Air Force Alphabet?

[CNfavorite]

Here's one way out in left field for you all. I got trying to remember the old pronounciations to discern alphabet characters 'military style'. I can get up to only 'K' now?

Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf/Gulf
Hotel
Isthmus(?)
Juliet....
Arrrrrgh!

It's driving me nuts now! ;-)
Thanks to anyone that can help me out.

[atsfdude]

Alpha,
Bravo,
Charlie,
Delta,
Foxtrot,
Gulf,
Hotel,
Indigo, (or India)
Juliet,
Kilo,
Lima,
Mike,
November,
Oscar,
Papa,
Quebec,
Romeo,
Sierra,
Tango,
Utah,
Victor,
Whiskey,
Xray,
Yankee,
Zebra

I guess all the amatuer radio stuff my grandfather taught me paid off...

ATSFDUDE

[JForte3]

Here is the rest of it...

Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
Xray
Yankee
Zulu

From the days in 3RD Comm Group, USAF, RAF Woodbridge, England, 1959-1963.

John Forte
Melbourne, FL

[Claude350]

Actually this is army talk.The air force branched from the army.Remember it was the Army Air Corp before it was the air force :).And yes I'm all army.:)...

[sniper297]

These days they refer to it as the "International Phonetic Alphabet", and it's used by everyone who communicates with radios except US police departments, who still insist on their "John Frank Mary Ida William" instead of "Juliet Foxtrot Mike India Whiskey" like civilized people use. It's gone thru a few changes since it's early inception, the idea is even if the signal is broken and full of static, B-D-E-G-P all sound alike, but Bravo-Delta-Echo-Golf-Papa are distinct from each other. In World War 2 it was something like;

Able
Baker
Charlie
Dog
Easy
Fox
George
Howe
Item
Jig
King
Love
Mike
Nan
Oboe
Peter
Queen
Roger
Sugar
Tare
Uncle
Victor
William
Xray
Yoke
Zebra

Odd how some old traditions hang on tho, the US Navy uses the new phonetic alphabet in all communications, but still uses the old for certain things. Watertight integrity is "set material condition ZEBRA" instead of ZULU, because the hatches and scuttles are still coded the same old way, William-Xray-Yoke-Zebra instead of Whiskey-Xray-Yankee-Zulu. "Set Circle William" is shut ventilation fittings for smoke or gas attack, useful when someone in the next compartment has those morning-after beer farts.

[dgauci]

From my US Navy Days as an Operations Specialist, this is the correct list.

[Dria]

The spelling used in radio communications at Sea is the same as reported above by John Forte, (The International Phonetic Alphabet) and these are for the numbers:

Unaone
Bissotwo
Terrathree
Cartefour
Pantafive
Soxisix
Setteseven
Octoeight
Novenine
Nadazero

The decimal point is

Decimal

Stop is Stop

And "Interrogative" to clarify if you're asking; "affirmative" or "negative" for yes and no.

Here in Italy it's common use to spell words referring to cities names, for instance Alessandria Bari Como Domodossola Empoli and so on, and yes, Police uses another alphabet except at Sea... ;-)

Hi all by Delta Romeo India Alpha, over... :D

Andrea "Dria" Obinu
Savona, Italy

http://dria.monrif.net

[CNfavorite]

Thanks so much guys! :) I got into a conversation about names and such, and suggested these - and my mind drew a blank then.
Of course, everyone I was talking too was intrigued by this point. What a way to lose an audience.

But thanks to you all, I may regain them all again? ;-)

[dgauci]

>The spelling used in radio communications
>at Sea is the same
>as reported above by John
>Forte, (The International Phonetic Alphabet)

That's what I had said, so we are in agreement.

