"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...

On a previous occasion I had to give my postcode, and the operator had
difficulty understanding the radio phonetic alphabet, which was an even
worse deficiency of training.

Not just training. I use it routinely when talking to normal
call centers for internet services etc and I dont recall ever
having anyone not understand what I meant.

Yes I commonly use it for spelling out easily-confused words (eg our house
is called Pump Cottage, not Hump Cottage as someone wrote!) and for
postcodes where an error in a letter can either make an invalid postcode or
else one that points to somewhere else. Most call centres now seem to be
able to understand them; my experiences with the 999 operators were some 10
years ago so they may have improved now.

I remember once being stopped by the police for some minor offence - maybe a
brake light bulb that had failed - and being asked my address which I gave
them, spelling out the postcode phonetically. The police officer looked as
if he thought I was taking the **** by using "the police's" phonetic
alphabet to him ;-)

And I use the proper names having leant them
for the flying and amateur radio licenses.

Yes, my pet hate is people using their own words to represent the letters
instead of the standard ones ;-) I wonder when/why the words changed from
the George How Yoke set (as heard in some WWII films) to the Golf Hotel
Yankee ones. Probably to make them less English-centred for people who speak
other languages.