In article , NY writes
"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.
NATO
--
bert