Alphabec codes

Question

I found a military alphabet codes at this page
http://www.ee.pdx.edu/~sheaj/icao.html . But I wonder if this is a popular one that Americans use, especially among young people doing casual talks. For example, I often hear people say 'T as in Tom', but this list gives 'tango'. If you can take a little of your precious time and write up a list that you always use, I'd appreciate it.

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[nq:1]I found a military alphabet codes at this page http://www.ee.pdx.edu/~sheaj/icao.html . But I wonder if this is a popular one ... can take a little of your precious time and write up a list that you always use, I'd appreciate it.[/nq]
Partial list:
a - aesthetic
c - chthonian
e - eiderdown
g - gnome
h - honest
j - jarl
k - knight
l - llama
m - mnemonic
o - oedipal
p - phthisis
q - Qatar
v - Volkswagen
w - (Richard) Wagner
x - xylophone
y - yclept
More seriously, the military alphabet is prescribed for military uses and for airlines, and it has no particular significance in other situations. Most people not in the military or aviation don't know it. I tend to use what suits the occasion. The "b" in the middle of my surname can stand for anything from "bombastic" through "***," depending on context.

Bob Lieblich
Or even Buxtehude

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[nq:1]More seriously, the military alphabet is prescribed for military uses and for airlines, and it has no particular significance in other situations. Most people not in the military or aviation don't know it.[/nq]
Speaking of flyboys, why are the USN ones "aviators" and the USAF ones "pilots"?

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[nq:1]I found a military alphabet codes at this page http://www.ee.pdx.edu/~sheaj/icao.html . But I wonder if this is a popular one ... can take a little of your precious time and write up a list that you always use, I'd appreciate it.[/nq]
You can find some here:
http://www.columbia.edu/~fuat/cuarc/phonetic.html

jouni maho

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[nq:1]More seriously, the military alphabet is prescribed for military uses and for airlines, and it has no particular significance in ... occasion. The "b" in the middle of my surname can stand for anything from "bombastic" through "***," depending on context.[/nq]
More precisely, the b is in the middle of your, uh, Christian name, not your surname, so "bonkers" may be the word we're looking for in this context.

Charles Riggs
Email address: chriggs>at>eircom>dot>com

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[nq:1]a - aesthetic c - chthonian[/nq]
(snip)
I vaguely remember two other silly alphabets, involving able, babel, cable, ...; and ... beer, ..., deer, ear, .. I've forgotten how the gaps were filled.
David

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[nq:2]More seriously, the military alphabet is prescribed for military uses ... stand for anything from "bombastic" through "***," depending on context.[/nq]
[nq:1]More precisely, the b is in the middle of your, uh, Christian name, not your surname, so "bonkers" may be the word we're looking for in this context.[/nq]
I have puzzled over this. The b in Robert is not in the middle, either. Or am I missing something?

Laura
(emulate St. George for email)

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[nq:2]More precisely, the b is in the middle of your, ... may be the word we're looking for in this context.[/nq]
[nq:1]I have puzzled over this. The b in Robert is not in the middle, either. Or am I missing something?[/nq]
Not dead centre but near enough for Government work
John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply

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[nq:1]I found a military alphabet codes at this page http://www.ee.pdx.edu/~sheaj/icao.html . But I wonder if this is a popular one ... doing casual talks. For example, I often hear people say 'T as in Tom', but this list gives 'tango'. If[/nq]
The present international standard
(Alfa Bravo Charlie Echo Foxtrot) was compiled
approx.1955 on behalf of NATO and
was designed to be as clear as possible
over noisy or weak radios apparently
successfully because international air
traffic control adopted the NATO alphabet.
The US armed forces have officially
adopted it too, but some strong local
traditions supervene.
The complete NATO alphabet is listed at
http://www.columbia.edu/~fuat/cuarc/phonetic.html
The US Navy used in WW2
Able Baker Charlie Dog Easy Fox
The RAF used in WW2
Apple Beer Charlie Dog Edward Freddy

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
dphillipson(at)trytel.com

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{{Date: Fri, 12 Sep 03 08:06:04 GMT

I vaguely remember two other silly alphabets, involving able, babel, cable, ...; and ... beer, ..., deer, ear, .. I've forgotten how the gaps were filled.}}
I suppose if I were to play this game, in the (un-)light of Hemingway's answer to the chicken riddle:
http://shell.rawbw.com/~rem/cgi-bin/topscript.cgi
I should come up with Hemingway's version of the phonetic alphabet: Agony, Beatitude, Corrupt, Death, Ernest, Failure, Guts, Helplessness, Impossible, Joyless, Kill, Loneliness, Murder, Nothingness, Over (*), Pain, Quit, Ruin, Suicide, Torment, Unhapy, Vent, Whatever, ...

* (As in "It's Over", title of song by Jimmy Rogers)

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X-No-Archive: yes
[nq:1]The present international standard (Alfa Bravo Charlie Echo Foxtrot) was compiled approx.1955 on behalf of NATO and was designed to be as clear as possible over noisy or weak radios apparently successfully because international air traffic control adopted the NATO alphabet.[/nq]
In the late 1970s to early 1980s, before CB radio was decriminalized in the UK, breakers used to hold massed "eyeballs" around London, giving out cryptic locations such as "Alpha Bravo" to fool the buzbies radio spectrum police who liked to turn up at such gatherings and seize rigs.

One day the buzbies lay in wait at the Delta Hotel, near London Airport (Heathrow) (1), expecting dozens of CBers to turn up, and were miffed to discover that "Delta-Hotel" was the phonetic code for a location miles away.
But the huge increase in the use the telephone to place mail orders and make bookings etc has resulted call centre managers training staff in the use of the phonetic alphabet (last month I re-registered to vote without human intervention by pressing buttons on my phone).

Lack of such training some years ago resulted in a bizarre conversation I had with a mail order droid in a call centre. I had to give my address. My house's name (numbering has not reached this sleepy village) is a bit of a mouthful, beginning with "Sch" so I usually prefer to use phonetics.
"It's a complicated name," I said. "Shall I spell it phonetically?"

"Yes please, sir." answered the bright young thing.

"Sierra "
"How do you spell Sierra, sir?"
I realised that this was going to be more difficult than I thought. "Sierra means "S"," I explained.
"Oh. Like in "S" for Sugar?"
I complimented her on her ability to pick things up quickly. "Shall I continue?"
"Yes please, sir."
"Sierra Charlie Hotel "
"I'm sorry, sir," she interrupted again. "But company policy is not to deliver goods ordered on credit cards to hotels."
Earlier this year the mighty Prudential Assurance Corporation transferred their pensions inquiry call centre from Reading to downtown Bombay (or whatever silly fad name the locals call their smelly shithole now). Can you imagine the conversations that probably take place?

CALLER: I'm worried about my pension fund. From this latest valuation you've sent me, I see that I'm to receive only five hundred pounds per month when I retire next month instead of eight hundred.
WALLAH: Only five hundred quid a month? Blimey, sahib. You come and live in Bombay. With five hundred a month, you can rent a palace and run four brand new Morris Oxfords one for each direction. Goodness gracious me, yes indeedy."
London has four airports. Their designations are (Heathrow), (Gatwick), (Stanstead) and (City).

James Follett. Novelist (Callsign G1LXP)
http://www.jamesfollett.dswilliams.co.uk and http://www.marjacq.com

Alphabec codes

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