[UK-CONTEST] Phonetics

[Daniel Schlieper]

Hi Neil,

What do you do if you use Charly and the receiving operator copies Sierra?

The official phonetics are fine most of the time, but there are times 
where they do not work. Especially if the receiving station speaks a 
different language. Here is where the alternative phonetics come to help.

In contests, it is usually the DX station that struggle with the official 
phonetics. They believe to have heard something different, or cannot copy 
at all. There is no way out of this -  unless you change something. The 
alternative phonetics are a good start. I had one occasion where I had to 
whisle CW, and another one where I had to hand over the microphone to 
another operator. Another voice did the trick (at last).

Canada actually works best for "C". I know from several years operating 
QRP with a C in the callsign. And you can expect that most people do know 
how to write Canada. In any language. 

On the other hand, I do not recommend vanity phonetics (Red Hot Tomato) or 
the old phonetics which do not work at all (Abel Sugar Baker). Below are 
the phonetics that I hear on HF frequently. I feel they work. If you know 
of a better alternative, please let me know.

America
Baltimore / Brasil
Canada
Denmark
England
Florida
Guatemala / Germany
Honolulu
Italy
Japan
Kilowatt / Kentucky
London
Mexico / Manila
Nancy / Nicaragua / Norway
Ontario
Pacific / Portugal
Queen
Radio
Santiago
Tokyo / Toronto
United / Uruguay
Victoria / Venezuela
Washington
Xylophone
Yokohama / Yesterday
Zebra / Zanzibar


Regards, Daniel M0ERA (Mick Nought Envriomental Risk Assessment :-)







On Wed, 6 Sep 2006, G3RIR wrote:

> What are others views about phonetics. I was always taught to use the NATO 
> services alphabet which used to appear in my licence.
> 
> Last night I had great difficulty picking out a callsign amongst noise 
> because CANADA was being used for C.  Now the C in Canada is hard like a K. 
> The C in CHARLIE is soft. By all means use alternatives for phonetics but 
> surely a fundamental change like soft to hard C is not conducive to speedy 
> operating.
> 
> Neil, G3RIR 
> 
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