Another ID change for Smoketown? (37PA, Q08, S37)

"Doug" wrote in message
om...

Go to Alaska, the same airport has TWO id's (or at least they did, not
sure if they've cleared up that mess yet).


K is used to prefix 3-letter airport identifiers only in the 48 contiguous
US states. The letter P is used in the Pacific region; Alaska uses A, F, O,
or P as the second letter of an ICAO identifier, Hawaii uses H. If the
first letter of an Alaskan 3-letter identifier is A, F, O, or P, then the
ICAO identifier can be the normal 3-letter identifier prefixed by P. An
example is Anchorage, the 3-letter identifier is ANC, the ICAO identifier is
PANC. If the first letter of an Alaskan 3-letter identifier is something
other than A, F, O, or P, then the ICAO identifier is usually created by
prefixing the first two letters of the 3-letter identifier by PA, PF, PO, or
PP. An example is Elmendorf, the 3-letter identifier is EDF, the ICAO
identifier is PAED.



Apparently there is the FAA way and the ICAO way and sometimes
they are different. And do you put a K in front of the ones with a
number?


No.



Sometimes, I've seen programs where you do.


Yes, some GPS manufacturers follow that convention, but a proper ICAO
identifier has no numbers.