I first learnt the phonetic alphabet before I was licensed in 1979. It may have been part of the UK license exam – I can’t remember – but it was a useful thing to know in any case.
Some hams today seem content to use whatever phonetics they feel like but perhaps they don’t appreciate how hard it can be on the receiving end to figure out their callsigns. This was all too evident at ZM4T in CQ WW SSB last weekend, where US and JA hams seemed particularly reluctant to use the ‘official’ phonetics. With weak signals and QRM, it was a lottery: will I hear the phonetics? Will they make sense? Have I got the call correct? I often repeated back calls using the ‘official’ phonetics but few on the far end took the hint.
The ‘official’ phonetics have been carefully chosen to sound unique and hence be relatively unmistakable. I wish they were used more often.
Hi Lee.
I first learnt the phonetic alphabet before I was licensed in 1979. It may have been part of the UK license exam – I can’t remember – but it was a useful thing to know in any case.
Some hams today seem content to use whatever phonetics they feel like but perhaps they don’t appreciate how hard it can be on the receiving end to figure out their callsigns. This was all too evident at ZM4T in CQ WW SSB last weekend, where US and JA hams seemed particularly reluctant to use the ‘official’ phonetics. With weak signals and QRM, it was a lottery: will I hear the phonetics? Will they make sense? Have I got the call correct? I often repeated back calls using the ‘official’ phonetics but few on the far end took the hint.
The ‘official’ phonetics have been carefully chosen to sound unique and hence be relatively unmistakable. I wish they were used more often.
73
Gary ZL2iFB