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A ham is initially licensed in Hawaii as KH6ABC (example only). If he subsequently moves to the mainland, can he keep his geographically restricted "KH" call sign or must it be changed?

SDsolar
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Lance
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  • btw, KH is not geographically restricted. It simply indicates where the operator was licensed. – SDsolar Feb 25 '17 at 08:24
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    Yes, KH, KL, KP, WH, WL, or WP are geographically restricted to Hawaii, Alaska, and the Pacific islands respectively.

    I can live in the 3 region in the US and still request a 6 call sign if I want to. I cannot, however, request a KH unless I actually live in Hawaii.

     – Lance Feb 25 '17 at 15:32
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    You are correct, @Lance. In that sense they are geographically restricted. Upvote. I interpreted the OP to mean concern about operating outside of Hawaii. – SDsolar Feb 26 '17 at 00:02
  • I know this thread is more than a year old, but I was involved in a similar debate in a Chilean FB group and just found this one. I believe Scott is right, but since Hawaii, Alaska, etc. are different "entities," shouldn't it be more appropriate to add the temporary prefix instead? I mean, if KH6ABC is operating from California and wants to state their current location, shouldn't they identify themselves as W6/KH6ABC? (during a Contest, for example). Or, conversely, if I'm operating from Alaska, shouldn't I identify myself as KL7/W6EUH? – Marcelo W6EUH Dec 15 '18 at 21:02
  • Yes, for example KH6XX/W0 was operating from Kansas on 20m recently. – AI7OW May 18 '23 at 15:30

1 Answers1

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He or she can certainly keep the KH callsign and use it anywhere in the US and territories. (I wonder if he or she thought that when operating in Samoa? There are two sides there, as you probably know. But since the non-American side is a territory the same rules apply.)

Common convention is to append it with the location where the station (even a HT) is operating.

So, if in California, you might identify on SSB as "KH6ABC slant 6" so people won't pile up wanting Hawaii for WAS.

If in Morse code, you use the slash character, as in "KH6ABC/6" (-..-.)

But these are conventions, not rules. So it is perfectly all right to just use your native callsign wherever you go in the US.

Outside the US, especially for events (such as climbing Mt. Everest) the entire expedition is generally given a callsign just for that event. This is where WARC comes in. It is not complicated but needs to be taken into account by the expedition leader.

Inside the US it is pretty simple. Myself, I am AL7** and though am in California, ID myself as AL7**.

Where it gets interesting is if you to Alaska - where it would be "KH6ABC/KL7" or "KH6ABC slant KL7." (KL7 means Alaska, whether a wl7, kl7 or an al7). (Edited to correct prior "/L7", which may not be used per Part 97 as it conflicts with a country prefix)

The FCC requires that you identify yourself. That's the end of the story with them. Their goal is to encourage the hobby, not to fine people like with broadcast stations.

FYI, they are serious about ID requirements. Simply keying up a repeater to see if you can reach it does not fit the criteria for lawful identification. Enforcement actions are rare but can happen if it is deemed to be harmful interference.

Here is an interesting story along those lines, in which an operator was fined for failure to identify: ID requirements

In a case like this, the operator should have said something like "AL7EM Test" and the fine could have been averted.

