Since WWII, the political status of Eritrea, and consequently its status in amateur radio, has changed several times.
The table below summarises the changes with respect to amateur radio in the post-war era.
Eritrea is a whitelisted DXCC entity. Please advise any missing Eritrean callsigns, to Alan, 5B4AHJ, email address on QRZ.COM, or via the Help Desk.
| Start date | End date | Political status | Counts for DXCC entity | Prefix | Comment | Stations known to have been QRV |
| 1945-11-15 | 1952-09-15 | British Mandated Territory | Eritrea | I6, MD3, MI3, MI6 | The deadline for termination of British administration of Eritrea, imposed by the UN General Assembly, was 1952-09-16. The British were still administering Eritrea in March, 1952. The actual date that British administration ceased (between March and September) is not known. Club Log uses an end date of 1952-09-15 for mapping these prefixes to Eritrea, and a start date of 1948-03-01 for mapping MI3 prefixes. M0XBF advises: "According to Short Wave Mag in March 1939, page 28, none of the many Italian stations active were officially licensed. Presumably the same was true of the I6 operators in Eritrea". RSGB Bulletin, November 1947, carries the following:
 | G3ZJ/I6, I1AHC/I6, I6AB, I6USA ,I6ZJ, W6VKV/I6, MD3AB, MI3DA, MI3DF, MI3DU, MD3MB, MD3MD, MI3AB, MI3AT, MI3BC, MI3BH, MI3CD, MI MI3DD, MI3DW, MI3DX, MI3EP, MI3FG, MI3FS, MI3GG, MI3GH, MI3HC, MI3IM, MI3JB, MI3JV, MI3KE, MI3KV, MI3KW, MI3LB, MI3LK, MI3LV, MI3LZ, MI3MK, MI3MM, MI3MX, MI3NA, MI3NJ, MI3RC, MI3RH, MI3RP, MI3RR, MI3SC, MI3SI, MI3SL, MI3TM, MI3US, MI3US, MI3UU, MI3VB, MI3VG, MI3XX, MI3ZJ, MI3ZX, MI3ZX, MI3ZZ, MI6AB, MI6BC, MI6ZJ |
| 1952-09-16 | 1954-04-30 | Loose federation with Ethiopia | Eritrea | MI3 | Some existing MI3 stations continued to be QRV after Eritrea formed a loose federation with Eritrea. These callls were all held by US operators. | MI3AT was QRV until at least `953. MI3KV was QRV as late as April 1954 (entry from the SWL log of BSWL 3423). MI3KW was QRV until at least April 1953.MI3LK was QRV until at least May 1953. MI3MK was QRV until at least December 1952.MI3SL was QRV until at least October 1952. MI3US was QRV until at least May 1953. |
| 1952-09-16 | 1962-11-14 | Loose federation with Ethiopia | Eritrea | ET2 | Club Log maps the ET2 prefix to Eritrea between the given dates. | ET2AB, ET2AG, ET2BP, ET2CG, ET2FM, ET2HM, ET2KY, ET2LB, ET2LV, ET2MZ, ET2NG, ET2OP, ET2PA, ET2RC, ET2RH, ET2TO, ET2US, ET2US/ET2, ET2US/P, ET2VB, ET2WK/AM, ET2XX, ET2VD, ET2ZZ, ET3AF/2 |
| 1962-10-01 | 1962-11-14 | Loose federation with Ethiopia | Eritrea | ET3 | The Ethiopian Telecommunications Bureau started to issue ET3 calls to Eritrean operators in October 1962, prior to Eritrea becoming an administrative region within Ethiopia. | ET3RC, ET3USN Possibly also ET3AM, ET3HP |
| 1962-11-15 | 1991-05-23 | Administrative region within Ethiopia | Ethiopia | ET | Eritrea became a deleted entity, see statement from ARRL below. | |
| 1991-05-24 | 1993-05-23 | Independent state | Eritrea | 9ER | "de facto" independence: 1991-05-24. 9ER is an Ethiopian prefix. | 9ER1TA, 9ER1TB, 9E3FMA, 9E3USA, 9F3FMA, 9F3USA, 9F2CW/A was QRV from Eritrea (which is stated on the QSL) in January, 1993, but the documentation received by ARRL states Ethiopia, so that's what it counts for. |
| 1993-05-24 | Independent state | Eritrea | E3 | "de jure" independence: 1993-05-24. | E30AA, E30BA, E30CA, E30DA, E30EA, E30FA, E30FB, E30GA, E30HA, E30IA, E30JA, E30LA, E30MA,E30MA/P, E30NA, E30OA, E30TA, E31A, E31AA, E31FAO, E3A30, E35X E39DI, E3/N3RF |
ARRL statements on Eritrea
Acknowledgements
Anthony Quest, G4UZN
ARRL/QST
Donald Murray, W4WJ
Hamgallery Eritrea, Africa E3
LNDX MI3 - ET2 Erythrée
Mick,M0XBF and his father BSWL 3423
QSL card collector Patrick Rigg
Radio Amateur Callbook, Fall 1952
RSGB Prefix Guide
Wikipedia: Eritrea
Wikipedia: History of Eritrea
Email Group: QSL Card Collectors
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