Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


--
Adam

ARW wrote:
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


Optimist! Ive found trying to give positions to emergency services an
incredibly frustrating experience. The main problem being that theyve not
heard of the internet and search engines. Also, it takes an age to get
through to anyone who can understand grid references or any normal system
of identifying position that doesnt involve street names and house
numbers.

€œWhat three words€� seems like a nice idea but I dont hold out much hope of
any operator understanding the idea.
https://what3words.com/daring.lion.race

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

In message , ARW
writes
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from
a field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?



Would they be able to work with What Three Words ?

Adrian
--
To Reply :
replace "diy" with "news" and reverse the domain

If you are reading this from a web interface eg DIY Banter,
DIY Forum or Google Groups, please be aware this is NOT a forum, and
you are merely using a web portal to a USENET group. Many people block
posters coming from web portals due to perceieved SPAM or inaneness.
For a better method of access, please see:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Usenet

On 07/08/2019 22:13, Adrian wrote:
In message , ARW
writes
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from
a field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?



Would they be able to work with What Three Words ?


Field on fire next to the road between Branton and Auckley?





--
Adam

On 7 Aug 2019 21:10:09 GMT, Tim+ wrote:

What three words seems like a nice idea but I don t hold out much
hope of any operator understanding the idea.
https://what3words.com/daring.lion.race

And also relies on you having a useable mobile data connection to
look up the three words for the random bit of burning country side.

--
Cheers
Dave.

In message , ARW
writes
On 07/08/2019 22:13, Adrian wrote:
In message , ARW
writes
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart
from a field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


Would they be able to work with What Three Words ?


Field on fire next to the road between Branton and Auckley?


https://what3words.com/unpacked.width.outsmart ?


--
To Reply :
replace "diy" with "news" and reverse the domain

If you are reading this from a web interface eg DIY Banter,
DIY Forum or Google Groups, please be aware this is NOT a forum, and
you are merely using a web portal to a USENET group. Many people block
posters coming from web portals due to perceieved SPAM or inaneness.
For a better method of access, please see:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?title=Usenet

ARW wrote

Basically between two villages. No houses,
no pubs nothing (apart from a field on fire).

Use the GPS to see what road you are on and
call them on your mobile so they can get the
mobile to tell them exactly where you are.

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?

They should be able to if you call using your mobile.

On 07/08/2019 22:10, Tim+ wrote:
ARW wrote:
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


Optimist! Ive found trying to give positions to emergency services an
incredibly frustrating experience. The main problem being that theyve not
heard of the internet and search engines. Also, it takes an age to get
through to anyone who can understand grid references or any normal system
of identifying position that doesnt involve street names and house
numbers.

€œWhat three words€� seems like a nice idea but I dont hold out much hope of
any operator understanding the idea.
https://what3words.com/daring.lion.race

Tim

I believe that some emergency services are now using it. (It's something
we have been discussing in the context of bridleway users).

On 07/08/2019 23:26, Adrian wrote:
In message , ARW
writes
On 07/08/2019 22:13, Adrian wrote:
In message , ARW
writes
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart
fromÂ* a field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


Â*Would they be able to work with What Three Words ?


Field on fire next to the road between Branton and Auckley?


https://what3words.com/unpacked.width.outsmart ?


Just tried that link, when I hit the "current location" button it drops
the pin about half a mile north of me.

On 07/08/2019 23:51, newshound wrote:
On 07/08/2019 23:26, Adrian wrote:
In message , ARW
writes
On 07/08/2019 22:13, Adrian wrote:
In message , ARW
writes
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart
fromÂ* a field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


Â*Would they be able to work with What Three Words ?


Field on fire next to the road between Branton and Auckley?


https://what3words.com/unpacked.width.outsmart ?


Just tried that link, when I hit the "current location" button it drops
the pin about half a mile north of me.

This is on a desktop, with no GPS of course. OTOH Google Maps on the
same machine finds the right house.

On 07/08/2019 21:57, ARW wrote:
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


nah because local knowledge is not valued any longer ....

