It was designed like that for a reason. There’s a lack of one syllable words there, and the ones that are there sound very different.
It’s also used for messages that require precision that the average person doesn’t need in day to day life.
I learned the phonetic alphabet partly because of the fact that I obtained my amateur radio operator qualification. I’m a “ham” radio person.
Hearing these on the radio, which isn’t super clear to begin with in most cases, it’s much easier to use this way and almost trivial to understand others when they spell anything over the radio. Given this is the NATO alphabet, it’s used by all kinds of people, from ham operators like me, to government/military. Often in conjunction with some kind of communications system, often but not always radio communications, where the signal might be poor.
I think the original intent was to ensure that all letters sounded as unique as possible, so even if you only catch part of the word (maybe the rest is obfuscated by static), you still understand the what was said.
X is X-ray??
And F is Foxtrot but not just Fox??
Am I the only that thinks this is crazy?
It was designed like that for a reason. There’s a lack of one syllable words there, and the ones that are there sound very different. It’s also used for messages that require precision that the average person doesn’t need in day to day life.
“Fox” could be confused with “box”, so it goes with “Foxtrot”.
Also, keep in mind that everything is a product of its time.
Fox could also be misheard in other languages, not just box.
The old joke about telling your German counterpart about nine tanks coming over the hill and all that.
Not really, but it makes sense to me.
I learned the phonetic alphabet partly because of the fact that I obtained my amateur radio operator qualification. I’m a “ham” radio person.
Hearing these on the radio, which isn’t super clear to begin with in most cases, it’s much easier to use this way and almost trivial to understand others when they spell anything over the radio. Given this is the NATO alphabet, it’s used by all kinds of people, from ham operators like me, to government/military. Often in conjunction with some kind of communications system, often but not always radio communications, where the signal might be poor.
I think the original intent was to ensure that all letters sounded as unique as possible, so even if you only catch part of the word (maybe the rest is obfuscated by static), you still understand the what was said.
I prefer x as in xylophone myself