USA call areas

USA callsign numbers mean little these days.

At one time you could be sure where a station was located in the USA by his number. W4 for example was Florida or nearby and W6 California or nearby.  KF1BUZ is monitoring 10m JT65 but he is located in Nevada! A W6 could be in New England now!

I blame it on the FCC. Whoever thought up the present scheme needs his/her head relocating to a different call area. As someone located in Europe, the present system is poor.

Confusing American call areas?

At one time you knew where in the USA a station was located by its call area. No longer.  A W6 can be in New York and a W1 in California. In my view this is a very backward move.  Although it has been the case for a few years, it is now beginning to become a major problem.

Is this an FCC issue? They do seem to be so behind. 472-479kHz is still not allocated in the USA whereas we've had access to the band for 1.5 yrs now here in Europe. I don't think they yet have the 136kHz band even!

As an occasional user of the USA customs service, I wonder if the FCC uses similar people? The USA customs officers seem to be a "rum lot" with absolutely zero sense of humour. Where do they find these people?