Whats the alpha, bravo, charlie, delta etc alphabet called

The police use this type of alphabet to spell out letters between their radios. I used to know the name of this alphabet but have forgotten it lol. I tried googling it and it came up with phonetic alphabet or something along those lines...but i am sure there was another name for it. isnt there?

Reply 1

Knogle

16

The greek alphabet, no?

Reply 2

sophisti_kate

Radio alphabet? Something to do with even if you don't hear the first bit, you can tell what the letter is...

Reply 3

Segat1

16

Police letters? radiotelephony spelling alphabet? NATO phonetic alphabet?

Random idiotic thing: It took me YEARS to work out that on the Bill, they were saying Sierra Oscar, I just thought it was some special codeword they had.

Reply 4

ladyportacabin

8

Phonetic alphabet

http://www.dynamoo.com/technical/phonetic.htm

Reply 5

Fluffy

15

Aye - it's the phonetic alphabet...

Reply 6

iceman_jondoe

OP

18

basically its used to clarify the spelling of words over the phone e.g A for alpha, b for bravo etc....

Reply 7

BlackHawk

17

As some other have said, it's the phonetic alphabet. Also used worldwide by the military.

OP

cheers

The phonetic alphabet is also used in aviation, for things like airport codes (eg, when calling London Gatwick Airport control tower over the radio, you'd say Lima Golf Whiskey, for LGW) and aircraft registrations (eg, one of the BA Concorde's was G-BOAC, so the pilots would address the tower as "Golf Alpha Charley request permission....")

Reply 10

3.1415926535897

10

thomasp

The phonetic alphabet is also used in aviation, for things like airport codes (eg, when calling London Gatwick Airport control tower over the radio, you'd say Lima Golf Whiskey, for LGW) and aircraft registrations (eg, one of the BA Concorde's was G-BOAC, so the pilots would address the tower as "Golf Alpha Charley request permission....")

wouldn't you call the ICAO code, EGKK, instead?

and wouldn't the pilots address the tower by callsign? so in this case, Speedbird n, where n is the flight number?

Reply 11

Ahmato

9

Sierra Hotel :biggrin:

Reply 12

Lofty

13

Knogle

The greek alphabet, no?

Lol. Alpha, Beta...ah well, ones the same!

Reply 13

wilbur

1

It's commonly called the phonetic alphabet, although this is actually a misnomer in this context as the purpose here is to clarify spelling rather than pronunciation. A true 'phonetic' alphabet is used to transcribe the sounds of human speech into writing, which this doesn't. 'Radio alphabet' would probably be a more accurate description.

Reply 14

simeon

13

wilbur

'Radio alphabet' would probably be a more accurate description.

You're possibly right in that it would be more accurate, however it is officially known as the NATO Phonetic Alphabet.

It superceeded the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic alphabet used by the US forces(between 1942 and mid 50's) in the mid 50's

Reply 15

thomasp

7

3.1415926535897

wouldn't you call the ICAO code, EGKK, instead?

and wouldn't the pilots address the tower by callsign? so in this case, Speedbird n, where n is the flight number?

I'm not really fully "up" on tower-speak, but with regards to aircraft registrations, if you're waiting for clearance to take off or move on the ground, you'll state your registration and callsign, so the tower know what aircraft they're looking at. Light aircraft will often just state the reg.

I don't know about using the 4-letter or 3-letter airport codes - I'm sure I've heard pilots refer to Stansted Airport (which I live near) as Sierra Tango November over the radio, instead of Echo Golf Sierra Sierra - perhaps that's just on UK-only flights. :confused:

Reply 16

BlackpoolCraig

11

The NATO phonetic alphabet, if I'm right

Reply 17

FadeToBlackout

15

*tries to remember*

Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec (?)
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Whisky
X-ray
Yankee
Zulu.

yay!

Also Unaone of one and Nadazero for zero, but I can't remember the numbers.