Ham Radio QSO Parties

During last year’s Virginia QSO Party I heard a few too many folks on the HF bands saying their exchange with plain letters. Hmmm wasn’t this the year many no-code technicians became no-code generals? Fresh meat on the HF bands. Most of you new generals did just fine. All the ones I know certainly did fine. However, for the few who insisted on using plain letters, your rookie, FMer, status is blatantly obvious.

So…

For you phonetic challenged folks here is your new alphabet…

International Phonetic Alphabet (NATO)

    A 	Alpha	    N 	November
    B 	Bravo	    O 	Oscar
    C 	Charlie	    P 	Papa
    D 	Delta	    Q 	Quebec
    E 	Echo	    R 	Romeo
    F 	Foxtrot	    S 	Sierra
    G 	Golf	    T 	Tango
    H 	Hotel	    U 	Uniform
    I 	India	    V 	Victor
    J 	Juliet	    W 	Whiskey
    K 	Kilo	    X 	X-ray
    L 	Lima	    Y 	Yankee
    M 	Mike	    Z 	Zulu

Don’t use the police alphabet of King David Charlie, etc.

For goodness sakes don’t make up your own words. This may be cute on the FM repeater, but during a contest efficiency is the key to success. The whole point of the phonetic alphabet is to ensure each letter has a unique sound and you are not likely to better the NATO version.

Here is another view with some example pronunciations for the numbers too…

Good luck in the contest. Look for me as “Kilo X-Ray Fow-er Oscar” not as “Kool-Aid Xenon Fer Obama.”