7J-8N

7J-8N Stations Categorization

A 7J-8N amateur call sign implies

1. a foreigner,
2. an individual under the call sign shortage in Area 1 — these two are sequentially assigned —,
3. an outside province,
4. a special event,
5. an ARISS school contact or
6. an emargency.

The following is not a written policy, but a follow-up categorization by the author. (8K and 8L are not used yet.)

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)
  | | | |
  | | | +-Permitted by the board
  | | |
  | | +-Special staion (permitted by the board)
  | |
  | +-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 school contact station:
  | PTT-controllable by elementary and junior high schoolers without ham radio licenses
  | (eg 8N#ISS)
  |
  +-Emergency: Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (8J3AAA-AMT, 1995)

7J — Foreigners who established their stations 1985-1999

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.

Exception — 7J1RL

7K-7N — Call Sign Shortage in Area 1

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).

8J — Special Event Stations

Prefix 8J is normally used for special event stations and for ARISS school conatact temporary stations. According to the result 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:

• The last character ($) should be a letter.
• # should be the area number.
• QRA-QTZ should be excluded.

Special Cases — Unusual Format Call Signs

Complete List of Unusual Format Call Signs Call Sign Event Year Call Area 8J90XPO The International Garden and Greenery Expo 1990 3 (Not 9) 8J2000 2000 AD 2000 1 (Not 2) 8M2000 8N2000 8M1C FIFA World Cup, Yokohama 2002 1

One more trivia. Strictly speaking, 8J1WJ for Boy Scouts World Jamboree in 1971, directly licensed by the Ministry (not by a branch), is located in Area 2, despite of its call area number.

Exception 1 — Antarctica and Arctica

Exception 2 — Satellites

Exception 3 — Emergency

8M — Special Event Stations, for a suffix alignment

Prefix 8M was exceptionally used only twice, to align a suffix among three stations for a same event.

• 8M2000
  with 8J2000 and 8N2000, all for AD2000 memorial.
• 8M1C
  with 8J1C and 8N1C, all for FIFA World Cup 2002.

8N — Special Event Stations, originally under either of two conditions

Prefix 8N gradually became popular for special event and ARISS school contact stations. Originally, 2001 and before, it 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.

Foreigners Operable

Before the first ever appearance of an 8N prefix in 8N1WCY in 1983, we had 8J1WJ and 8J3ITU as foreigners operable special event stations.
After the clearing away of the difference between 8J and 8N, 8J2AI became foreigners operable in 2005. In addition, 8J1XPO in 1985 was also a foreigners operable even its 8J prefix.

In Okinawa

Even in this era, prefix 8N6 is not mandatory for Okinawa. In fact, 8J6SMT and 8J6FTY existed in this region in 2000 and 2001 respectively.

Exception — 8N2000