Red Anne
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SDsolar
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    Thank you for the detailed explanation. You confirmed how I believed it to be. I know in the US, you keep your region even if you move. I thought the WH, WL, & WP prefixes might be more controlled but you confirmed that they're not. Thanks again! – Lance Feb 25 '17 at 15:31
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    L7 is a prefix belonging to Argentina, not the US. You would need to identify yourself as "KH6ABC/KL7" or similar for that to be factually correct. http://ac6v.com/prefixes.htm – Scott Earle Mar 01 '17 at 00:17
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    L7 is not a prefix. W, K, A, N are USA prefixes. The L7 afterwards specifies the region, to differentiate it from a normal 7. For instance, I am AL7EM - Advanced, Alaska. A7EM it would be from the contiguous USA, not from the far north. Just like a KH6 means Hawaii, but a K6 could be California. – SDsolar Mar 01 '17 at 04:05
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    A7 belongs to Qatar, and L7 belongs to Argentina. If you are AL7EM and are in Hawaii, you should identify as AL7EM/KH6. If you are KH6ABC operating in Alaska, you should identify yourself as KH6ABC/KL7. But importantly, your example of A7EM is nonsensical - the "non-Alaskan" US equivalent would probably be AA7EM (or AB7EM ... all the way to AK7EM, remembering that AM-AZ belong to other countries) - I also downvoted this answer because it contains misleading information. If you edit it to correct that information, I will remove the down vote – Scott Earle Jul 03 '17 at 03:19
  • @SDsolar, I believe that Scott is correct, even though he is not a US citizen (and under the FCC rules). Could you point us to a website that says it's legal to end with /L7? (such as FCC or ARRL) – Mike Waters Jul 04 '17 at 00:45
  • I am not a US citizen, but I held a US Extra class licence for ten years ;) – Scott Earle Jul 04 '17 at 00:47
  • Nobody actually does the L7 thing. But it would be correct. These days, nobody bothers to change their callsigns to indicate their physical location. All the FCC cares about is your mailing address. That is your home address for correspondence. On-air, if I hit a repeater in this state with an AL7 callsign it would be foolish to waste time telling them that I am actually not in Alaska. And if you go up there and get on a repeater it would be obvious to everyone involved that you are not a local. Where location becomes important is contests. For those you use grid square IDs. – SDsolar Jul 04 '17 at 04:14
  • There is another legality, btw. When I ran a packet PBBS at the National Guard Armory it was ID'd as my callsign with a -1 on it to indicate that it was not just me. When I signed intot the PBBS I could be mobile or at the base, and I used my normal callsign. But the PBBS sent out a digital beacon every 10 minutes (whether busy or not) identifying itself as AL7**-1, and that is how I connected to it. I don't think there is a limit to how many you can operate, but they all had to have a dash then a number beginning at 1 to indicate they were remote stations. – SDsolar Jul 04 '17 at 04:18
  • The reason repeaters don't do this is because you do not need to digitally identify in order to use them, so there is no ambiguity even if the repeater operator gets on his own repeater and makes contacts. Only digipeaters, store-and-forward messaging systems and PBBS systems had that kind of addressing. – SDsolar Jul 04 '17 at 04:19
  • Here's another head-scratcher. When I was on MARS frequencies I had to identify as ALM7** which I thought was totally wrong. The L7 after the A is what makes it Alaska, then the M should come after that, I thought. So it should have been AL7M** instead. ---> So we put the PBBS inside the normal band at 145.010 so regular hams could interact with us and get sitreps and things. It was quite helpful for everybody involved. One disaster we worked was a nearly 40,000 acre wildfire in a populated area. Burned the cell towers. So a lot of traffic was "I'm Alive" messages. – SDsolar Jul 04 '17 at 04:25
  • I do see your point, @Mike and Scott, except when using the slash "/" you follow it with the SECOND character (numeral) (or in my case or Hawaii's case the letter and numeral). It is NOT the prefix. So I would be AL7**/6 here. Alaska's ham population is small enough that any residents from Outside are well known if they operate regularly. Anybody new would be specially welcomed as a guest. Keep in mind that Alaska is 1/3 the size of the contiguous states and only 600,000 people. Half live in Anchorage; 75,000 in Fairbanks, and tens of thousands live out in the wild and rely on radio – SDsolar Jul 04 '17 at 04:46
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    I still contend that /L7 is incorrect, because you are using the L7 as if it were a prefix (cf. people in Philippines identifying as xxxxx/DU2), but L7 is not a prefix that belongs to the US. As such, people operating from non-AK US should identify as xxxxx/KL7. You don't get to pick which part of the prefix you use - you need to use it all. The same operator could operate from WA quite happily as /7, because the 7 is just saying that whatever your callsign is, you are operating from the 7 call area. I will try and find an FCC rule for this. – Scott Earle Jul 04 '17 at 07:15
  • Also - officially, WL, AL, NL and KL are all allocated to Alaska - not just WL7, AL7, NL7 and KL7. – Scott Earle Jul 04 '17 at 10:02
  • This is a convention, not a rule, and therefore constitutes a "self-assigned indicator". It may not conflict with a country prefix and therefore "/L7" is unauthorized for use in the US, just as "L7/" would be. §97.119(c) – Red Anne Sep 26 '22 at 14:50