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NATO Phonetic Alphabet

The NATO spelling alphabet also known as the NATO phonetic alphabet, the ICAO phonetic or spelling alphabet, the ITU phonetic alphabet, and the international radio telephony spelling alphabet, is the most widely used spelling alphabet in the world. In order to get your boating VHF license you will need to master it.

The spelling alphabet allows accurate spelling over sometimes very inferior radio connections.

There are slight variations of pronunciation of the various words, however they are slight and the words are readily recognizable.

Not only are the letters standardized, but the pronunciation of numbers has been set out to be easily recognizable

A few key words have been added to the Radio Vocabulary to simplify communications.

These words such as Mayday, PanPan and Security have special meetings. Over is another as is Out. 'Over and Out' is NOT recognized.

The Nato Spelling Alphabet

Letter
Number
TelephonyPhonetic Pronunciation
AAlfaAL-FAH
BBravoBRAH-VOH
CCharlieCHAR-LEE
DDeltaDELL-TAH
EEchoECK-OH
FFoxtrotFOKS-TROT
GGolfGOLF
HHotelHOH-TEL
IIndiaIN-DEE-AH
JJulietJEW-LEE-ETT
KKiloKEY-LOH
LLimaLEE-MAH
MMikeMIKE
NNovemberNO-VEM-BER
OOscarOS-CAH
PPapaPAH-PAH
QQuebecKEH-BECK
RRomeoROW-ME-OH
SSierraSEE-AIR-RAH
TTangoTANG-GO
UUniformYOU-NEE-FORM
VVictorVIK-TAH
WWiskeyWISS-KEY
XXrayECKS-RAY
YYankeeYANG-KEY
ZZuluZOO-LOO
1OneWUN
2TwoTOO
3ThreeTREE
4FourFOW-ER
5FiveFIFE
6SixSIX
7SevenSEV-EN
8EightAIT
9NineNIN-ER
0ZeroZEE-RO

I try to be accurate and check my information, but mistakes happen.

email me if you find mistakes, I'll fix them and we'll all benefit: Christine