"NY" wrote in message
...
"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 ;-)

In the old days, when the cops pulled you over for speeding,
they asked what you name was. When I told him what my
name was, you could see the little wheels in his head
spinning as he decided whether I was taking the ****.

He had the sense to not do anything
until he had seen my then paper license.

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.

It was actually done so that there werent any similar sounding
words but were still commonly used words in english which
helps quite a lot when they are used in very poor quality
communications systems like in light aircraft which have
very high noise levels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_p...phabet#History