Phonetic Alphabet                  主頁

Introduction  

                                                                                                                        In the early period of human aviation history, the

 method of communication with

the people on aircraft was by shouting and

 displaying large visual signals on the

ground. However, this seems impractical as

 aircraft flew higher and higher.

The phonetic alphabet came into use during World

 War II when flying increased

 at so great a rate. The Royal Air Force began using

 alphabets to identify aircraft.

During W W II most radio transmissions were

 made on low frequency wave-

length bands. These frequencies, which are

capable of long-range transmission,

are generally somewhat unclear and will pick up

 static, lightning, and other

interference. Therefore, it was difficult to

 understand many of the massage. Late

in the war, high frequency with greater clarity was

 introduced. However, the

problems of weak transmission from long

 distance and poor enunciation by many

pilots made it imperative that this system be

 continued.

Letters

Letters pronounced on the radio can be difficult to

 understand due to the

 similarity of the sound of many letters. To avoid

 confusion, the International

 Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had adopted a

 system of words, one

 representing each letter of the alphabet.

Letter  Phonetic Alphabet

A             alpha

B            bravo

C            Charlie

D            delta

E             echo

F             fox-trot

G            golf

H            hotel

I             India

J             Juliet

K           kilo

L           lima

M         mike

N          November

O          Oscar

P          papa

Q         Quebec

R         Romeo

S          sierra

T          tango

U         uniform

V         victor

W       whiskey

X        x-way

Y         Yankee

Z         Zulu

Numbers

Numbers are used in almost every radio call.

Expect for whole hundreds and thousands,

pronounce each digit of a number separately.

When a number has a decimal point in it, say the

word decimal at the place. To avoid

misunderstandings, the pronunciation of some

differs from that used in normal conversation.

Numbers  Pronunciation

0                     zero

1                     one

2                     two

3                     tree

4                     four

5                     fife

6                     six

7                     seven

8                     eight

9                     niner

100               hundred

1000            thousand

(.)                  decimal

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