so i just got my technician and been listening a lot before actually transmitting and i notice some people use the nato phonetic alphabet like alpha bravo charlie and some people just say their callsign normally without spelling it out. im confused about when youre supposed to use it vs when you dont have to. like is it a rule or just a courtesy thing? my call has some letters that sound alike so i was thinking i should probably spell it out but i dont want to sound weird or do it wrong. also does it matter what band youre on?

honestly its not a hard rule most of the time, its more just good practice especially when conditions are rough or if theres any chance of confusion. letters like M and N or B and D can sound almost identical on a scratchy signal so phonetics just clears that up fast. on something like a local 2m repeater with a strong signal people usually just say their call straight and nobody bats an eye. but on HF when youre working someone far away or in a contest or doing any kind of formal net, phonetics are pretty much expected. for your call specifically id say just use them whenever you think theres a chance the other station might mishear you, which when youre new is probably most of the time until you get comfortable. nobody's going to think you sound weird for using them, its the opposite actually

yeah i was the same way when i started, kept second guessing myself. one thing that helped me was just memorizing the whole NATO list before i ever keyed up so it was automatic. there are a few guys on our local repeater who use their own made up phonetics which always confused me more than anything lol, like why would you say "washington" for W when whiskey is right there. stick with the standard ones and youll be fine. band doesnt really matter as much as signal conditions do i think