I was watching a cop show the other night and two things struck me. One was the way the cops called in (via radio)a license plate to be checked. And two the general stupidity of criminals.I’ll talk about the stupid criminals some other time.
This time we will discuss proper radio etiquette, and I may be wrong on this but I thought after 9/11 this was suppose to change in a police municipalities with them (the police) being more in line with military terminology and phraseology.
Here is what I heard, the license plate was for example: MIL 6593. The officer called the plate in as: MIKE, IDA, LOVE 6593. Sounds ok? I mean we have all watched old WWII movies where there was an ABLE company, BAKER, & EASY company, right?
Here is the proper military phonetic alphabet.
A-Alpha
B-Bravo
C-Charlie
D-Delta
E-Echo
F-Foxtrot
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-Xray
Y-Yankee
Z-Zulu or Zed for the UK, Aussies, and Kiwi’s
So in my example we would call in the license plate as MIKE, INDIA, LIMA 6593.
On a bad radio connection you may have to spell everything that you are trying to “say” so the listener can understand what you trying to communicate. This is a bit of a pain in the ass, but in order to get your point across it could become necessary. Just think of that bad cell phone call when you were trying to get an address of a friends house.
Example: my position is: BZ 49. As the listener to your radio transmission “B” can also sound like “C”, or “Z” or “P” same with the letter “Z” it can sound like another letter.
So we would call our position on the radio like this:
Raven 1 this is Black 6
Black 6 this is Raven 1
Raven1, my position is BRAVO, ZULU 49 how copy?
Black 6 copy all (or roger)
See how we don’t allow our listener to get our message confused?
We can also spell whole words.
my name is: JOE SMITH, Juliet, Oscar, Echo <break> Sierra, Mike, India, Tango, Hotel.
Give it a practice, you may need to communicate someday just to get your message across properly in an understandable format that the listener can understand.
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