JohnDavid4MaryRobert2

[Wanda Van Winkle]

In my life, I’ve never come across a specific listing for using words to remember letters, as they do in war movies when speaking over radios. For instance, JD4MR2, they might say John David 4 Mary Robert 2.

Is there a protocol, an official list, for one certain word for each letter of the alphabet?

[Roland Hearn]

There absolutely is and any Ham radio operator could tell you. I'm sure Scott will tell you where to find it. If I remember from my police academy days that would be Juliet Delta four Mike Romeo two. They are called Phonetic codes.

Actually a brief search helped me find this, it is the Nato one that I quoted: http://morsecode.scphillips.com/alphabet.html

And they don't do it so much to remember the letters as to make certain that people understand exactly what letter they are saying.

[Dave McClung]

There absolutely is and any Ham radio operator could tell you. I'm sure Scott will tell you where to find it. If I remember from my police academy days that would be Juliet Delta four Mike Romeo two. They are called Phonetic codes.

Actually a brief search helped me find this, it is the Nato one that I quoted: http://morsecode.scphillips.com/alphabet.html

And they don't do it so much to remember the letters as to make certain that people understand exactly what letter they are saying.

There are the "official" lists and the "unofficial" list. When I was flying in the USAF there were a number of adaptations to the "official" list. Most of them aren't repeatable here.

[Judy Hamilton]

Thanks for the chuckle Dave...that was a Sierra Hotel response:basic02

[Hal Paul]

There absolutely is and any Ham radio operator could tell you. I'm sure Scott will tell you where to find it. If I remember from my police academy days that would be Juliet Delta four Mike Romeo two. They are called Phonetic codes.

Actually a brief search helped me find this, it is the Nato one that I quoted: http://morsecode.scphillips.com/alphabet.html

And they don't do it so much to remember the letters as to make certain that people understand exactly what letter they are saying.

There are the "official" lists and the "unofficial" list. When I was flying in the USAF there were a number of adaptations to the "official" list. Most of them aren't repeatable here.

When I joined the Army, they taught us the NATO phonetic alphabet, then when I was in San Antonio, I was stationed on an Air Force base and noticed that the Air Force uses variants of both the NATO and the British Forces 1952 phonetic alphabet.

I've tried to use the phonetic alphabet when I've been on the phone a few times and the person on the other end didn't know how to spell something like my name. A few times that only made it worse and about half way through I realized they were writing my name Hotel Alpha Lim... stop and ask "how do you spell 'lima'"? When that happens now I say, "H as in hotel, A as in apple and L as in Light" (they tend to get confused when I say alpha and lima).

[Marsha Lynn]

And they don't do it so much to remember the letters as to make certain that people understand exactly what letter they are saying.

Yep, when the goal is to remember letters, they get creative in their words. Not long ago, my mother introduced me to a lady who tried to persuade me that I was acquainted with her late husband Walt many years ago. The last name didn't ring a bell at all. The amateur radio connection was brought in. OHHH... you mean Walt as in "I'm quite charming." His assigned call letters for ham radio were W8IQC. Actually, I'm not sure all these many years later about the W8, but I haven't forgotten that he was quite charming. :p

[Marsha Lynn]

I've tried to use the phonetic alphabet when I've been on the phone a few times and the person on the other end didn't know how to spell something like my name. A few times that only made it worse and about half way through I realized they were writing my name Hotel Alpha Lim... stop and ask "how do you spell 'lima'"? When that happens now I say, "H as in hotel, A as in apple and L as in Light" (they tend to get confused when I say alpha and lima).

My father always introduced himself over ham radio as "Broken Old Bottle". He never did come up with a phrase for his call letters, however. How much can you do with K9EJZ?

:basic03

Marsha
(WB9DHQ)

[Hal Paul]

Yep, when the goal is to remember letters, they get creative in their words. Not long ago, my mother introduced me to a lady who tried to persuade me that I was acquainted with her late husband Walt many years ago. The last name didn't ring a bell at all. The amateur radio connection was brought in. OHHH... you mean Walt as in "I'm quite charming." His assigned call letters for ham radio were W8IQC. Actually, I'm not sure all these many years later about the W8, but I haven't forgotten that he was quite charming. :p

I'd have pronounce the W8 "Wait" so the phonetic of his callsign would be "Wait! I'm Quite Charming".