[West_Coast_Railroader]

>Here is the rest of it...
>
>
>Alpha
>Bravo
>Charlie
>Delta
>Echo
>Foxtrot
>Golf
>Hotel
>India
>Juliet
>Kilo
>Lima
>Mike
>November
>Oscar
>Papa
>Quebec
>Romeo
>Sierra
>Tango
>Uniform
>Victor
>Whiskey
>Xray
>Yankee
>Zulu
>
>From the days in 3RD Comm
>Group, USAF, RAF Woodbridge, England,
>1959-1963.
>
>John Forte
>Melbourne, FL



John,
That is the exact structure of the phonetic alphabet up here as far as police forces are concerned...used to here it all the time while listening to my scanner.
Now the Police have gone digital and my scanner can't pick them up anymore,well at least i can pick up rail frequencies.:)

[PaulD]

>These days they refer to it
>as the "International Phonetic Alphabet",
>and it's used by everyone
>who communicates with radios except
>US police departments, who still
>insist on their "John Frank
>Mary Ida William" instead of
>"Juliet Foxtrot Mike India Whiskey"
>like civilized people use. It's
>gone thru a few changes
>since it's early inception, the
>idea is even if the
>signal is broken and full
>of static, B-D-E-G-P all sound
>alike, but Bravo-Delta-Echo-Golf-Papa are distinct
>from each other. In World
>War 2 it was something
>like;

Not completely true. I work for our county Sheriff's Dept and we use "Juliet Foxtrot Mike India Whiskey". So do all the municipal police depts in our county (New Jersey).

Paul

[MikeBrobst]

LAST EDITED ON Jun-02-02 AT 11:18AM (EDT)[p]Train Sim Alphabet
Aspirin
Bed (that thing you don't use since buying the game)
Couch (that thing you use instead of the bed)
Dinner (sitting next to your keyboard)
Enjoyment (that feeling you get from playing the game)
Frustration (from installing new locos)
Gas (from that burrito next to your keyboard)
Happy (how you get when that new loco finally installs right)
Indigestion (that burrito again)
Jump (what you do after the indigestion, on the way to the bathroom.
Kick (what you did to the cat on the way to the bathroom)
Low (the way your memory gets on your computer when running MSTS)
Money (the stuff you make when your not playing with trains)
Night (that dark stuff outside that you didn't see when starting the game)
Overspeed (that thing you ignore in the game)
Pepsi (next to the burrito)
Q-tip (what you need to figure out all the little noises in the game)
Route (the thing that makes you need the aspirin, when your designing it)
Sun (that thing that hurts your eyes and puts a glare on your screen)
..........I can go on....lol anyone have their own suggestions? (just my sorry attempt at humor. :-) )
---Mike Brobst---

http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3cefe74131e1bfc0.gif

---Toledo, OH---

[Smokewraith]

LAST EDITED ON Jun-03-02 AT 05:56PM (EDT)[p]Thrashing (What your harddrive gets in an object heavy portion of the NEC)
Underdeveloped (The RE,The AE,...)
Violet (The color your face turns when the RE eats your route)
Wonderful (The non default freeware addons at Train-Sim.com!)
eXasperrating (But worth it!)
Years (How long we've been needing a sim something like this)
Zen (When everything run smoothly for a change)

Bill http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c5331560f0d567b.gif http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c5331120d699a5d.gif http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c5331390e50aaf7.gif http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c5331120d699a5d.gif http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c5331120d699a5d.gif http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c53318410136ac9.gif

[CNfavorite]

Good stuff guys! I like 'em! :) Say, do any of you listen to Railroad Radio Frequencies at all? I got me a little Grundig multiband, and I noticed there's a book at this store with all the 'radio frequencies to North American Railroads' I was temted to buy. Do any railroads have a specialised alphabet structure they use? I heard it said that much of the US military was established by using the organization practices railroads had created in the early years. Would some of you vet/railfans say there's some similarity still these days?

[LordTauk]

I have an old... old... 10 channel programmable monitor that works really great for my location north of Baltimore, I have 1 channel for a North East Corridor Road channel and two other channels for CSX. the other 7 have other frequencies such as Police, Fire, etc.