On Thu, 8 Aug 2019 08:37:34 +1000, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:


Use the GPS to see what road you are on and

FLUSH

Shut your stupid senile gob and jump back into your roo's pouch that you
escaped from, senile Ozzie pest!

--
"Anonymous" to trolling senile Rot Speed:
"You can **** off as you know less than pig **** you sad
little ignorant ****."
MID:

newshound wrote:

[whatthreewords]

when I hit the "current location" button it
drops the pin about half a mile north of me.

This is on a desktop, with no GPS of course. OTOH Google Maps on the
same machine finds the right house.

On my laptop (similarly no GPS) the locate button pops up a permission
dialogue from the browser, if I say "yes" then W3W gets the correct
position, right down to the correct quarter of the house ... but the
laptop and my mobile are both signed-in on the same google account, and
the phone has GPS enabled (also WiFi triangulation works pretty well).

Do you not have a satnave or a reasonable mobile phone with a gps app?

It used to be a big problem, but these days not so much.
Assuming its not miles from anywhere you surely know the road, as otherwise
why would you know to go on it?
Brian

--
----- --
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"ARW" wrote in message
...
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


--
Adam

The thing is I seem to have no issues, but I imagine if its a sparsely
populated area, the place you are talking to may well be well away and
there is no local knowledge.
Somehow hear in London they tell me where I am if I've rung from a mobile of
recent vintage.
Obviously I've only had to do it recently about twice, but I guess some of
the larger call handling centres being not local is the main issue.
Brian

--
----- --
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"newshound" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 07/08/2019 22:10, Tim+ wrote:
ARW wrote:
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


Optimist! I've found trying to give positions to emergency services an
incredibly frustrating experience. The main problem being that they've
not
heard of the internet and search engines. Also, it takes an age to get
through to anyone who can understand grid references or any normal system
of identifying position that doesn't involve street names and house
numbers.

"What three words" seems like a nice idea but I don't hold out much hope
of
any operator understanding the idea.
https://what3words.com/daring.lion.race

Tim

I believe that some emergency services are now using it. (It's something
we have been discussing in the context of bridleway users).

On Thursday, 8 August 2019 07:53:54 UTC+1, Brian Gaff wrote:
Obviously I've only had to do it recently about twice, but I guess some of
the larger call handling centres being not local is the main issue.

London has addresses.

Try being in the country where there aren't even road names (and C roads aren't numbered on maps)

Owain

Andy Burns was thinking very hard :
newshound wrote:

[whatthreewords]

when I hit the "current location" button it drops the pin about half a
mile north of me.

This is on a desktop, with no GPS of course. OTOH Google Maps on the same
machine finds the right house.

On my laptop (similarly no GPS) the locate button pops up a permission
dialogue from the browser, if I say "yes" then W3W gets the correct position,
right down to the correct quarter of the house ... but the laptop and my
mobile are both signed-in on the same google account, and the phone has GPS
enabled (also WiFi triangulation works pretty well).

Seems to work extremely well on my Iphone, using its built in GPS, to
within yards. My Iphone seems to improve its GPS position data, over
the the first several seconds, so I'm guessing it uses an averaging
technique.

I recall once knocking on the door of a fire station, to advise them
that the field right in front of the fire station was on fire. With the
fire clearly visible over my shoulder, they wanted me to give them the
address of the fire.

Tim+ wrote:
ARW wrote:
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


Optimist! Ive found trying to give positions to emergency services an
incredibly frustrating experience. The main problem being that theyve not
heard of the internet and search engines. Also, it takes an age to get
through to anyone who can understand grid references or any normal system
of identifying position that doesnt involve street names and house
numbers.

€œWhat three words€� seems like a nice idea but I dont hold out much hope of
any operator understanding the idea.
https://what3words.com/daring.lion.race

Tim




We have a perfectly good systems in the UK, the OS Grid System and Lat
Long, which you can access from most phones, car sat navs etc and the
Emergency services use, and are far more well known than things like
what3words.

