Where did the “W” and “K” call letters come from?
Before 1908, a station could pick and use what ever call sign it desired. Some calls were (largely due to the original usage of Morse Code) one or two letters. For instance, DeForest’s station in New York was called “NY.” Others used various combinations of letters and numbers. The letters “W” and “K” were randomly assigned to the USA (along with “N”) in 1909 by the predecessor of the International Telecommunications Union. [NOTE: KAA-KCZ was originally allocated to Germany, and not used in the U.S. until 1929.] The first call signs were issued in sequential order, with no meanings attached, although there seem to be a few that are more than simple coincidence. It was an attempt to make some sense out of an industry that, in 1909, they clearly had NO CLUE what was coming. Original DOC policy was all combinations beginning with the letter N were reserved for Government stations and the combinations from WUA to WVZ and WXA to WZZ were reserved for Army stations. KDA to KZZ, with a few ex
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