Amateur Radio – What is this ?

There are many other people much more mandated to talk about this subject. I pasted some links to international and national amateur radio societies below for your information.

The funny combinations of letters and figures you see on my pages, e.g. F5VAG, are official amateur radio callsigns issued by national radio regulatory authorities after a successful examination. Every country has an individual prefix for the callsigns allocated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) , e.g. F for France.

As far as I'm concerned, I passed my exam 1966 in Berlin, Germany, and obtained the callsign DL7MW. At that time the prefix DL7 was attributed to all stations in former West-Berlin.

After my move to France in 1992, I was given my current callsign F5VAG. The prefix F5V is reserved for alien permanent residents in France. It distinguishes them from French nationals radio licensees, which can't have a V after the figure in their callsigns.

In parallel, I still hold my initial callsign DL7MW. I need it for operation in other countries were the callsign according to my nationality is required, e.g. in the US. You can hear me from time to time as W6/DL7MW, W6 being the prefix for California.

Here now the links to some Amateur Radio societies for further information, if you are interested: