>All Radio Hams used to have a callsign that started with G in the UK, and 9V >in Singapore, VH in Australia, ZK in New Zealand, etc. and the aircraft now >follow suit, but I don't doubt some other bureacracy has taken over, and >the CAA will assign 'private' call-signs according to the protocols already >mentioned, in the manner of personalised number plates on cars, I guess.
We still do. I am from Canada. VE or VA are hams in Canada, Military a/c have VC callsigns, but Canadian civil aviation have CF or CG
Broadcast stations used to follow the same policy, but marketing mavens having taken over all aspects of life to the detriment of sanity, they now call themselves by a slogan, i.e. CKFM now calls itself MIX-99, which to my way of thinking is a British callsign. CJRT now calls itself JAZZ-FM, which should be Japanese.
Don't try to make any sense out of it, you will go mad!
If you listen to "Tony Hancock, the Radio Ham" you will hear a lot of callsigns that don't make any sense at all.
CAA will assign 'private' call-signs according to the protocols already >mentioned, in the manner of personalised number plates on cars, I guess.
Callsigns are used, instead of aircraft registrations, in situations where it will aid operations or billing (you knew money had to be there somewhere).
For airlines and ATC it helps that a callsign and number tells them where the flight is going. For other operations the callsign tells the authorities where to send the airways bill - normal practice is to bill the owner of the registration but these days many operators are lessees or managers and callsigns (or ICAO identifiers) speed the billing process.
In the UK, having the 3rd and 4th letters the same seems to be a mark of being a major airport - or thinking you are. In the first category, EGLL, EGKK ( which is in the part of England where K is frequently the 3rd letter, e.g. EGKA Shoreham, EGKB Biggin Hill, EGKR Redhill), so to make it KK was, I guess, an easy choice. Also in the first group, EGCC.
You can get a good head of steam going over some others - EGAA, EGBB, EGHH.
I remember training a Canadian pilot who had come to work for us some years ago.
One night, we were headed for Luton and, on looking at the PLOG, he said to me "How can you guys say that you are logical? How in God's name can you get Luton to come up as EGGW?"
I was then compelled to ask him how he could explain away CYQX for Gander!
I was then compelled to ask him how he could explain away CYQX for Gander!
or CYYZ for Toronto, or CYUL for Montreal ( Dorval ) - or any of them !
Epsom and Watford NDB's used to have illogical codes as well - can't remember them now, tho' doubtless I'll be told shortly, whereas the Americans tried to make aviation easy - the KISS method, so that the morse identifiers of the approach aid bore some resemblance to the airfield, i.e. for Idlewild ( now Kennedy ) the field was KIDL, the ILS IDL, the outer marker ID and the inner marker DL ( or similar, don't pick me up on detail, 50 years is a long time ago - but the British seemed to have a culture of one having to be a member of The Club to understand what was going on ! When the Stuff hits the Fan simplicity is the way to go.
They are easy to explain. They consist of distinctive combinations of dots and dashes in Morse Code, as used in the original ndb beacons of the last century. It is a lot more certain that you have the ID correct when you alternate dots and dashes, rather than having a pilot count dots in possible atmospherics.
Sometimes, the marine NDBs pre-dated the aviation ones. On such example is Toronto City Centre, which is named after the Island's TZ NDB at Gibraltar Point.
Of course, changing them to something more recognisable would require positive government action!
Last edited by ve3id : 23rd October 2009 at 15:27.
Reason: speling
Someone more knowledgeable will no doubt be along, but basically if an airfield is a Parent ATSU in the UK it has a double-letter ident - e.g. EGKK (GatwicK), EGCC (ManChester), EGBB (Birmingham). Airfields for whom they are the parent ATSU have the first three letters and then a letter loosely connected to the name of the airfield e.g. Welshpool, parent ATSU Manchester EGCC, is EGCW; ShorehAm (Gatwick) is EGKA; Wellesbourne (Birmingham) is EGBW.
For some reason some airfields were parented by the FIR (EGTT) and consequently have EGT+ a letter (Kidlington = EGTK). Military airfields tend to be EGV, EGU, EGO, EGD &c for reasons I don't undersand (eg. Lyneham = EGDL, Brize NNNNorton is EGVN, Benson is EGUB).
There is a logic - it's just a complicated one.
Tim
(PS and it doesn't help that the ICAO prefix for us is EG not K - we have only two letters to play with against the US's three)
Maybe Wille Nelson, didn't he drink Old Bushmills ?
Remember laboriously tapping out the dashes and dots with ones' pencil, getting to about a count of 50, when the door would burst open, and a raucous female voice shout " anyone for a coffee ? " Oh ! for f****s sake, piss off One, Two, Three, Four etc. !!!
Linear Mode
