I was on a 2 meter net recently where a station identified with what I heard as a "P" in the suffix. Later when someone else spoke that call sign did I realize the 'P" was actually a "T". This is why a Net control will and sould ask for check ins to be spoken phonetically.
What shift? My experience is that most of the time hams use standard phonetics. I do, except when the other station can't understand them after several tries. (see post #309). Some contesters and DXers use other phonetics because they think it makes them stand out.
Absolutely. Phonetics are meant to make things easier, but we can't expect everyone gets familiar with them all of the sudden. When I just got started I heard other hams using different terms than usual, and everything went just fine anyway. I think I agree with that.
I don't think a "shift" is being discussed here, the NATO phonetics are very good and widely understood. But they are not perfect, and not everyone in the whole entire ham radio world is proficient with them. There have been several examples of this given, "Japan" is often better understood than "Juliet" with JA's, for example. To force the use of NATO phonetics is silly, and impedes effective communications. Flexibility is something we have in this hobby, and is not appropriate in other areas, such as ATC, as has also been pointed out. If I am trying to bust a pileup, and I hear, "The Six Ocean station, again again?", am I helping the situation by using "Oscar", or "Ocean"? This is my point. Adapt to your audience.
In ILERA, international league of Esperanto radio amateurs, we have changed our phonetic alphabet so, that it is very close to the alphabet of ICAO. Our contest accepts Esperanto and national languages. For both groops of participants there are no problems to understand spellings. We do not worry about NATO using the same alphabet. Hans, DJ4PG
For my slow brain, when I hear contest ops using their own phonetics, I can't copy the call sign without hearing it multiple times. If they have a heavy foreign accent, sometimes I can NEVER copy it. Doing something different just to be different does not help other operators and can slow you down.
This is the best thing I have read in a long time. I travel for work on a weekly basis and could not commit to any long term training so I learned to memorize the questions. When I was done, I had my technicians license but knew nothing about ham radio. I literally looked at my instructor and said what next, his reply you have your learners permit now go out and practice.