On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 09:36:30AM +0200, Steve and Judy wrote:
> Gentlemen, it came to my notice during the CQWW SSB Contest that it would be
> a whole lot easier and quicker if everyone used the correct phonetic alphabet
> and dropped the ''Guatamalas,Londons and Japans''
>
> The correct version if anyone would like to try it is as follows:-
>
> ALPHA BRAVO CHARLIE DELTA ECHO FOXTROT GOLF HOTEL INDIA JULIET KILO
> LIMA MIKE NOVEMBER OSCAR PAPA QUEBEC ROMEO SIERRA TANGO UNIFORM
> VICTOR WHISKY XRAY YANKEE ZULU
>
> Thanks to all for the 10M Q's and hope to cu in the next contest.
I've done a lot of phone contests over the years, and I think it's good that
there are several phonetics for each letter of the alphabet - especially
in DX contests where the range of possible accents is quite large.
Every contest there will be some weak station who calls in, over and over,
with exactly the same phonetics each time, and one letter in the call I
can't quite get. When I finally get it and repeat the call back with a
different phonetic for that letter, the station will often repeat it with
my variation and what had been hard to understand is now clear. Everyone
hears your accent differently, so if you're not getting through, try a
different phonetic.
This past weekend, I noticed that "tango radio" got heard as "radio radio"
once in a while. The other major phonetic for T ("Tokyo") doesn't help in
that situation, because "Tokyo" and "radio" both end in that "io" sound.
(And you don't want to switch "radio" to "romeo" in this case, because that
would be sending the message that maybe they have the last letter wrong, too.)
In those cases, "Texas Radio" worked best in getting the call correctly
copied. I would rather try a new phonetic than give the same ones seven
or eight times and maybe still not get the QSO.
The reason that geographic places names are popular alternative phonetics
is that they are fairly universally understood.
--
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker@kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/
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