I locked out all the other channels except my three railroad and I am surprised that I get good reception down here in my basement. However, I can only hear a certain distance due to the antena on the monitor and where the monitor is, Im sure it'd work a little better outside. It'd help if I got a better antena that reached outside.

I have two CSX frequencies, however I only hear broadcast on 1 of the channels that happens to be a road-dispatcher, they don't talk about much asside from "Train Q504, Aberdeen clear." - some example I heard. Not much talking beside calling out signals. The NEC has a lot of conversations, especially on a busy day. Again, I can only hear so far but it's well worth it. I think the other CSX frequency is somewhere out of my range, such as like a Yard in Baltimore.

But it's neat to hear conductor call out a signal thats about 2 miles away (how far I can hear for CSX) then watch the same consist roll by, its like "Hey buddy, I just heard you talking on your radio!"

Anyway, for giving my example of my railroad radio monitoring - the AAR gave the North American Railroad a set of like 90 some frequencies to share.. once you find a frequency you think is right, try it out and wait.. you have to a lot of trial and error - it really depends on your area and scanners capability along with the weather so try to a pick good day to do it if you have an crappy monitor like mine, but make sure it's programmable.. some auto-frequency finder wont work too well I dont think.

http://zippy.cso.uiuc.edu/~roma/rr-freqs/

Good website for railroad frequencies. Check it out.

[bvecrazy]

NO!!!

Alpha
Bus
Coach
Dog
Elephantasticastitasium
Fraud
Great
Hyprothermicedia
Ice
Jack
Kick
Lampost
Mountain Bike
Noutoristicastipassiumisturarylasticational
Oh Right
Pillock
Quad
Rampage
Street
Trailing
Useful
Vauxhall
Wessex Water
Xylophone
Yatch
Zebra crossing

[wwmw]

Does anyone know where I can find an activity created with rolling stock and Military equipment on them or something for MSTS, That would be need I'm a US Army retired 24 year veteran. If anyone can help in any way please email me at wwmw@earthlink.net.
Thanks In Advance!

William

[BigDave]

>Train Sim Alphabet
>Aspirin
>Bed (that thing you don't use since buying the game)
>Couch (that thing you use instead of the bed)
>Dinner (sitting next to your keyboard)
>Enjoyment (that feeling you get from playing the game)
>Frustration (from installing new locos)
>Gas (from that burrito next to your keyboard)
>Happy (how you get when that new loco finally installs
>right)
>Indigestion (that burrito again)
>Jump (what you do after the indigestion, on the way to the
>bathroom.
>Kick (what you did to the cat on the way to the bathroom)
>Low (the way your memory gets on your computer when running
>MSTS)
>Money (the stuff you make when your not playing with trains)
>Night (that dark stuff outside that you didn't see when
>starting the game)
>Overspeed (that thing you ignore in the game)
>Pepsi (next to the burrito)
>Q-tip (what you need to figure out all the little noises in
>the game)
>Route (the thing that makes you need the aspirin, when your
>designing it)
>Sun (that thing that hurts your eyes and puts a glare on
>your screen)
>..........I can go on....lol anyone have their own suggestions? (just my sorry attempt at humor. :-) )
>---Mike Brobst---
>
>http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3cefe74131e1bfc0.gif
>
>---Toledo, OH---


Hows about for Y, you use Yorkshire as in the "North Yorkshire Moors Railway"? Incidently, didn't the RAF/USAAF use "Ambrose" and "Yorkshire" in the war?

[CSX_Jim]

NOTE: The key words in your question are Air Force:

Alpha
Baker
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
Nancy
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-ray
Yankee
Zulu

Just in case you would like to have the one for the U.S. Army:

Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliet
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-ray
Yankee
Zulu

You will note the only difference is with B Baker vice Bravo and N Nancy vice November. Now as far as the Navy and Marines I believe they use the same phonetic alphabet as the Army but hey, who knows anymore. The Air Force one is from my days in the Air Force 1972 - 1979. In 1980 I transferred to the Army, I took a lot of crap as first getting used to the difference in the B and N phonetics. I retired in 1998 and my mind has gotten a little cloudy but I'm 99% sure those are correct.

