The Washington times., 1924-01-15
Ii 7 | En- s
Of RADIO
FIXED
Lawrence Corridor, U. S. Ex-
pert, Explains How Nations
Regulate Wireless.
By NATHAN w. ROBERTSON.
It wasn't so long ago that call

By NATHAN w. ROBERTSON.
It wasn't so long ago that call
letters appeared to us to be a
mere conglomeration of jungled
letters assembled with no ar
rangement or plan. But we went
up to see Lawrence Corridor, of
the Department of Commerce and
had it all explained to US. He
has charge of assigning call num-
bers to all broadcasting stations
in the United States.
The United States is member of
the International Bureau of the Tele-
graphic Union (Radiotelegraphic
Service) at Berne, Switzerland, which
has assigned certain initial letters to
each country which is member Of
the union. The United States has
three initial letters-K, N and W.
which means that all call numbers of
| regular stations in America must
start with one of these three letters.
| The "N's' have been assigned to
the navy, leaving only the ks" and
"W's" for general use. Originally
the plan was that all ships on the
Atlantic and stations in the Eastern
part Of the country should have the
initial "W," and Western ships and
stations should use *" But it was
soon discovered that this did not
work because ships from the Pacific
came through the Panama Canal and
vice versa, until tx" and "W" no
longer meant anything distinctive.
About year ago, Corridor conceived
the idea Of assigning the Eastern
stations, which couldn't move around
and spoil the plan, with the ''W''s''
| and the Western stations, west of
the Mississippi. with ks" He has
since then followed that plan, but
few of the older stations, such as
kDKA and key, got in ahead OF him
and already had the "K's." AS
rule, however, the Eastern stations
can be distinguished from the West
ern by that means.
Numbers Show District.
In addition to the regular broad.
casting signals just mentioned there
are many call numbers starting
with a number such as 2XZ. Thes,
numbered call letters are divided
into three classes. First experi-
InentaI stations; second, technical
schools; and third, special amateurs,
Inc number always denotes the
radio district in which the station
Is located, there being nine districts
in this country.
At the number is followed by an
1t is an experimental station
III 1t is followed by a "Y" it is a
technlcal school and if followed bv
an amateur. Nearly all broad
casting stations have an expert.
mental signal, also, because using
tnls experimental signal it is not
SO restricted as to wave length,
ano can experiment on different
currents and meters, to find out
what will give the best results
All English broadcasting stations
start with number ike Iour
amateur and experimental stations
Canadian broadcasting stations ali
begin with the letter "C' as do
Mexican stations.
A movement has been started
rather recently to give code sta
tions the shorter numbers of three
letters and the radio telephony
stations the four letter call num-
bers because in spoken language
an additional letter makes little
difference, but in code it is
waste OF time to have four letters
to give over. and over again.
Hereafter when you hear a call
number other than "W" some.
thing, it is time to perk up your
ears because you may have gotten
q real DIX station