# Driving In The U.S. With Foreign Plates In A Foreign Script

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-in-the-u-s-with-foreign-plates-in-a-foreign-script/968977>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 2, 2022, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-in-the-u-s-with-foreign-plates-in-a-foreign-script/968977 "2022-08-02T15:54:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 42

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**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-in-the-u-s-with-foreign-plates-in-a-foreign-script/968977/42 "2022-08-08T20:40:06Z")

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I notice license plates. It’s a curse. Anyway, here in Illinois, zeros look like letter Os. One exception is amateur radio plates if the license callsign has a zero. I can’t find a photo of an IL example online but it’s explicitly a zero with a slash run through it like shown here:

[https://www.quora.com/On-a-license-plate-how-can-you-tell-the-difference-between-O-and-zero](https://www.quora.com/On-a-license-plate-how-can-you-tell-the-difference-between-O-and-zero)

It used to be that the number part of a ham callsign was tied to you geography so, for example Illinois, Indiana & Wisconsin would all have a 9 and you’d need a new call if you moved to a different area. However, that was lifted by the FCC some time ago and you can now apply for a vanity call with any valid combination. I’ve considered applying for a zero call (formerly only for CO, IA, KS, MN, NE, MO, ND & SD), mostly because it looks cool and I qualify for a shorter call from my current 6 characters. But I also wondered if it would get me out of a ticket … not that I get many.

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