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The call sign SM?HF had at least three owners. This page provides details concerning its background and history.
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DXCC COUNTRY PREFIXES
The official list of DXCC country prefixes is available at QRZ. The ITU ideas of call sign construction are elaborated here. For reasons of comparison you may also take a look at the ISO 3166 list of country codes.
NUMERAL
In Swedish call signs, the district numeral (#) does change depending on the owner´s county of main residence. Originally, the numerals were 1 to 7. The numerals 8, 9 and Ø were not used.
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# |
COUNTY LIST OLD |
COUNTY LIST NEW |
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1 |
Gotland |
Gotland |
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2 |
Norrbotten, Västerbotten |
Norrbotten, Västerbotten |
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3 |
Jämtland, Västernorrland
Gävleborg |
Jämtland, Västernorrland
Gävleborg |
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4 |
Dalarna, Värmland, Örebro |
Dalarna, Värmland, Örebro |
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5 |
Stockholm, Västerås, Uppsala
Södermanland, Östergötland |
Västerås, Uppsala, Södermanland
Östergötland, (Stockholm*) |
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6 |
Västergötland, Halland |
Västergötland, Halland |
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7 |
Jönköping, Kronoberg, Blekinge
Malmö, Kalmar |
Jönköping, Kronoberg, Blekinge
Malmö, Kalmar |
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8 |
not used |
special |
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9 |
not used |
special |
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Ø |
not used |
Stockholm |
As an example, with QTH in the county of "Värmland" the call sign had to be SM4HF. For the county of Stockholm we had a special development. A group of counties in mid Sweden, including Stockholm, used to have the humeral "5", meaning that my home county (Stockholm) call sign had to be SM5HF.
* Eventually, it was decided to give the county of Stockholm its own numeral, the "Ø" (zero). However, those Stockholm hams who had already received their call signs were offered the option to keep their "5" numeral. Several hams accepted this option, including myself. Hence my home QTH call sign is SM5HF and not SMØHF - in spite of my Stockholm county QTH.
MARINE AND MOBILE
The Marine and Mobile call signs will be covered in a later page edition, as well as the rules for "Vanity Calls".
PREFIX AND SUFFIX
Only one registered amateur can have the prefix "SM" combined with the suffix "HF". The numeral is a variable. I have been issued the call sign SM5HF to be used when transmitting from my home QTH. If transmitting from a summer residence elsewhere in Sweden, I shall have to use the local county numeral. In other words the call signs SMØHF, SM1HF, SM2HF, SM3HF, SM4HF, SM5HF and so forth - belong to one and the same ham, physically moving through the districts.
Once, the "SM" (individual stations), "SK" (club stations) and "SL" (military club stations) prefixes were the only ones in use by Swedish hams. The DX hunters' insatiable hunger for more DXCC points, however, forced the release of practically all the ham prefixes that have been allotted to Sweden. The Swedish hunters assumed that new prefixes would serve as baits, deluding other hunters to believe that they were listening to new DX countries - offering the Swedes an advantage in pile-ups.
Hence, you may now encounter Swedish prefixes like "SA", "SB", "SC", "SD", "SE", "SF", "SG", "SH", "SI", "SJ", "SK", "SL", "SM", "7S", "8S". The multitude of prefixes is confusing, particularly after noting that several call signs with differing prefixes can be issued to one and the same person/station. In the earlier days I was (during local VHF/UHF ring QSO's) the only Swedish ham responding to the abbreviated call "5HF". Today, some 15 hams may respond to the same abbreviation.
When you have received your DXCC point, after working one of those prefixes, that's all you get. If you are lured to hunt for the other Swedish prefixes, your result is just a loss of the time that you could otherwise have used to collect DXCC points from other countries. You have been conned. At least until somebody comes up with the bright idea of launching a "WAPS" or "WAPOS" certificate (Worked All Prefixes of Sweden), not to be confused with "WASP" (Worked All Scottish Prefixes).
RECIPROCAL
While I hold the Norwegian call LA8ZF in addition to the Swedish SM5HF, I may use the call SMØ/LA8ZF when transmitting from a location in Stockholm county. Operating from e.g. Gotland, I may use SM1/LA8ZF.
THREE OWNERS
The information concerning the first two owners of this call has been provided by SM5OK. All three owners moved two times to new addresses during their period of ownership, but stayed within their respective counties.
SM#HF No1
SM5HF Franzén, Hans Bertil
Licensed 1947-01-01 in county of Stockholm
1) Bäckvägen 153, Stockholm 32
2) Boktryckarvägen 18, Hägersten
3) Gyllenbergs gt 10, Stockholm K
SM#HF No2
SM4HF Norgren, Carl Sigurd
Licensed 1954-02-16 in county of Värmland
1) Skogsrundan 182, Karlskoga
2) Strandvägen 24A, Karlstad
3) Åttkantgatan 6C, Karlstad
SM#HF No3
SM5HF Odell, Björn Lennart
Licensed 1963-10-07 in county of Stockholm
1) Turebergsvägen 14, Sollentuna (Tureberg)
2) Bergåsvägen 16, Sollentuna (Töjnan)
3) Ulvsätersvägen 4, Sollentuna (Edsviken) since 1970
My original call sign was LA8ZF, licensed 1957-05-13 in Norway. Address: Villa Sandborg, Kråkstadveien, SKI, Norway.
I moved to Sweden in 1958, as Norwegian citizen. At that time, Swedish call signs were issued only to Swedish citizens, and reciprocal licensing was not yet invented. Hence, I was unable to obtain a Swedish call sign until 1963.
In the meantime, my Norwegian call expired but by courtesy of the Norwegian PTT I was able to have it restored in 2004.
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