> The MARS callsigns have changed a bit over the years. At one time
> they used prefixes which are now allocated to amateur radio.
All the 1x3 and 2x3 ham-call format call signs that were being used by the military services (including but not limited to MARS calls) were abandoned in the mid-1970s, and new 3x1, 3x2, and 3x3 calls were issued to MARS stations. The 3x call format is not a format allowed by the ITU for ham calls anywhere.
In USN-MC MARS, N0xyz calls became NNN0xyz. US Naval Reserve Center radio stations also had N#ayz calls assigned before 1975, where the # in the call was the naval district number. All those calls had to be changed to a non-ham format.
That allowed the FCC to begin issuing all those much more varied 1x1, 1x2, 1x3, 2x1, 2x2, and 2x3 calls-signs that began hitting the airwaves in 1977. Oddity: If you have a N#xy call sign, the chances are very good that the same *identical* call sign is also assigned to a US civil aircraft!
Mike / KK5F
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