Signalman 1 & C - Historic Naval Ships Association

communications personnel to handle it properly. Itcontains all the components shown in figure 3-3.STATION AND ADDRESSDESIGNATORSLEARNING OBJECTIVES: Define station andaddress designators; explain procedures forconstructing call signs and address groups. Listprocedures for establishing and maintainingcommunications.Station and address designators are anycombinations of characters or pronounceable wordsdesigned for use in message headings to identify acommand, authority, unit, or communications facility,or to assist in the transmission and delivery ofmessages. Station and address designators encompassfour categories: call signs, address groups, plainlanguage, and routing indicators.CALL SIGNSCall signs are letters, letter-number combinations,or one or more pronounceable words used forestablishing and maintaining communications. Callsigns may also be used as address designators whenthe call sign indicates the addressee or originator. Thefollowing list contains the different types of call signs:1. International2. Indefinite3. Net4. Tactical5. Voice6. Visual7. Signal letters of ships and signal lettersidentification numbers of aircraft when usedinternational call signsInternational Call SignsorasInternational call signs are assigned to radiostations in all countries—civil and military, afloat andashore—according to international agreement. Thefirst letter or first two letters of a call indicate thenationality of the station. The United States has thefirst half of the A block (through ALZ) and all of theK, W, and N blocks. The United States reserves A callsfor the Army and Air Force. The K and W blocks areassigned to commercial and private stations, merchantships, and others. The N block is for use by the Navy,Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.Naval shore communication stations havethree-letter N calls. If necessary, these calls may beexpanded by adding numerical suffixes. Thus,additional call signs are provided for facilities locatedremotely from the parent station. Examples are thefollowing:NAM. . . . .NAVCOMMSTA, NorfolkNAM1 . . . . Headquarters, CINCLANTFLT, NorfolkNAM2 . . . . Naval Shipyard, NorfolkInternational call signs assigned to U.S. navalships are four-letter N calls, which are usedunencrypted only. They have no security value; hencethey are authorized for use with Allied, civil, andmerchant stations. An example follows:NJUL. . . . .USS BAINBRIDGE (CG(N) 25)International call signs for USN, USMC, andUSCG aircraft are composed of the service designatorN, NM, or NC, respectively, followed by the last fourdigits of the serial number of the aircraft.Indefinite Call SignsIndefinite call signs represent no specific facility,command, authority, or unit, but may represent anyone or any group of these. Examples:NERKNAthrough NZ . . . . . (From) any U.S. Navy shipIndefinite call signs are used in codress messageheadings to conceal the identity of originators andaddressees. In such instances, the address componentis placed in the encrypted text.Net Call SignsNet call signs represent all stations within a net.(A net is a group of stations in direct communicationwith each other on a common channel.) Normally, netcall signs are not used in visual transmissions.Following is an example of a net call sign:NQN. . . . All U.S. Navy radio stations in thePacific guarding the ship-shore high-frequencycalling series3-11