XPost: uk.radio.amateur   
   From: nomail@example.com   
      
   mm0fmf  wrote:   
   > ISTR there was some worldwide standard that all amateur callsigns were   
   > only 6 characters long. Then the Australians introduce 7 character   
   > callsigns and broke lots of software that only allowed for 6 characters.   
      
   I think it never was a "worldwide standard" but just something that   
   software writers had observed, and had assumed it was a standard.   
      
   It is similar to the assumption that every country in the world only   
   uses the 7-bit ASCII character set, and then not supporting special   
   characters outside that set.  Was common for software writers, but   
   never was "standard".   
      
   Here in the Netherlands a special-event callsign (at the moment) can be   
   up to 12 characters in length.  That has been even more in the past.   
   It also does not conform to the "valid amateur callsign" checks written   
   in many programs: it has to be 2 letters, then the digit 6 or 2 other   
   digits, then at most 8 other characters which can be letters or digits   
   but the last character must be a letter.   
      
   So, PA123456789A is a valid callsign, so is PA12AAAAAAAA or even   
   PA12A4A6A89A.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)