yep i hear people using sansibar which isnt Z spelled it is a place in Africa spelled with a S,, now zulu is though,,,sansibar confuses people in other countries
Huh? The "Z" in Tanzania is actually from the first character of "Zanzibar." The name Tanzania came when Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged in 1964. Zanzibar is not physically "in" Africa, either; it is an island about 20 miles off the East coast.
Not strictly true. When speaking Russian they use a series of names: Gregoriy or Galina for G, Mikhail for M, Leonid for L etc.
Interesting. They only sound alike to you because of your accent (and I'm not being funny here). In most dialects of English, there is a big difference between the a's in Papa and the o's in Foxtrot, so there can be no confusion between the two. If I may use the International Phonetic Alphabet here as used by linguists, I can show the different phonetic symbols I mean. Don't know if this will come out, but Foxtrot uses the open-mid back vowel ɔ as opposed to the open vowel a in standard English, therefore Foxtrot and Papa.
We have to use the international phonetic alphabet at the place where I work... Lucky for me,,,I have ham radio training to help me get through it. Plus it was beat into me at boot camp many years ago...
"I was a Military Pilot." And? I was head coffee maker for the command staff. I support the used of standardized phonetics in communications. When someone has a problem with one letter of my call sign I will repeat the correct phonetic. If the problem persists I may switch to a longer word that begins with the same letter. E= Echo, England, Europe, Easy, Elephant. S=Sugar, Seattle, Salt. K= Kilo, King, Kanigit.
My commander didn't want to learn a new name and another Sgt Ayers was leaving the day I got there. "I will pay you to make coffee and that will be your only job. If that pot ever goes dry I will find a replacement for you." said the Commander. I did that job for two years.
I had many problems with "Mike Kilo Sierra" before I got the new call. Oops. Operator error with the keyboard... I had frequent problems with "Mike Kilo Sierra"; some people thought I said "Michael Sierra". "Messy Kitchen Sink" worked well, sometimes. A lot better than "Meters Kilograms Seconds" (not enough people got the reference). Finally gave up and got a new call. Now I'm thinking I should have changed the "6" to a "5" so that it would sound the same going forwards and backwards in CW... Making it: ._ .. ..... .. _.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Guide-Zanzibar-Jens-Finke/dp/1848361327 Strange maps you have, I guess.
The European tradition is to use primarily male names for the phonetic alphabet in non-English related languages. The table below (from DIN 5009) shows the German standard phonetic alphabet compared to the ITU/ICAO. Similar standards exist in other languages. Another aspect is that most younger people are completely clueless of phonetics, regardless of standard used. Trivia: Recently, there have been raised objections about that the Swedish phonetic alphabet is all-male. A proposal for a new standard using half female names has been submitted. 73/ Karl-Arne SM0AOM