RADIO OPERATORS ALPHABET
RADIO OPERATORS ALPHABET
Sometimes Radio transmissions can cause some kinds of speech to be unclear, that is the pronunciation of some letters when spoken on the radio can be garbled or mistaken for other letters. The reason for this is the bandwidth restrictions imposed by the transmission system itself. The RADIO OPERATORS ALPHABET are words that represent the letters and can be easily distinguished over radio transmission systems. Even telephone conversations require these types of spoken word identifications to get the message across to the listener. Numbers are usually easy to understand because they are relayed by using a word like one, or two, or three. These are easy to understand with the exception of “Zero” that is sometimes incorrectly relayed as an “O” spoken as “Oh”. Just to be correct “O” is not a Zero, listen for it when someone relays a number to you on the phone and see how many people say “O” instead of Zero. Some would say why does it matter, but if you are relating a number that could contain an “O” instead of a Zero then it can cause real trouble. In purchasing it could be the difference between buying a box of paperclips and a ship anchor.
So here is a list of the words in the RADIO OPERATORS ALPHABET that represent the letters of the alphabet. I have included a listing of Greek Letters so you can see the difference, however the Greek Letters should never be used to transmit information over radio or telephone.
Letter Spoken Word Phonetic Pronunciation
A Alfa Al Fah
B Bravo Bra Voh
C Charlie Char Lee
D Delta Del Tah
E Echo Ek Oh
F Foxtrot Foks Trot
G Golf Golf
H Hotel Ho Tell
I India In Dee Ah
J Juliett Jew Lee Ett
K Kilo Key Loh
L Lima Lee Mah
M Mike Mike
N November No Vem Ber
O Oscar Oss Car
P Papa Pah Pah
Q Quebec Ke Beck
R Romeo Row Me Oh
S Sierra See Air Rah
T Tango Tang Go
U Uniform You Nee Form
V Victor Vick Ter
W Whiskey Wiss Key
X X-Ray Ecks Ray
Y Yankee Yang Key
Z Zulu Zoo Loo
GREEK LETTERS
English Name Greek Name
A,a alpha
B,b beta
G,g gamma
D,d delta
E,e epsilon
Z,z zeta
E,e eta
Th,th theta
I,i iota
K,k kappa
L,l lambda
M,m mu
N,n nu
X,x xi
O,o omicron
P,p pi
R,r rho
S,s sigma
T,t tau
U,u upsilon
Ph,ph phi
Ch,ch chi
Ps,ps psi
O,o omega
