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Not including special event callsigns, which group (country/class/etc) of hams have and use the longest callsigns?

I know that theoretically the longest would be a (3x4) or 8 character callsign but are these in use? I’m interested in which countries in actual practice issue incredibly long callsigns to individuals.

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    $\begingroup$ I am unaware of any "incredibly long" (not sure how you define) callsigns other than special events. Australia regularly issues a foundation license of the form VK#ABCD which is a rare (unique?) four-letter suffix. Swaziland is also (rather) unique in that its common national prefix is three characters (3DA) then a numeral and a suffix. $\endgroup$
    – mike65535
    Commented May 27, 2018 at 22:27
  • $\begingroup$ Are you writing some logging software? I can't think of any other reason why someone would want to know this. $\endgroup$
    – Mike Waters
    Commented May 27, 2018 at 23:38
  • $\begingroup$ Just curious. Some American hams have incredibly short 4 letter 1x2 callsigns but I was curious about the other extreme, which country’s hams had the unfortunate pleasure of having the longest regular callsigns. $\endgroup$
    – RoboKaren
    Commented May 27, 2018 at 23:42

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A long call sign that was recently pointed out on this site is a special club call sign in Belgium. As discussed here, it is too long to be encoded in FT-8 and is in the form OT70xxx.

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Several nations have special event stations with call signs longer than normal. I know of one nation which issues 3-character prefixes (Eswatini), but those are all 3x2 call signs (3DAnxx). Australia until recently issued 2x4 calls (VKnFxxx) but stopped a little while ago. The USA once issued multiple number calls for special events IE W100AW. The longest I know of would have to be the STAYHOME call signs IE OH2STAYHOME which would be a 2x8 call sign, but are special events. Portable call signs such as VK6Fxxx/3DA0 could be a long call sign, but isn't issued per se. If that counts, a state QSO party call such as AI7OW/KITSAP would also qualify.

UPDATE: Guinea issues 3x1 call signs along with 2x1 and 2x2, 3XYn?

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