Asiatic RussiaR9: Urals and West Siberia
Callsigns beginning with R9 were issued in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Omsk… (R8/R9), in Asiatic Russia. The same area appears in the series UA9, RA9, RK9, RN9, RU9, RV9, RW9, RX9, RZ9, UB9, UD9, UE9, UF9, UG9, UH9, UI9, R8, UA8, RA8, RK8, RN8, RU8, RV8, RW8, RX8, RZ8, UB8, UD8, UE8, UF8, UG8, UH8, UI8.
Call area
Asiatic Russia spans CQ zones 16, 17, 18, 19 and ITU zones 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, and a call keeps its area when its holder moves: ask the station for its zone.
How call areas work in Asiatic Russia
Russian callsigns carry the region in the digit. 1 is the northwest with St. Petersburg, 3 the centre with Moscow, 4 the Volga, 6 the south and the North Caucasus: together they make European Russia. 8, 9 and 0 are Asiatic Russia, with 9 and 8 for the Urals and western Siberia and 0 for eastern Siberia and the Far East.
The R and UA to UI series share the digits, and the letter after the digit names the oblast, which settles the few edge cases between the two entities. Kaliningrad (UA2) and Franz Josef Land are DXCC entities of their own.
Portable and moved stations
Operators away from home often add a suffix such as /P or the number of the area they are in, and many keep a R9 call after moving. For awards the place of operation counts, so the prefix is a strong hint, not proof.