The Phonetic Alphabet is used to spell letters in place of just saying the letter, number, special character, itself. By using a word for each one of these characters, there is less chance that the person listening will confuse letters, numbers, and/or special characters. For instance, some letters that can easily be confused are "b" and "e" and as for numbers, "9" and "5" sometimes get confused. The phonetic alphabet is used in radio communications around the world by maritime units, aircraft, amateur radio operators, the military, and by all employees within Kevin Crothers/WorldCom's Corporate Systems department.

Phonetic Alphabet

For Say For Say A Alpha (AL fah) N November (no VEM ber) B Bravo (BRAH VOH) O Oscar (OSS cah) C Charlie (CHAR lee) P Papa (pah PAH) D Delta (DELL tah) Q Quebec (keh BECK) E Echo (ECK oh) R Romeo (ROW me oh) F Foxtrot (FOKS trot) S Sierra (see AIR rah) G Golf (GOLF) T Tango (TANG go) H Hotel (hoh TELL) U Uniform (YOU nee form) I India (IN dee ah) V Victor (VIK tah) J Juliett (JEW lee ETT) W Whiskey (WISS key) K Kilo (KEY loh) X X Ray (ECKS RAY) L Lima (LEE mah) Y Yankee (YANG key) M Mike (MIKE) Z Zulu (ZOO loo)

For Say For Say Space ; Semicolon ! Exclamation Point < Less than sign " Double quote = Equal sign # Number sign, hash, pound > Greater than sign $ Dollar sign ? Question mark % Percent @ At sign & Ampersand [ Left bracket ' Single quote \ Backslash ( Left parenthesis ] Right bracket ) Right parenthesis ^ Caret * Asterisk _ Underscore + Plus sign ` Grave accent, backtick , Comma { Left brace, left curly bracket - Minus sign | Vertical bar, pipe sign . Full stop, STOP (period) DAY-SEE-MAL (decimal) } Right brace, right curly bracket / Slash, forward slash ~ Tilde : Colon

For Say 0 ZEE-RO 1 WUN 2 TOO 3 TREE 4 FOW-ER 5 FIFE 6 SIX 7 SEV-EN 8 AIT 9 NIN-ER

Note: The syllables printed in capital letters are to be stressed.

How it is used?

Aviation: The letters on aircraft tail numbers are spelled phonetically. For instance, when calling the tower, aircraft with tail number "2304J" would be pronounced "2304 Juliett". Also the Airport Terminal Information Service (ATIS) assigns sequential letters to the broadcasts since these are frequently updated such as "Information Kilo".
Amateur Radio: Call signs are routinely spelled using phonetics for instance the call sign AK8Y would be "Alpha Kilo 8 Yankee".
Military: When sending information that contains letter or names that need to be spelled, the phonetic alphabet is used.
Digital Communications: What I've found is most important for using Phonetics in this modern world, is when telling someone a URL, or username/password pair, an API key, a token, or really most importantly an IP configuration or netblock.
Activities

• Can you spell your name using the phonetic alphabet?
• What letters other than "b" and "e" could be confused if the phonetic alphabet is not used?
• Say your local and public/NAT IP address using Phonetics.

from

Creative Snaps
Worker bee: Kevin Crothers
Curator: Kevin Crothers {kevinc@creativesnaps.com}
Last Update: 19 September 2020

and

The Mobile Aeronautics Education Laboratory: our Phonetic Alphabet
NASA/Glenn Research Center
Educational Programs Officer: R. Lynn Bondurant
Curator: Bruce Bream {bruce.bream@grc.nasa.gov}
Last Update: 6 February 1996


I hope you enjoyed your visit to Kevin and Phonetics!