English language or French language television). For instance, Ici Radio-Canada Télé's O&O CBOFT-DT would represent "CBC Ottawa Français Télévision - Digital Television". Canada does not use the "-LP" or "-CA" suffixes that are in use in the United States but makes limited use of "-SW" for privately owned shortwave radio stations.

For rebroadcasters which use a numeric suffix, the suffixes usually follow a 1–2–3 numeric sequence, which indicates the chronological order in which rebroadcast transmitters were added. There are some cases where television rebroadcasters are suffixed with the channel number on which the transmitter broadcasts (for instance, CIII-DT's rebroadcasters are numbered with their channel assignment rather than sequentially), but this is not generally the norm.

Experimental television stations in Canada had call signs beginning with "VX9".

The "CG" prefix is used by Canadian Coast Guard stations and ship-to-shore radio on federally owned ships. Coast Guard Radio stations have also used "VA" through "VF". Individual ships will use call signs with a Canadian two-letter prefix (such as "CF", "CY", "CZ", "VB", "VC" or "VY") followed by a four-digit number. Aircraft are identified with a prefix such as "CF" or "CG" followed by three letters. Military radio fixed stations also bear call signs in the "CF"-"CK", "CY"-"CZ", "VE" and "VX"-"VY" series. Environment Canada weather stations have call signs of three letters and three numbers, issued from various "C", "V" or "X" Canadian prefix series.

Amateur radio

Canadian amateur radio stations generally begin with "VE", "VA", or "VY". The number following these letters indicates the province, going from "VA1"/"VE1" for Nova Scotia, "VA2"/"VE2" (Québec), "VE3"/"VA3" (Ontario) through "VA7"/"VE7" for British Columbia and "VE8" for the Northwest Territories, with latecomer "VE9" for New Brunswick. ("VE1" used to be for all three Maritime provinces.) "VE0" is for maritime mobile amateur transmissions. "VY1" is used for the Yukon Territory, "VY2" for Prince Edward Island, and "VY0" for Nunavut. "CY0" and "CY9" are Sable Island (population 5) and St. Paul Island (uninhabited) ; with little or no local population, reception of these distant points is rare, although amateur radio stations do temporarily operate from these islands during shortwave radio contests. Special prefixes are often issued for stations operating at significant events.

The Dominion of Newfoundland prefix "VO" remains in active use by amateurs in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, VO1AA atop Signal Hill in St. Johns being the most famous amateur station. Radio amateurs on the Island of Newfoundland use calls beginning with "VO1", while Labrador amateurs use "VO2". A popular backronym for "VO" stations is "Voice of...", although prefixes do not have any official meaning.

There are 68,000 licensed operators in Canada with call signs. Industry Canada from the Canadian federal government allots the individual call signs to the radio amateurs it licenses. There are 24 possible 2-letter prefixes and 240 2-letter/1-number prefixes available to Canadian operators based on the ITU blocks (CF, CG, CH, CI, CJ, CK, CY, CZ, VA, VB, VC, VD, VE, VF, VG, VO, VX, VY, XJ, XK, XL, XM, XN, and XO). There are potentially approximately 4,340,000 call signs available in Canada.

Of these prefixes, 5 are currently assigned (CY, VA, VE, VO, and VY) for normal amateur radio operation. Industry Canada assigns regular operating call signs from 25 prefix/numeral blocks (e.g. VE1, CY9....). The other prefixes are assigned for special event operation for a time-limited period.

For Canadian amateur licences, suffixes of radio call signs usually comprise two or three letters, the former being available only to amateurs who have been licensed for 5 years or more. Amateurs can hold only one two-letter suffix call sign, but as many three-letter suffix call signs as they wish.

There are 18,252 possible combinations of two- or three-letter suffix call signs per prefix. Industry Canada follows Article 19 of the ITU Radio Regulations by disallowing 156 suffix-combinations because they may be confused with 3-letter communications signals (i.e. Q-codes) or other combinations which can be confused with distress signals. The Recommendation ITU-R M.1172 lists groups of letters from QOA to QUZ as abbreviations and signals to be used in radiotelegraphy communications. 'SOS' is also generally excluded, however the old distress call of 'CQD' can be allocated.

For occasional special events, 1-, 4-, or -5 letter suffixes can be assigned to a licensed operator for a specific period of time.

