Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin
From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.games.trivia
Subject: Re: Phonetic Alphabets
Message-ID: <8364@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 20-Feb-85 16:17:56 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.8364
Posted: Wed Feb 20 16:17:56 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Feb-85 08:21:11 EST
References: <365@wnuxb.UUCP>
Organization: USAMC ALMSA
Lines: 63

> I know of two phonetic alphabets.  One begins ABLE, BAKER, CHARLIE ...
> The second is of military origin and begins  ALPHA, BRAVO, CHARLIE, DELTA
> 
> Can someone complete the alphabets ?   Are there other similar alphabets
> in common use ?
> 
> 						Larry Johnson
> 						ihnp4!wnuxb!laj

The first phonetic alphabet referred to is the old one, used from
I-don't-know-when up until the sixties (or late 50's). The second
is the NATO phonetic alphabet:
Alfa
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima (pronounced  lee-ma)
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec (pronounced kay-bec)
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whisky
X-ray
Yankee
Zulu

I might be able to find the old one listed somewhere, but don't
expect it soon. I taught myself the new one, so overlaid any pre-existing
knowledge of the former.

There are an infinity of "unofficial" phonetic alphabets; probably each
police department uses a local variant, the same way as they use local
formats of radio codes.

Every ham operator picks his own phonetic interpretation of his callsign,
so you might hear W1FMS identify as "Wants One For My Shack" or W7LLW
use "Wilbur-Seven Likes Lotta Women" or anything at all. (I made
up those callsigns off the top of my head -- are you out there by chance?)

I strongly recommend that everyone learn and use the NATO standard, but
then I champion a lot of lost causes...

It's interesting how confused your average telephone operator gets when
you start phoneticizing a name at him/her. They can get "B as in Boy",
but running "Whisky India Lima Lima India Alfa Mike" at them scares them...

Regards, 
Will Martin

USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin     or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA