Call signs in Canada

Special broadcast undertakings such as Internet radio, cable FM, carrier current or closed circuit stations may sometimes be known by unofficial identifiers such as "CSCR".

These are not governed by the Canadian media regulation system, and may be letter sequences that would not be permissible for a conventional broadcast station.

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).

VOAR is rebroadcast via internet connections in areas far removed from Newfoundland due to its unique Seventh Day Adventist Christian format.

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.

All Canadian FM stations have an "–FM" suffix, except for low-power rebroadcasters which have semi-numeric "VF" call signs.

For instance, Ici Radio-Canada Télé's O&O CBOFT-DT would represent "CBC Ottawa Français Télévision - Digital Television".

It assigns call signs, issues amateur radio licences, conducts exams, allots frequency spectrum, and monitors transmissions.

Canadian amateur radio stations call signs generally begin with "VE", "VA", “VO” 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.

The Canadian federal government's Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada allots the individual call signs to the radio amateurs it licenses.

Of these prefixes, 5 are currently assigned (CY, VA, VE, VO, and VY) for normal amateur radio operation.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada assigns regular operating call signs from 25 prefix/numeral blocks (e.g. VE1, CY9....).

The Recommendation ITU-R M.1172 [8] lists groups of letters from QOA to QUZ as abbreviations and signals to be used in radiotelegraphy communications.

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

Call sign prefixes are issued according to one's province or territory of residence by the following table: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada reserves the right to issue temporary special event call signs to licensed amateurs using the other available prefixes.

[9][16] Typically, for national or regional observances licensed amateurs add their suffix to the assigned special event prefix as per the following explanation.

For instance, VA3OR received the special event call CF3NAVY from June 4 to July 3, 2010 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Canadian provincial and territorial motor vehicle licensing authorities can issue special licence plates to amateurs resident in their jurisdiction.

Canadian civil aircraft display five-character registration letters that also function as radio call signs.

Eventually the CG block was added, and most aircraft registered since that time display the registration as either C-FAAA or C-GAAA.

In the post-war era of the fifties and sixties, Canadian military aircraft also utilized such five letter call signs; however these commenced with blocks in the V series such as VC and VD.

Canadian government coast stations operating in the maritime service are given three-letter call signs commencing with VA, VB or VC.

Weatheradio Canada stations (and some Coast Guard continuous marine broadcasts, mainly those in British Columbia utilizing the weather band) have call signs of three letters and three numbers,[24] issued from various "C", "V" or "X" Canadian prefix series.

For these stations, the federal government assigned three-letter call signs, starting with "XAA", that were issued in alphabetical order.

[29] Experimental stations later received call letters from a separate alphabetical sequence, starting with XWA in Montreal.

Concurrent with the restoration of amateur station licensing, there was a change to alphanumeric call signs, consisting of a regional number from 1 to 5, followed by two letters.

On February 1, 1927, European countries began using a two-letter prefix beginning with 'E' in front of their regional identifying numbers.

[34] In late April 1922 an initial group of twenty-three commercial broadcasting station licenses was announced, which received four-letter call signs starting with "CF", "CH", "CJ" or "CK", plus one additional "C" as the third or fourth letter.

Its stations were assigned call letters starting with "CB", and in Toronto CRCT became CBL and CRCY became CBY.