SOP (Radio) - Phonetic Alphabet
In our virtual Armed Assault world, we currently use TeamSpeak or Armed Assault's VOIP as our standard method of intrasquad voice communications. The problems we experience with poor quality voice reception, background noise, and distortion are quite similar to the same issues which exist in real world military radio communications. All military units are trained to use the standard NATO Phonetic Alphabet in order to help ensure clear and concise messaging relating to command and control, contact reports, and sitreps. The NATO Phonetic Alphabet was developed in the 1950s to be intelligible (and pronounceable) to all NATO allies in the heat of battle. It replaced other phonetic alphabets such as the US military "Able Baker" alphabet. The NATO Phonetic Alphabet is now widely used in business and telecommunications in Europe and North America.
A - Alpha (AL fah)
B - Bravo (BRAH voh)
C - Charlie (CHAR lee *or* SHAR lee)
D - Delta (DELL tah)
E - Echo (ECK oh)
F - Foxtrot (FOKS trot)
G - Golf (GOLF)
H - Hotel (hoh TELL)
I - India (IN dee ah)
J - Juliett (JEW lee ETT) (NOTE SPELLING: 2 Ts)
K - Kilo (KEY loh)
L - Lima (LEE mah)
M - Mike (MIKE)
N - November (no VEM ber)
O - Oscar (OSS cah)
P - Papa (pah PAH) (NOTE STRESS IS ON THE 2ND SYLLABLE)
Q - Quebec (keh BECK)
R - Romeo (ROW me oh)
S - Sierra (see AIR rah)
T - Tango (TANG go)
U - Uniform (YOU nee form *or* OO nee form)
V - Victor (VIK tah)
W - Whiskey (WISS key)
X - X-ray (ECKS ray)
Y - Yankee (YANG kee)
Z - Zulu (ZOO loo)
0 - Zero
1 - Wun (One)
2 - Two
3 - Tree (Three)
4 - Fower (Four)
5 - Five
6 - Six
7 - Seven
8 - Ait (Eight)
9 - Niner (Nine)
. - decimal (point)
. - (full) stop
Example:
Fire Team Leader says on TeamSpeak or VOIP, "FriedFish, move to Grid Reference Aa39 (spoken over radio net as Alpha Alpha Tree Niner)."
FriedFish responds by hitting a predefined hotkey he's programmed. This results in the Leader seeing on his chat screen the words "FriedFish: cc," which gives him direct confirmation that FriedFish has received and understood his transmission.
Note: Refer to
SOP (Radio) - "cc" (Acknowledgements) for details on use of radio acknowledgements.
After a bit of practice using this technique, it becomes almost second nature and cuts down on many communications errors caused by one player misunderstanding what the other said. We would encourage all players on any Tactical Gamer Armed Assault server to learn the NATO Phonetic Alphabet and utilize this SOP as much as possible.
