plaws (N5UWY/VE2UWY; he/him) on Nostr: Two interesting #hamr tidbits here. One, US ‘W’ prefixes began at the beginning ...

Two interesting #hamr tidbits here. One, US ‘W’ prefixes began at the beginning of 1929. Before nations were required to make their amateur stations use their national callsign blocks, there were IARU-sponsored “international intermediates”. These were later replaced by “DE” once everyone was using national callsigns.

The other thing is that Q signals and other abbreviations and pro-signs were prescribed by law.

Interesting read.

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-DX/QST/20s/QST-1928-10.pdf