Call signs are allocated to ham radio stations in Barbados, Canada, Mexico and the United States.
For example, the United States has been assigned the following prefixes: AAA–ALZ, K, N, W. For a complete list, see international call sign allocations.
Pertaining to their status as former or current colonies, all of the British West Indies islands shared the VS, ZB–ZJ, and ZN–ZO prefixes.
The current, largely post-independence, allocation list is as follows: Cuba uses the prefixes CL–CM, CO, and T4, with district numbers from 0 to 9 for amateur operations.
Canadian broadcast stations are assigned a three-, four-, or five-letter base call sign (not including the "-FM", "-TV" or "-DT" suffix) beginning with CB, CF, CH, CI, CJ, CK, VF, or VO.
Special call signs for contests or celebrations are occasionally issued, often in the 4A and 6D series, although these will follow the usual district numbering system (4A3 for the south, etc.).
Initial letters AA through AL, as well as N, are internationally allocated to the United States but are not used for broadcast stations.
In the United States, broadcast stations have call signs of three to seven characters in length, including suffixes for certain types of service, but the minimum length for new stations is four characters, and seven-character call signs result only from rare combinations of suffixes.