[UK-CONTEST] Phonetics

[Ken]

Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:44:32 +0100
From: "Les Elliott"

Peter,
You could try  Germany 8 America France Norway

Les, G4OGB

NO NO NO! Never Germany (or Mexico for M if it comes to that). History lesson for newer licensees....
G stations never ever used 'G Germany' when I was first licensed possibly because there were so many people around then who had played their part in making sure that we weren't part of Germany, there were also many who would have heard Lord Haw-Haw's 'Germany Calling' and he was finally hanged as a traitor.  I'm not old enough to have heard those transmissions but G Germany still sounds wrong to me. You have been warned!

I suggest that the phonetic used for the prefix shouldn't be the name of a country unless it happens to be the same as the country where the station is located so F = France etc. might be acceptable but unless conditions are really difficult the standard alphabet for all its failings should be used.

If GOLF doesn't work then what's wrong with good old GEORGE? However I'd avoid/Gallipoli/  for G or/Xantippe/  for X which were suggested in one phonetic alphabet!

Many of the words in the NATO/ICAO phonetic alphabet don't seem to work very well, I suppose that it was designed by a committee in Europe but perhaps the narrow audio bandwidth of (most) SSB transmissions now makes some of the phonetics less than ideal (if they ever were). I often shorten FOXTROT to FOX but there's always the tried & tested RAF 1942-43 F for Freddy.

73...

Ken

George 3 London Victoria Pacific if all else fails!