Phonetic Alphabet

[Chronic]

"Phonetic Alphabet" refers to how they are "Spoken" has nothing to do with how they are Spelled!

​

 

[Blackswan73]

I was in the Army for six years in radio,(31V) , and in the manual it was:
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliett
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa (accent on last syllable)
Q-Bec (accent on last syllable)
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-Ray
Zulu
Wun
Two
Three
Fow-er
Fife
Six
Seven
Aight
Niner
Zero

B.S.

 

[AK9R]

Don't get me started about people who say "kilowatt" when they give a phonetic for "k". When I hear this, I write "KW" every time. And, no, my callsign is not "AKW9R".

 

[Blackswan73]

My bad. Forgot Yankee. Must have been one of my senior moments.

B.S.

 

[dlwtrunked]

"Phonetic Alphabet" refers to how they are "Spoken" has nothing to do with how they are Spelled!

​

But it does have to do with how you you distribute the list (spelled) of how to speak it. And in fact, U.S. military EAM messages are not only spoken, they are distributed as spelled out as phonetics in the NATO spellings so that they are read as such. An actual one from a USN TACAMO aircraft transmitting on VLF (17.8 kHz, 50 Bd/50 Hz shift):
NNNNKKKKKKZCZCZCZXLLXLLXLL
ZZ
BT
MIKE VICTOR LIMA DELTA
JULIETT ZULU PAPA YANKEE
ROMEO YANKEE ALFA OSCAR
DELTA FOXTROT QUEBEC
INDIA SIERRA YANKEE
QUEBEC CHARLIE ROMEO
VICTOR FOUR FOUR DELTA
ROMEO KILO FIVE
BT
NNN

 

[WA8ZTZ]

Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, George...

 

[WA8ZTZ]

Adam, Boy, Charles, David, Edward, Frank, George...

 

[Chronic]

But it does have to do with how you you distribute the list (spelled) of how to speak it. And in fact, U.S. military EAM messages are not only spoken, they are distributed as spelled out as phonetics in the NATO spellings so that they are read as such. An actual one from a USN TACAMO aircraft transmitting on VLF (17.8 kHz, 50 Bd/50 Hz shift):
NNNNKKKKKKZCZCZCZXLLXLLXLL
ZZ
BT
MIKE VICTOR LIMA DELTA
JULIETT ZULU PAPA YANKEE
ROMEO YANKEE ALFA OSCAR
DELTA FOXTROT QUEBEC
INDIA SIERRA YANKEE
QUEBEC CHARLIE ROMEO
VICTOR FOUR FOUR DELTA
ROMEO KILO FIVE
BT
NNN

Would that not be "Phonetic Alphabet " to "Alfa Numeric" conversion

 

[drdispatch]

@Blackswan73 Thank you for your service.
i was in telecommunications in the Air Force and thus learned the military version which Blackswan listed. After getting out, I got a job as a 911 dispatcher, so I had to learn the APCO version which @WA8ZTZ alluded to. Now I dispatch for the police at a VA hospital, where most of my cops are veterans, so now I switch-hit. 😁

 

[majoco]

The ITU phonetic alphabet is just that - Phonetic. If I want the write down an "A" I'll write A, not Alfa or Alpha. If I want to speak an "A" I'll say "Alfa". It's a pity that some operators have fancy phonetics that they have dreamed up as they think they sound cool - I beg to differ. If I want to reply someone who uses his/her fancy phonetics, I'll use the ITU phonetics - maybe he/she will learn something.

 

[GlobalNorth]

How does one discern if Julie[tt] was spoken with one 't' or two 't's?

 

[GlobalNorth]

Adam, Boy, Charles, David, Edward, Frank, George...

We had a 'Radio Natzee' who spent some of his supervisory time publicly correcting Officers OTA about using the correct letter designator. He showed up at a scene back in around 1986 and kept using "Boy" at a scene to check warrants in the days before cell phones and long before we had MDCs. A citizen took offense at what he thought was a derogatory slur towards him and the fight was on.

Terms such as 'Boy', 'Queen', 'Mary', etc. soon went away and the more neutral NATO terms were put into effect.

 

[GlobalNorth]

If you really want to confuse nearly everyone, use the Swiss phonetic alphabet. It may be almost as effective as AES-256 encryption.

 

[WA8ZTZ]

One Adam Twelve, a Four Fifteen fight...

 

[WA8ZTZ]

in the contest...

him: the W something ending in Z, you are 59, your call again please
me: thank you, Whiskey Alpha Eight Zulu Tango Zulu
him: again, again
me: Whiskey Alpha Eight Zulu Tango Zulu (3X)
him: again please
me: Whiskey America Ocho Zebra Toronto Zebra
him: Roger, Roger, WAEightZedTeeZed
me: Roger, gratias, 73

 

[AK9R]

@WA8ZTZ Look at the bright side, you were 5-9. Your antenna must be working great.

I sometimes get better results with Alfa Kilo Nine Radio instead of Alfa Kilo Nine Romeo.

 

[dlwtrunked]

How does one discern if Julie[tt] was spoken with one 't' or two 't's?

The problem is that foreign speakers do not pronounce the single "t" and double "tt" the some.
Some foreign speakers, often French or similar, do not pronounce a single "t" and it is silent to them but affect how the pronounce the part preceding it.

 

[dlwtrunked]

The ITU phonetic alphabet is just that - Phonetic. If I want the write down an "A" I'll write A, not Alfa or Alpha. If I want to speak an "A" I'll say "Alfa". It's a pity that some operators have fancy phonetics that they have dreamed up as they think they sound cool - I beg to differ. If I want to reply someone who uses his/her fancy phonetics, I'll use the ITU phonetics - maybe he/she will learn something.

In some critical cases (like miltary EAM messages), forcing to write the whole alphanumeric acts as a form of error correction. And a single letter could be misread as opposed to misreading a spelled out alphanumeric. (Just like spelling certain important words as some message traffic nets require instead of just saying it. Like you, I do not like fancy phonetics but excuse them if they help remember a callsign (which I likely will not anyway).

 

[drdispatch]

How does one discern if Julie[tt] was spoken with one 't' or two 't's?

The double "t" would have a slight "teh" sound at the end: "Joo-lee-et-teh" 😁

 

[drdispatch]

In some critical cases (like miltary EAM messages), forcing to write the whole alphanumeric acts as a form of error correction. And a single letter could be misread as opposed to misreading a spelled out alphanumeric. (Just like spelling certain important words as some message traffic nets require instead of just saying it. Like you, I do not like fancy phonetics but excuse them if they help remember a callsign (which I likely will not anyway).

Wouldn't EAM's be so much more interesting if they used the "funky" phonetic alphabet?
"Larry.... Elephant.... Cigar.... stand by..."