Canada is assigned DXCC entity #1, with the exception of Sable Is. and St.-Paul Is. which are DXCC entities #211 & #252 respectively. Call sign prefixes are issued according to one's province or territory of residence by the following table:

Special event call signs

Industry Canada reserves the right to issue temporary special event call signs to licensed amateurs using the other available prefixes.

Typically, for national or regional observances licensed amateurs add their suffix to the assigned special event prefix as per the following explanation. An individual amateur may apply for a single special event callsign that has any of the 24 prefixes and an appropriate suffix related to the event. For instance, VA3OR received the special event call CF3NAVY from 4 June to 3 July 2010 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Canadian Navy. In 1973 for the centennial of the RCMP a call sign VE3RCMP was issued and used from N division in Ottawa from April to November. The operators were all members of the RCMP who were also amateur radio operators.

For the special national event commemorating the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, from 1 Feb to 31 Mar 2010 amateurs could substitute VG for VA, VX for VE, XJ for VO, XK for VY so that an amateur with call sign VE3AAA could use VX3AAA, or VY0AAA could use XK0AAA.

Call Signs with more than one numeral

Some special event call signs have been issued by Industry Canada with more than one numeral. For instance, VE2008VQ was issued for the 400th anniversary of the founding of Québec City from June 28 to July 27, 2008. Also, CG200I was issued for the 200th Anniversary of the Lighthouse of L'Ile Verte (Green Island), Québec.

Technically speaking, the first digit is the numeral separating prefix from the suffix, and the rest are part of the suffix.

Automobile licence plates for amateur operators

Canadian provincial and territorial motor vehicle licensing authorities can issue special licence plates to amateurs resident in their jurisdiction. In British Columbia, The ICBC application form clearly allows only call signs beginning with VE7 or VA7, but calls from other jurisdictions sometimes slip through.

Reciprocal agreement with the United States

Under a reciprocal agreement between the United States and Canada, United States citizens licensed by the FCC can use their call sign within Canada as long as they affix the appropriate Canadian area-prefix to the end of their American call sign. For instance, a United States amateur with call sign W6AAA operating in British Columbia would sign as W6AAA/VE7.

History of call sign allocation

The following paragraphs outline the history of amateur call sign allocation in Canada.

before 1913

Before 1913 amateur and experimental operators in Canada identified with the initials of their name.

1913

The first regulation came in 1913 which required that an operator begin the call sign with an "X" (for "experimental"), followed by the first letter of their surname. The last letter in this 3-letter code was assigned in alphabetical order as people applied for a call sign.

The Berlin and London Radiotelegraphic Conventions of 1913 assigned the block VAA–VGZ to Canada; however, amateur radio stations were not yet part of this international lettering scheme.

1920

In 1920 a preceding number was added to the call to indicate the region within Canada the operator resided.

As international communication became more frequent, Canadian amateurs by habit put a prefix of 'C' in front of the number above, and Americans similarly used a 'U' as a prefix. On 1 Feb 1927, European countries began using a two-letter prefix beginning with 'E' in front of their regional identifying numbers. Following that practise North American operators put a leading 'N' in front of their calls, so that Canada's prefix became 'NC' and Americans used 'NU'. For example a British Columbia amateur would sign their transmissions with a prefix of NC5.

1929

At the International Radiotelegraph Conference (Washington, 1927) Canada was assigned the ITU blocks of CFA–CKZ and VAA–VGZ. These came into force 1 Jan 1929 and amateur radio was now included in the ITU lettering scheme. The amateur radio prefix used was 'VE' which replaced the prefix 'NC', as the N series had been allocated to the United States.

1946–1949

Following World War II, the International Radio Conference (Atlantic City, 1947) met and refined the international call sign blocks. Canada was issued with CFA–CKZ, CYA–CZZ, VAA–VGZ, VXA–VYZ, XJA–XOZ and 3BA–3FZ. These came into force 1 January 1949. The 3BA–3FZ block eventually was reallocated between Mauritius, Equatorial Guinea, Kingdom of Swaziland, Fiji, and Panama.

The Canadian government reformatted amateur call signs according to this table.

1949–1999

In 1949 Newfoundland and Labrador joined with Canada and the VOA–VOZ block of prefixes came with them. In 1954 the federal government made VE0 available to Canadian operators in international waters. The additions to the 1946 prefixes are summarized as: