It has never made any sense to me why phonetics include one, two and three syllables names. Why not standardize all on two syllables?
It's easy for the licensee of the call to adhere to these phonetic standards but how about when the other guy or girl uses non-standard phonetics when returning your call? There have been a couple of times back in Arizona when a local Prescott Az. ham would return my local CQ on 6 or 10 meters with the following>> WHEN BUYING 8 VIRGINS LOOK CLOSELY.......this is ....
They mainly wanted to make the 26 words easy to distinguish from one another, and also easy to recognize as phonetics. They had to: 1) Avoid rhyming or similar sounding words within the alphabet. 2) Avoid words that rhyme with or sound similar to words outside the phonetic alphabet, across common languages. 3) Choose words that are easy to pronounce and recognize, both by English speakers and by people whose native language is not English. They didn't perfectly achieve all of those goals, because the goals somewhat conflict with one another. Adding constraints on the number of syllables would force more compromises on the more important criteria.
You escaped from NJ, so did I, some years ago. You have won the right to use any phonetics you like. Did you notice when you leave NJ via a toll bridge, you only need to pay one way...OUT!!
Ahhhh but most hams are like blizzard snowflakes, unique, special, not made to follow any "rules" or even "suggestions".
If they can not understand you , turn on the 77sx , life is to short for qrp. If you can not understand them , build a better antenna , or accept the fact that there is no propagation. And always remember ---free will --- if you do not enjoy it don't do it. And most important , do not ever force your opinions on those who don't care. KING MERCURY 5 QUICK SILVER 73
As a new ham but a 20+ year airline pilot, I agree 100% with WX4W's post. I was amazed at some of the "lingo" that I hear on HF. In my opinion, it makes it harder to decipher what the letter is in a pileup when not transmitted using the IPA. My .02
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_spelling_alphabet They use a different alphabet. My point is that what is standard in one part of the world may not be here, and vice versa. What do you do when the DX station tells you the temperature is 20C? Tell him he's using the wrong standard?
kilowatt = kW. 1 kW = 1000 W. 3 kW = 1 California kilowatt (CAkW) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt#Kilowatt Kilowatt, California is an actual place
I can't count the number of times that poor band conditions has made it impossible to convey a single-syllable "Mike" for "M". It's only when I invent some other common word that's more resilient to QRN that I get my meaning across.
How about this: We all speak different languages. We pronounce consonants and vowels differently. Words in one language don’t always translate to the intended letter/number in another language. But we can all memorize the spoken sound of the same 26 words that translate to letters, to help get the message through.
