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The ITU allocates call sign prefixes for radio and television stations of all types. These prefixes are agreed upon internationally, and are a form of country code. A call sign can be any number of letters and numerals but each country must only use call signs that begin with the characters allocated for use in that country. A few countries do not fully comply with these rules. Australia drops the VL prefix for broadcast stations, and Canada uses Chile's CB for its own Canadian Broadcasting Corporation stations. With regard to the second and/or third letters in the prefixes in the list below, if the country in question is allocated all callsigns with A to Z in that position, then that country can also use call signs with the digits 0 to 9 in that position. For example, the United States is assigned KA–KZ, and therefore can also use prefixes like KA1 or K5. Many large countries in turn have internal rules on how and where specific subsets of their callsigns can be used (such as Mexico's XE for AM and XH for FM radio and Television broadcasting), which are not covered here.
Fictional call signs The following ranges of call signs are not used, so can be used as examples and as call signs of fictional countries. Table of Allocation of International Call Sign Series View as grid chart (S19.33 Between radiocommunication conferences, the Secretary-General is authorized to deal with questions relating to changes in the allocation of series of call signs, on a provisional basis, and subject to confirmation by the following conference.) | ||||||||
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