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1944 Phonetic Alphabet

sj

Staff member
Northwest Arkansas
Was looking at some cool old airplane logs and other stuff that was laying around this morning. This nifty 1944 guide from Hamilton Standard has some real gems!

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Used that phonetic alphabet into the 50s in my early ham radio days! Also our early warning Navy Connie aircraft were designated WV-2, Willy Victors now affectionately known by vets.

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This is cool too. No doubt most of you knew this, but I did not!


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Thanks for posting the old school phonetic alphabet.
Only 4-1/2 of them are still used today--
5 if you cound "fox" as being close enough to "foxtrot".

I get a chuckle out of the old Adam-12 reruns on TV--
amazing how many of the license plates they run a check on have Ida, Lincoln, Mary, and/or Nora in them!
 
I get a chuckle out of the old Adam-12 reruns on TV--
amazing how many of the license plates they run a check on have Ida, Lincoln, Mary, and/or Nora in them!

I have given ratings to a number of law enforcement individuals over the years. They are often times stoic, but you know you are getting to them when the lapse into the "work" phonetic alphabet :)

sj
 
My Dad was a Navy radioman in WW II, and was very familiar with that phonetic alphabet.

In one of my early jobs, our FM radios in our vehicles had State/local dispatch frequency for backups. We had a 10 Code list and their phonetic alphabet. One of our guys called in the wrong 10 code once.....turned out it wasn't exactly what he'd transmitted, but it was an emergency that required all hands in any case.

MTV
 
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Heard that alphabet a lot in my childhood, pre-ham radio days when, in Montreal, we could pick up NY city police at night at the low end of the AM broadcast band! Lying in bed with the warm glow of the vacuum tubes - good memories.
 
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Lol,
Here in Maine as soon as the Sun went down WWVA out of Wheeling West Virginia
came in " wall to wall and tree top tall".
Remember as a kid being at camp the nite Nat King Cole died,(Feb 15, 1965) they announced it over WWVA, never forgot it, because later that nite, my Dad was up putting more rock maple in the stove, and he asked me to get up and look at the old thermometer: he said " better look at this as you may never see it again" it was 50 below Zero. So anytime some one asks me
what's the coldest I ever saw it in Maine. I always tell em " the nite Nat King Cole died"
[emoji3]

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In my early law enforcement days I was also a member of the Maine Army National Guard. Keeping the two alphabets apart when using the radio was a challenge at times. LOL
 
When I started working for the US Forest Service in 1968 they used a 10 code and a 4 code for radio traffic and the employees on the National Forests in Washington had a Phonetic alphabet letter unique to the forest they were on. On the Snoqualmie NF we were all "Baker", followed by a number. Up on the Okanagon NF they were all "Able". The North cascades Smoke jumpers were all Able 80 followed by their name. My wife worked as a fire lookout and later as a Sheriff's Dispatcher. She had to keep both Forest service and Police Phonetic alphabets and 10 codes straight in her head.
m4fgjrS.jpg
 
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One of the locals suggested that three syllable phonetics were counter-productive. I agree - I have an awful time with "November." Sierra should go back to "Sugar" and "Quilo" and "Kaybec" confuse me.
 
One of the locals suggested that three syllable phonetics were counter-productive. I agree - I have an awful time with "November." Sierra should go back to "Sugar" and "Quilo" and "Kaybec" confuse me.

I've always told student pilots that if all else fails, most controllers actually understand plain English.....

MTV
 
My last two planes both have VictorZulu, (I never use zebra) in their N numbers, the first is is eight niner, the other niner eight. So, "skiplane ninereight victorzulu," blah blah blah. No reason other then I think it sounds cool. I think I'll use ninerniner victorzulu if I build again, that sounds even cooler.
 
After flying for many years I enter the LE world. Most difficult part was learning the wrong alphabet: Adam, Boy, Charlie, David... The wrong way. I was told by a border patrol supervisor, if I couldn't remember the right word, to make one up and I got extra points if I could get dispatch to laugh. Teaching an old dog...

Sik
 
After flying for many years I enter the LE world. Most difficult part was learning the wrong alphabet: Adam, Boy, Charlie, David... The wrong way. I was told by a border patrol supervisor, if I couldn't remember the right word, to make one up and I got extra points if I could get dispatch to laugh. Teaching an old dog...

Sik

I rode with a lady Jet Ranger pilot whose number ended in November Uniform. She called it No Underwear.
 
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