What3words is and amusing toy, especially if you find the words somehow
link to the location but whereas an appropriate OS grid reference is still
useful, change one word in what3words and .......

Adrian wrote:
https://what3words.com/unpacked.width.outsmart ?

Sounds like trouble on the phone:

https://what3words.com/unpacked.with.outsmart
comes out next to the Beijing River.

And https://what3words.com/unpicked.width.outsmart
silenty forwards to:
https://what3words.com/daring.lion.race
which is Charing Cross underground station.
- an fact every unknown sequence forwards to Charing Cross.

Theo

Theo wrote:

Sounds like trouble on the phone:
https://what3words.com/unpacked.with.outsmart
comes out next to the Beijing River.

with != width

And https://what3words.com/unpicked.width.outsmart
silenty forwards to:
which is Charing Cross underground station.

unpicked != unpacked

On 07/08/2019 21:57, ARW wrote:
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?

I wouldn't bet on it.

I called an ambulance a few years ago to a junction of two named roads.
The call handler was in a different county, so didn't know the area and
one of the roads was newer than the ambulance's satnav database. I had
to talk the ambulance in from a place they could find, about half a mile
away at the start of the road that was on their database.

--
Colin Bignell

On 07/08/2019 23:51, newshound wrote:
On 07/08/2019 23:26, Adrian wrote:
In message , ARW
writes
On 07/08/2019 22:13, Adrian wrote:
In message , ARW
writes
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart
fromÂ* a field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


Â*Would they be able to work with What Three Words ?


Field on fire next to the road between Branton and Auckley?


https://what3words.com/unpacked.width.outsmart ?


Just tried that link, when I hit the "current location" button it drops
the pin about half a mile north of me.

I just tried it and it places me just to the south of York - which is
wrong by about 50 miles and not even in the right Riding of Yorkshire.

We fairly recently discovered that the official gazette of postcodes had
our village hall "officially" located in the middle of a farm field -
which was where the secretary lived back in the 1960's. It has now been
corrected. Firebrigade apparently use some odd building code or other so
it isn't clear whether the wrong official postcode would have been a
problem. Noone lives there and it has no postbox (hence no actual code).

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Martin Brown wrote:

wrong by about 50 miles

But what geolocation facilities does your phone/laptop/desktop have
available/enabled? W3W has to rely on that ...

"Tim+" wrote in message
...
ARW wrote:
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


Optimist! Ive found trying to give positions to emergency services an
incredibly frustrating experience. The main problem being that theyve not
heard of the internet and search engines. Also, it takes an age to get
through to anyone who can understand grid references or any normal system
of identifying position that doesnt involve street names and house
numbers.

€œWhat three words€� seems like a nice idea but I dont hold out much hope
of
any operator understanding the idea.
https://what3words.com/daring.lion.race

When I had to report a crash on the opposite carriageway of the M1 late at
night, I used the "M1 A 123.4" emergency location sign, but said "Accident
is on the opposite B carriageway, roughly opposite this sign". The operator
wanted to know the f-ing postcode! When I couldn't give one (random
locations on motorways don't have postcodes) she asked what junction or
service station I had last passed. I'd no idea: I was somewhere in the
middle of my journey, a long way from the junctions I'd joined at and was
planning to leave it, so my location was "somewhere in between". I could
give a very rough idea, but no more than that.

I was rather horrified that the police 999 operator couldn't handle the
information on the "M1 A 123.4" sign, because they are there for this very
purpose: giving a location in the event of an emergency. When I got home I
emailed the police force for that area to report the problem because there
was clearly a training issue. I had a reply saying that they'd found the
recording of my call and agreed that I had been very precise and very
unambiguous and had given all the information that the operator *should*
have needed. The control room had identified that more training was
needed...

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. She asked me to give the letters their normal
names, and then we had the expected "is that P or B" scenario that the
phonetic alphabet is designed to avoid.

