The NATO phonetic alphabet is incredibly useful, though it does suffer from some issues in similar sounds. During a recent high frequency (HF) worldwide competition (IARU-HF), weak-signal SSB stations sometimes had to spend a few minutes trying to complete a radio exchange because of similar sounding phonetic endings: “Was that whiskey one bravo alpha?”
“Negative, whiskey one tango alpha—TANGO alpha, over”
This happens so commonly, that many HF operators substitute other words in the same manner to enhance understanding: common ones are kilowatt, sugar, Germany, America, London, etc.
They’re great substitutes. I always found Quebec to be the most distinguishable because of geographic reference.
Golf to Germany makes sense as Golf it’s single syllable with yet another hard type O in it. Unlike Mike which could be missed, but the I and K crack/pop are strong sounds.
Kilowatt is interesting since the ‘watt’ is a backup sound if kilo is distorted. Honestly, Kardashian would be a good one as much as it pains me to say it.
Kilowatt trips me up still, I’ll copy KW maybe once in ~100 exchanges and not notice. It’s more common during high-volume exchanges. Getting better though!
The NATO phonetic alphabet is incredibly useful, though it does suffer from some issues in similar sounds. During a recent high frequency (HF) worldwide competition (IARU-HF), weak-signal SSB stations sometimes had to spend a few minutes trying to complete a radio exchange because of similar sounding phonetic endings: “Was that whiskey one bravo alpha?”
“Negative, whiskey one tango alpha—TANGO alpha, over”
This happens so commonly, that many HF operators substitute other words in the same manner to enhance understanding: common ones are kilowatt, sugar, Germany, America, London, etc.
Whiskey tango foxtrot.
I was so close to editing my comment to be “whiskey one tango foxtrot” and now I regret not doing it lol
deleted by creator
They’re great substitutes. I always found Quebec to be the most distinguishable because of geographic reference.
Golf to Germany makes sense as Golf it’s single syllable with yet another hard type O in it. Unlike Mike which could be missed, but the I and K crack/pop are strong sounds.
Kilowatt is interesting since the ‘watt’ is a backup sound if kilo is distorted. Honestly, Kardashian would be a good one as much as it pains me to say it.
Kilowatt trips me up still, I’ll copy KW maybe once in ~100 exchanges and not notice. It’s more common during high-volume exchanges. Getting better though!
I shudder at even typing Kardashian lol
“Klingon” is my go-to. Just the word, not the language.
If that fails, there’s always Kilimanjaro.
deleted by creator