so i just got my technician license a few weeks ago and ive been lurking on the local repeater mostly just listening. i notice some people spell out their callsign using like alpha bravo charlie etc and some people just say their callsign normally. is there a rule about when you have to use phonetics or is it just whenever you feel like it? i tried looking it up and i keep finding stuff about nato phonetics but it doesnt really explain when youre actually supposed to use them on a repeater vs just saying your call normally. also sometimes people seem to use different words that arent the standard ones, like i heard someone say "sugar" instead of sierra the other day which was confusing

no hard rule on repeaters honestly, its more of a courtesy thing. the idea is when conditions are rough or theres any chance the other person might mishear letters you break out phonetics. on a local repeater with full quieting signal you can usually just say your callsign plain and everyone hears it fine. where it really matters is hf when signals are marginal, contesting, or when youre working someone who might not speak english as a first language — nato phonetics are basically universal so November Uniform Lima Lima beats trying to figure out if someone said N-U or M-U.

the "sugar" for S thing is old school. a lot of older hams grew up using what they called "able baker" phonetics or just made up their own words before nato got standardized. youll still hear it occasionally especially from guys who been licensed since the 60s and 70s. nothing wrong with it really but if youre working dx or in a net environment the nato set is just cleaner because everyone knows what to expect

yeah what he said. i'll add that when i first got on air i was so worried about doing phonetics wrong that i just avoided identifying for longer than i should have lol. just learn the nato set and use it whenever theres any doubt, nobody is going to judge you for being extra clear. the weird custom phonetics drive me a little crazy personally because you have half a second of confusion trying to decode what letter they meant