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Call letters, or a call sign, was a radio identifier used for identifying a starship. This identifier was an alphanumeric sequence. Ships carried in their library computers a database listing the call letters of most registered ships and planets. Ships operating in neutral space who used call letters weren't always known by name. When a ship was in distress, it was customarily for that ship to include its call letters in the distress call. When a ship was acting friendly, it was customarily for it to transmit its call sign. An official organization assigned a unique call letter to each ship.

In 2254, the USS Enterprise was able to identify a radio-interference distress call as coming from the SS Columbia based on that ship's call letters. (TOS: "The Cage", "The Menagerie, Part I")

The call letters of the Columbia were seen on a print-out; however, they weren't legible.

Eleven years, in 2265, the Enterprise was able to identify a distress call as coming from the SS Valiant based on that ship's call letters. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")

Less than a century later, in 2364, the USS Enterprise-D received no call letters from the USS Stargazer as the cruiser approached the larger ship. (TNG: "The Battle")

A year later, in 2365, the Enterprise received the call sign of the Erstwhile as the cargo ship approached the larger ship. (TNG: "The Outrageous Okona")

Call letters were a radio identifier used for a private transmitter.

In 2267, Captain James T. Kirk ordered his communications officer Nyota Uhura to contact his brother George Samuel Kirk and his family on planet Deneva. Uhura recognized the alphanumeric sequence as being a call sign assigned to one of these transmitters. (TOS: "Operation -- Annihilate!")

Call letters were used as a radio identifier for a planet.

In 2366, the Enterprise-D didn't receive the call signs of the Federation colony on Rana IV. The planet had been devastated by a Husnock attack. (TNG: "The Survivors")

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