Apophis

SOP (Radio) - Phonetic Alphabet

In our virtual Operation Flashpoint world, we currently use TeamSpeak as our standard method of intra squad 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, or 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, for example 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 T's)
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:

|42nd| Eternal says on TeamSpeak, "Badger, move to Grid Reference A9 (spoken over radio net as Alpha Niner)"

Badger responds by hitting a pre-defined hotkey he's programmed. This results in |42nd| Eternal seeing on his chat screen the words "Badger: cc", which gives him direct confirmation that Badger has received and understood his transmission.

Note: refer to SOP (Radio) - "cc" 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, due to one player misunderstanding what the other said. We would encourage all players on any Tactical Gamer Operation Flashpoint server attempt to learn the phonetic alphabet and utilize this SOP as much as possible.