At 11:14 21/8/2002 -0400, you wrote:

Boy, I wish the U.S. was so lavish with the special prefixes! Jay
N3DQU

Hi Jay,

I don't think they are any US prefixes left as special - they
are all issued with regular callsigns.

73 Costas SV1XV

Right you are, Costas. Up until 1975, the only prefixes used for US
amatuers were W and K. That meant the entire AA-AL (and N)
series had never been used. So during the US Bicentennial, all US
hams were allowed to used special prefixes. WAs became AAs,
WBs became ABs, Ws became ACs, Ks became ADs, and so on.
(Actually, I forget the rest. I'm sure there were specials for WN, KH,
KL, KP, WH, WL, and WP, which should have been the only other
amateur prefixes then, but I don't remember them. If anyone cares,
I'm sure I could look it up in an old QST.)

Then, in 1978 or so, the FCC opened up the current callsign
assignment rules, so ALL available (one- and two-letter) prefixes can
be assigned routinely. Although some were never issued
sequentially, all are available under the vanity program.

The only NEW prefixes that could be given out now are ones that
have more than two letters. But these have been used for other
purposes, such as MARS, so I believe it will be a long time before
there is another general "special prefix" program in the United
States, such as the ones that our Canadian friends seem to enjoy so
frequently.

Steve
W3HF