Andy Burns wrote:
Theo wrote:

Sounds like trouble on the phone:
https://what3words.com/unpacked.with.outsmart
comes out next to the Beijing River.

with != width

And https://what3words.com/unpicked.width.outsmart
silenty forwards to:
which is Charing Cross underground station.

unpicked != unpacked

Exactly. And good luck explaining that on the phone in an emergency
situation:

'that's wiv, no wiv wiv a D'

etc.

Theo

On 07/08/2019 23:10, Dave Liquorice wrote:
On 7 Aug 2019 21:10:09 GMT, Tim+ wrote:

What three wordsâ seems like a nice idea but I donâ t hold out much
hope of any operator understanding the idea.
https://what3words.com/daring.lion.race

And also relies on you having a useable mobile data connection to
look up the three words for the random bit of burning country side.


Don't worry it will be out by the weekend when storm whatever
arrives

On 08/08/2019 10:17, Theo wrote:
Andy Burns wrote:
Theo wrote:

Sounds like trouble on the phone:
https://what3words.com/unpacked.with.outsmart
comes out next to the Beijing River.

with != width

And https://what3words.com/unpicked.width.outsmart
silenty forwards to:
which is Charing Cross underground station.

unpicked != unpacked

Exactly. And good luck explaining that on the phone in an emergency
situation:

'that's wiv, no wiv wiv a D'

etc.

Theo


Can we invent our own ?.

Where would 'Oil Spiv Farrage' take us ?

On 08/08/2019 07:49, Brian Gaff wrote:
Do you not have a satnave or a reasonable mobile phone with a gps app?

It used to be a big problem, but these days not so much.
Assuming its not miles from anywhere you surely know the road, as otherwise
why would you know to go on it?
Brian


I'm waiting for Simon to pop up and remind us how fantastic
his Iridium phone is.

"NY" wrote in message
...
"Tim+" wrote in message
...
ARW wrote:
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?


Optimist! Ive found trying to give positions to emergency services an
incredibly frustrating experience. The main problem being that theyve
not
heard of the internet and search engines. Also, it takes an age to get
through to anyone who can understand grid references or any normal system
of identifying position that doesnt involve street names and house
numbers.

€œWhat three words€� seems like a nice idea but I dont hold out much hope
of
any operator understanding the idea.
https://what3words.com/daring.lion.race

When I had to report a crash on the opposite carriageway of the M1 late at
night, I used the "M1 A 123.4" emergency location sign, but said "Accident
is on the opposite B carriageway, roughly opposite this sign". The
operator wanted to know the f-ing postcode! When I couldn't give one
(random locations on motorways don't have postcodes) she asked what
junction or service station I had last passed. I'd no idea: I was
somewhere in the middle of my journey, a long way from the junctions I'd
joined at and was planning to leave it, so my location was "somewhere in
between". I could give a very rough idea, but no more than that.

I was rather horrified that the police 999 operator couldn't handle the
information on the "M1 A 123.4" sign, because they are there for this very
purpose: giving a location in the event of an emergency. When I got home I
emailed the police force for that area to report the problem because there
was clearly a training issue. I had a reply saying that they'd found the
recording of my call and agreed that I had been very precise and very
unambiguous and had given all the information that the operator *should*
have needed. The control room had identified that more training was
needed...

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.

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

She asked me to give the letters their normal names, and then we had the
expected "is that P or B" scenario that the phonetic alphabet is designed
to avoid.

"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.

NY expressed precisely :
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 ;-)

I always use phonetics when for my email, postcode, name and address,
when its important to get it absolutely correct.

On Thu, 8 Aug 2019 19:48:03 +1000, cantankerous trolling geezer Rodent
Speed, the auto-contradicting senile sociopath, blabbered, again:


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

LOL Pathological auto-contradicting senile idiot!

--
Kerr-Mudd,John addressing senile Rot:
"Auto-contradictor Rod is back! (in the KF)"
MID:

Brian Gaff explained on 08/08/2019 :
Do you not have a satnave or a reasonable mobile phone with a gps app?

