7J-8N PREFIX AMATEUR STATION |-Foreigner licensed 1985-1999 (7J#$$$) | |-Individual in Area 1, licensed in the call sign shortage 1990-2003 (7[K-N][1-4]$$$) | +-Special call sign (7J1RL, 8J's, 8M2000, 8M1C and 8N's) |-Special place: outside Japan | |-Polar region | | |-Antarctic region | | | |-JARL Antarctic station (8J1RF, RL, RM) | | | +-Individual (8J1AA-AD, 1958-1961) | | | | | +-Arctic region (8J1NP, 1978) | | | |-Another Country/Entity: Okinotorishima I. (7J1RL, 1976) | | | +-Space: Satellite itself (8J1JAS, JBS, JCS) | |-Commemoration | |-JARL | | |-Specially commemorative station | | | |-Regular | | | | |-Hamfair (8J1HAM, 8N1HAM, 8J1A) | | | | |-ITU Day (8J#ITU, -2003) | | | | +-IARU HF Championship (8J3XHQ, 8J3JHQ, 8N#JHQ, 8N#HQ) | | | | | | | +-Screened | | | | | +-Special staion | | | +-Other amateur organization | | | |-Boy scouts | | |-World Jamboree (8J1WJ, 1971) | | |-Japan Jamboree (eg 8J6BSJ) | | |-Prefectural Camboree (8N3BSN, 2005) | | +-100th Annversary (8J1S, 8J100S) | | | |-Lions club (8N3LIO, 2002) | | | |-ITU Association Japan (8J1ITU, 2002-) | | | |-Rotary club (8N3RI, 2004) | | | +-Other club | | | |-Local Club (eg 8J8EXP) | | | +-JARL prefectual branch (8J4WLC, 2002) | |-ARISS project station operationalized for elementary and junior high schoolers without thier own ham tickets | (eg 8N#ISS) | +-Emergency: Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (8J3AAA-AMT, 1995)
Prefix 7J is for foreign amateurs who reside in Japan under reciprocal permit since Sept. 17, 1985. But on May 28, 1999, the Japanese authority has announced that, for non-Japanese, they will start to use the same call sign series as the Japanese. No discriminations any more. (But maybe 7J's sound better....) So the 7J prefix will not be issued any more, while existing stations can continue to use their original 7J call signs (in addition, an old holder can bring back his/her expired 7J call sign). They were issued sequentially from 7J#AAA, while 7J6C$$ means 7J's in Okinawa (normally US military). A club station having a foreigner representative which the authority granted since 1993 uses the 7J#Y$$ block.
| Area | Foreigners Licensed before 1999 | Special Event |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individuals 1985-1999 | Clubs 1993-1999 | # of Survivors and the Last Call Signs (As of Apr. 29, 2006) | |||||
| Allocated | Issued | Allocated | Issued | Individuals | Clubs | ||
| 1 | 7J1AAA-DZZ | -7J1BBR | 7J1YAA-YMZ | -7J1YAN | 62 (7J1BBO) | 7 (7J1YAK) | |
| 2 | 7J2AAA-CZZ | -7J2AIE | 7J2YAA-YMZ | -7J2YAF | 38 (7J2AIC) | 1 (7J2YAF) | |
| 3 | 7J3AAA-CZZ | -7J3BAE | 7J3YAA-YMZ | -7J3YAK | 103 (7J3BAC) | 8 (7J3YAK) | |
| 4 | 7J4AAA-BZZ | -7J4AEF | 7J4YAA-YMZ | -7J4YAC | 17 (7J4ADU) | 2 (7J4YAC) | |
| 5 | 7J5AAA-BZZ | -7J5AAR | 7J5YAA-YMZ | -7J5YAA | 3 (7J5AAL) | 0 | |
| 6 | 7J6AAA-BZZ | -7J6ADH | 7J6YAA-YMZ | -7J6YAB | 12 (7J6ADF) | 1 (7J6YAA) | |
| 7 | 7J7AAA-BZZ | -7J7ADB | 7J7YAA-YMZ | -7J7YAA | 2 (7J7ACT) | 0 | |
| 8 | 7J8AAA-BZZ | -7J8ABB | 7J8YAA-YMZ | -7J8YAA | 5 (7J8ABB) | 1 (7J8YAA) | |
| 9 | 7J9AAA-BZZ | -7J9AAW | 7J9YAA-YMZ | -7J9YAA | 4 (7J9AAU) | 0 | |
| 0 | 7J0AAA-BZZ | -7J0ABP | 7J0YAA-YMZ | -7J0YAC | 4 (7J0ABK) | 2 (7J0YAC) | |
| JR6 | 7J6CAA-CZZ | -7J6CEQ | 7J6YNA-YQZ | — | 10 (7J6CEK) | 0 | |
| JD1 | Included in Area 1 mainland | 7J1RL | |||||
Prefixes 7K1-7N1, 7K2-7N2, 7K3-7N3 and 7K4-7N4 were issued during the call sign shortage era Apr. 23, 1990 - June 20, 2003 for Area 1 (i.e. Not for Area 2, 3 and 4).
