[CQ-Contest] Phonetics, back to basics

[N7BF]

I am hoping that most of the people who are talking about using phonetics 
that are suppposed to be amusing, are talking about using them mostly during 
domestic contests, where the listeners are much more familiar with 
"American" (to include Canadian) humor and the way of saying certain 
sayings.

However, I noticed during CQWWSSB that many times when I would speak my call 
to South American stations as November Seven Bravo Foxtrot, that they would 
almost always come back as Norway Seven Boston Florida.  I think that 
certain people whose native language is something else other than English 
have found that they have problems enunciating certain words, and that other 
acceptable phonetics are much easier to pronounce.  Also, as someone else 
has pointed out, sometimes it's better to use phonetics including locations 
that are familiar to them, as they get the point much quicker.  To someone 
in South America, the word "Brazil" comes across very quickly, particularly 
to someone who lives in that region.

I don't think I'd use "funny" phonetics during an International SSB contest, 
there's too much room for confusion.

Alan - N7BF   (Big Foot) (Bull Frog)  and probably more that can be thought 
up.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Antti Nevantaus" <antti.nevantaus at gmail.com>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 10:30 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Phonetics, back to basics


> As I'm not a native English speaker, in my earlier days of ham radio I
> sometimes found it difficult with weak signals to get the callsign
> correctly due to non-standard phonetics.
>
> There are usually two or more words used for each syllable, for
> example on the band you can often hear "Bravo", "Boston", "Baker" or
> "Golf", "Germany", "Guatemala". Only one of these is correct according
> to standards, but the others might be used because they are easier to
> spell for some nationalities. However, I would encourage using the
> standard ones especially in DX QSOs and also to not to confuse those
> who are newer to ham radio and contesting.
>
> 73 de Antti - OH0EA