In my area there are a lot of people on the repeaters who talk right at the microphone instead of talking across it. The loud "air pops" drive me up the wall. I know they don't even realize it - can't hear their own transmissions. I have considered telling them about it but I don't want to be "that guy" and interrupt a net to make a fuss about it. At the end of the day, it just isn't a big deal - or rather, it shouldn't be. I figure it's my problem because no one else seems to care. Outside of ham, there are plenty of other similar things that drive me nuts. I have a good friend who always says "...could care less..." about something. NO! It's "...COULDN'T care less". If you "could care less", it means you DO care to some degree and so you could care less than you do now. Again... deep breaths. I'm sure I have my own quirks, so I just practice letting it go. This stuff is great, thanks for the topic.
Welcome to ham radio! Good question, and you got a good answer. “Phone” is a contraction from “radiotelephone”, which is what it was called when it was a new thing almost a century ago. I suppose these days the more common term would be voice, but then there is also digital voice which is a digital transmission, not analog, but still considered “phone” for some purposes in the regulations, such as what part of the band it belongs in. It can get a little complicated. See http://www.arrl.org/voice-modes
People who get annoyed to the extent that it affects their psyche and emotional well being over ANYTHING related to Amateur Radio should probably step back and evaluate their priorities. As for me, I will continue to use phonetics of my own choosing, reserving the right to change one or more if a situation warrants it. In other words, if any given set of phonetics seems to annoy someone else, I will perpetuate their use.
I totally agree and I can't believe people will argue about this! Use standard fanatics on seeing ishal contact so everyone everywhere clearly understands your call, then I don't care what you use. I hear this everyday/ people trying to work DX with some stupid phonics and they repeat it a dozen times and it's still not understood. I'm not saying there's a problem using anything you want when talking to your old buddies who do your call, but people that don't know you may not understand he's on some kind of crazy phonetic. Many countries it's required they learn it because I can't speak English very well or understand it but they will understand, in many cases that's why Pilots always have to use the international standard.
Back in the 1970's, in the U.S. Army Military Police we were taught to use proper military phonetics, on the radio. If someone asked for a "101 radio check". The proper reply was "I read you loud and clear" or" lima charlie". Occasionally someone would reply "I read you licking chicken" which caused the desk sergeant or duty officer to go ballistic!
Some here have asserted that the ITU phonetics should be used exclusively because they are the best understood by all, and yet, many seasoned contesters and DXers, those to whom it very much matters that the other station gets it right the first time, do NOT use the ITU list in it's entirety. Notable examples include America for A, Mexico for M, Norway for N, Yokohama for Y, United for U, and Zanzibar for Z. One of the great things about Ham Radio is that there will always be someone who will try to tell you what to do and lament the past.
The standard NATO/ICAO phonetics SUCK big time! Whoever made up that list was obviously not a linguist. They are nearly all two-syllables that carry a similar rhythm when pronounced, often indistinguishable under less than optimum conditions, such as background noise, QRM or just poor transmitter or receiver audio quality. Examples: oscar, papa, alpha, kilo, tango, yankee sound too much alike, especially when the speaker's and listener's native languages differ. Besides pronunciation, the speaker's intonation makes a lot of difference. In amateur radio, what works best are words and place names most likely to be familiar to other hams. "Kilo" may be easily confused with "tango" or "victor", but few would misinterpret "kilowatt". B-but "kilowatt" is two words isn't it? Wouldn't that be misinterpreted as KW? Well, what about "foxtrot", wouldn't that likewise be misinterpreted as FT? Queen or quad might come across better than Quebec, which could easily be misinterpreted to stand for K instead of Q, depending on how it's pronounced.
Not limited to phone. I listed to WebSDR when out walking to practice my CW copying. The other day I heard a guy call CQ x 12 followed by his callsign x 2, and then repeating the whole thing again with no pause.
I agree, that's one of my pet peeves too... unless it's intended with sarcasm, in which case it would have the opposite of the literal meaning and might be appropriate after all. But then you brought up another one, "ham" (or worse still, HAM) instead of "ham radio".