Prefix 8J is normally used for special event stations and for ARISS school conatact temporary stations. According to the reslt of WRC-03 — in Japan, applied on June 24, 2004 — the MIC permitted the applicant to select the any of from "single-" to "five-character" suffix as 8J#$, 8J#*$, 8J#**$, 8J#***$, 8J#****$; 8N#$, 8N#*$, 8N#**$, 8N#***$ or 8N#****$, under the following conditions:
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Prefix 8M was exceptionally used only twice, to align a suffix among three stations for a same event.
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Prefix 8N has gradually become popular for special event and ARISS school contact stations. Originally, 2001 and before, it had meant, but not mandatorily, a special event station (1) having availability to be operated by foreign amateurs without any reciprocal permit, or (2) locating in Okinawa as 8N6. Having been cleared away such special meanings, nowadays an applicant can select either 8J or 8N without any distinction — nevertheless it would be fact that 8N still implies that "more special than 8J" for us.
Before the appearance of the 8N prefix, we had 8J1WJ and 8J3ITU as foreigners operable special event stations.
After the clearing away of the difference between 8J and 8N, 8J2AI is becoming foreigners operable in 2005.
In addition, 8J1XPO in 1985 was also a foreigners operable even its 8J prefix.
| Call Sign | Event | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 8J1WJ | Boy Scouts World Jamboree | 1971 |
| 8J3ITU | The 14th CCIR Kyoto General Meeting | 1973 |
| 8N1WCY | World Amateur Radio Conference (in World Communications Year) | 1983 |
| 8J1XPO | International Science and Technologies Expo in Tsukuba '85 | 1985 |
| 8N1APT | APT Amateur Radio Seminar | 1994 |
| 8N3ITU | The 14th ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Kyoto | 1994 |
| 8N0WOG | Nagano Olympic Winter Game | 1998 |
| 8J2AI | The 2005 World Exposition, Aichi, japan | 2005 |
Even in this era (1991-2001), prefix 8N6 is not mandatory for Okinawa. In fact, 8J6SMT and 8J6FTY existed in this region in 2000 and 2001 respectively.
| Call Sign | Event | Year |
|---|---|---|
| JR6RL | Okinawa Internatonal Ocean Expo | 1975-76 |
| 8N6ARL | The 33rd JARL annual general meeting: "Yugafu General Meeting" | 1991 |
| 8J6SMT | Kyushu-Okinawa Summit -- Okinawa | 2000 |
| 8J6FTY | The fourtyth anniversary of amateur radios in Okinawa | 2001 |
| 8N6WUF | The 3rd World Uchinanchu (or Okinawa Prefectual People) Festival | 2001 |
| 8N6THY | The 30th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa to Japan | 2002 |
| 8N6HAM | Okinawa Amateur Radio Day | 2006 |
