"KØHB" wrote in message ink.net...
"Mike Coslo" wrote


I often don't. I don't know about other hams, but I can make out a
person's call better if they just SAY it.


Absolutely! Under most conditions the use of phonetics isn't much
needed.

Interestingly, in the amateur radio activities where speed and
readability under marginal conditions count the most (contesting and
dx'ing), the predominate phonetic set mostly uses international place
names.

A......AMERICA
B......BRAZIL
C......CANADA
D......DENMARK
E......ENGLAND
F......FRANCE
G.....GERMANY
H.....HONOLULU
I.......ITALY
J......JAPAN
K......KILOWATT
L......LONDON
M......MEXICO
N......NORWAY
O......ONTARIO
P......PORTUGAL
Q......QUEBEC
R......RADIO
S......SANTIAGO
T......TOKYO
U......UNITED
V...... VICTORIA
W......WASHINGTON
X......X-RAY
Y......YOKOHAMA
Z...... ZANZIBAR

Back when my call was w3yik and I used Washington Thuree Yokohama
Italy Kilowatt the guy on the other end of the pileup often worked
three whilst waiting for me to finish my long-winded ID speil. Hideous
phonetics. Whiskey Thuree Yolk Ida Kilo worked much better. I think
those were some sort of ancient military standard phonetics.

Then I "transitioned" from ham radio to a bit of flying. Early in that
experience I called Philips Army on Unicom and used "my" phonetics to
ask permission to pass thru their control zone at 1200. The freq lit
up like the tower of babble, Philips tower simply ignored me so I had
to wind a couple spot 360s up to 3500 and climb over the control zone
instead getting their permission to fly thru it.

I dunno how many others reamed me a new one good for using squirrely
phonetics. It didn't get any better when I got back on the ground and
to deal with the hanger bums who also heard it all.

I ain't never going thru anything like that again no way nohow.

Today "Romeo Victor" cuts thru the crap like a knife. You couldn't pay
me enough to use "radio victoria" if the guy is a new one. And "we"
don't much bother with our prefixes in the pileups these days huh
Hans?


73, de Hans, K0HB

w3rv