Last time I did a 999 out in the wilds, the operator was not able to
accept a Lat/Long.

The 'three little words' system is free for the user, but those
accepting the three words need to subscribe. On the web site, they list
which authorities subscribe to the system, Yorkshire is one. I recently
downloaded it and I have checked it a few times, it has always been
very accurate when I have tried it. It is even accurate wondering
around my own property.

On 07/08/2019 23:37, Rod Speed wrote:
ARW wrote
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from
a field on fire).

Use the GPS to see what road you are on and call them on your mobile so
they can get the mobile to tell them exactly where you are.
You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?

They should be able to if you call using your mobile.

I don't think cellphone calls forward GPS coordinates, even if your
phone has GPS. I suppose you could take a photo of the fire (or
whatever) and email it to them, provided you have turned geotagging on.

--
Max Demian

On Thu, 08 Aug 2019 11:16:47 +0100, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

Last time I did a 999 out in the wilds, the operator was not able to
accept a Lat/Long.

Which is just stupid. Out here it maybe the only way to locate a
moorland fire some where in 50 sq miles of road and track free
moorland... Even on the road between South Tyne Dale and Teesdale
there is 6 miles from the last house in South Tyne Dale to the first
one at the Top of Teesdale. It's not without reason that this area is
know as "Englands last Wilderness" and with 6 of the highest roads
also the "Roof of England".

--
Cheers
Dave.

"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

"Max Demian" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 07/08/2019 23:37, Rod Speed wrote:
ARW wrote
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from a
field on fire).

Use the GPS to see what road you are on and call them on your mobile so
they can get the mobile to tell them exactly where you are.
You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?

They should be able to if you call using your mobile.

I don't think cellphone calls forward GPS coordinates, even if your phone
has GPS.

Yes they do and that is legally mandated.

I suppose you could take a photo of the fire (or whatever) and email it to
them, provided you have turned geotagging on.

But its less clear if the monkey fielding
the call can actually receive that photo.

If you call using your mobile, you dont
even have to do anything, the system
knows where the phone is even if you
drop dead after making the call and
havent said anything at all.

On 08/08/2019 11:39, Max Demian wrote:
On 07/08/2019 23:37, Rod Speed wrote:
ARW wrote
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart
from a field on fire).

Use the GPS to see what road you are on and call them on your mobile
so they can get the mobile to tell them exactly where you are.
You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?

They should be able to if you call using your mobile.

I don't think cellphone calls forward GPS coordinates, even if your
phone has GPS. I suppose you could take a photo of the fire (or
whatever) and email it to them, provided you have turned geotagging on.

Recent phones should send location automatically. Google implemented
Advanced Mobile Location (AML) on Android in 2017. It's on iOS now too.

Whether BT's operators or the emergency services can access it is
another matter on which I am ignorant.

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

On 08/08/2019 10:59, NY wrote:
"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 ;-)

P for pterodactyl; C for ctenophore; A for aisle.

Most people don't know the official ones, and sometimes the person the
other end thinks that sierra begins with a C.

--
Max Demian

On 08/08/2019 09:22, nightjar wrote:
On 07/08/2019 21:57, ARW wrote:
Basically between two villages. No houses, no pubs nothing (apart from
a field on fire).

You know the names of the villages and that is all.

Could the phone operator not work it out?

I wouldn't bet on it.

I called an ambulance a few years ago to a junction of two named roads.
The call handler was in a different county, so didn't know the area and
one of the roads was newer than the ambulance's satnav database. I had
to talk the ambulance in from a place they could find, about half a mile
away at the start of the road that was on their database.

A few years back I reported a gas leak, This wasnt just a smell of gas
you could hear the gas escaping from 50 yards away, it was a major
pipeline gong in to (or out) of a gas works. I gave them the address &
town. I explained this to emergency services and then got ****ed of with
all the other questions so told her " I have reported and given address,
this is serious, do what you want"
It took about half hour for services to investigate and then evacuated
all for half mile with overnight accommodation.