[Lone_Gunman_SG]

if you think thats bad, one week i was using military time instead of standard!!

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[dgauci]

The phonetics you listed for the U.S. Army are the exact same I learned for the U.S. Navy during the decade of the 70's.

[parrotheada1a]

quote from LordTauk-------------------------------------------------
Anyway, for giving my example of my railroad radio monitoring - the AAR gave the North American Railroad a set of like 90 some frequencies to share.. once you find a frequency you think is right, try it out and wait.. you have to a lot of trial and error - it really depends on your area and scanners capability along with the weather so try to a pick good day to do it if you have an crappy monitor like mine, but make sure it's programmable.. some auto-frequency finder wont work too well I dont think.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This isn't exactly correct. The FCC assigns railroads frequencies(CHANNELS) from 160.00 MHz to 162.00MHz. Railroads often use multiple channels. Smaller roads like Guilford use 4 channels, train to dispatcher (road), dispatcher to train (home), a yard channel, and one for MOW & signal crews. Railroad PD can get into the act too, and have their own channel. In some areas, you can tune in to the EOT device's frquency. Typically these have a shorter range than the comm radio. This means a train is close by, even if you cannot hear voice transmissions. On some lines, you may hear TDD's (talking defect detectors) broadcasting on the road channel.
Larger railroads will use proportionally more channels, and switch at division points.
Since railroad communication isn't continuous except for highly congested areas,you might be in for long stretches of inactivity.
If you can get your radio antenna up high it will help reception.
I once used a shortened CB antenna in my attic, with a long cabe connecting to the radio. Even though it wasn't optimized for the band, reception was excellent for some 15 miles around.
Hope this helps, have fun railfanning . BE SAFE.

[CharlieB]

Actually, there is an official document that specifies the proper pronunciation of the letters and numbers. It is called the International Code of Signals (published by the International Maritime Organization, publication No. IMO994; National Imagery and Mapping Agency Publication 102) and includes both the spoken code of radiotelephony that this thread is about, plus the so-called Morse code used in radiotelegraphy and flashing light signalling, and flag signalling. It is a basic for all ships sailing internationally, because it forms a common language for all seamen (and airmen, too, though they rarely use flags). For example, there are specific meanings for single-flag hoists (or broadcasts), such as Alpha = Diver Down, Bravo = Dangerous cargo, Charlie = Yes, etc. For more complex messages, multiple letters are used. The one I particularly like is "Sierra November" which means "Stop now and do not communicate with any other vessel, or you will be fired upon" (usually sent by a naval vessel to a merchant vessel).

The sequence of letters given by JForte3 is the official version; the sequence of numbers and other words given by Dria is the official version for that part of the code. There are also official meanings for such words as "roger" (meaning "I understand") and "wilco" (meaning "I understand and will do as instructed"). Also there are some exceptions; for example, when using clear channel voice communications (such as VHF radio), "yes" and "no" are preferred over "affirmative" and "negative".

The various other versions that have been mentioned are specific to local usage and are not part of the official code.

Hope that helps clarify...

Charlie Beckers
U.S. Coast Guard Licensed Master

[CNfavorite]

Thank you Charlie! :) Very interesting indeed. I used to know that NASA signified 'One Bravo' as self-detonation of the capsule - rather grizzly thought? And some other terms I was somewhat familiar with, oh so long ago. Many of the hip hop kids have taken police codes and incorporated them in their slang and lyrics, and then of course the computer 'nerds' (sorry to offend us all ;) ) have got a whole new developing jargon of 'He's a 404, man! ROTFLMAO'. So I guess William Burroughs was right when he said 'Language is a virus'? :)

Fascinating stuff guys, and is very interesting!