Call signs are frequently still used by North American broadcast stations, in addition to amateur radio and other international radio stations that continue to identify by call signs around the world. Each country has a different set of patterns for its own call signs. Call signs are allocated to ham radio stations in Barbados, Canada, Mexico and across the United States.
Many countries have specific conventions for classifying call signs by transmitter characteristics and location. The call sign format for radio and television call signs follows a number of conventions. All call signs begin with a prefix assigned by the International Telecommunications Union. For example, the United States has been assigned the following prefixes: "AAA"–"ALZ", "K", "N", "W". For a complete list, see international call sign allocations.
Pertaining to their status as former or current colonies, all of the British West Indies islands shared the VS, ZB–ZJ, ZN–ZO, and ZQ prefixes. The current, largely post-independence, allocation list is as follows:
Cuba uses the prefixes "CL"–"CM", "CO", and "T4", with district numbers from 0 to 9 to amateur operations.
The Dominican Republic uses the prefixes "HI"–"HJ".
All of the French possessions share the prefix "F". Further divisions that are used by amateur stations are:
Haiti has been assigned the callsign prefixes "HH" and "4V".
The Kingdom of the Netherlands use the "PA"–"PI" prefixes, while the Netherlands Antilles use the "PJ" prefix. Aruba has been assigned "P4" by the ITU.