ok so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and i still feel kinda awkward about phonetics. like i know the NATO ones, alpha bravo charlie etc, but when im on a local 2m repeater just having a normal conversation i feel weird saying my whole callsign out in full phonetics every single time. some guys do it and some dont and i cant figure out if theres like a rule or just a vibe thing. also sometimes i hear people use non-standard ones like they'll say "Texas" instead of "Tango" or whatever. is that wrong or is it just a style thing. im probably overthinking this but it bugs me

yeah its definitely more of a vibe thing on local repeaters honestly. the NATO phonetics are really there for when conditions are rough or you're working someone you dont know well and clarity matters, like on HF or during a net or when youre trying to get a callsign across to someone who's barely copying you. on a local 2m machine where everyone knows each other most people just say their call straight or maybe phonetic it once at the start of a contact and thats it. the non-standard ones like using "Texas" for T you'll hear that a lot especially from older ops or people coming from a CB background, its not technically wrong but in an emergency or a formal net it can cause confusion because not everyone will catch it the same way. NATO exists specifically because those words were picked to be distinct from each other even in terrible audio, so like "Mike" and "November" dont sound anything alike even through static but something like "Mary" and "Nevada" might blend together. for casual ragchewing though nobody is gonna care

i went through this same thing when i started lol. what helped me was just listening to how the regulars on my local repeater did it and copying that. the formal nets i check into are way more strict about proper phonetics and i get it there but yeah day to day rag chew stuff its pretty relaxed. one time i was on 40m trying to work a station in pretty bad QRM and i could not get my callsign through at all until i slowed way down and did every letter in NATO phonetics and then it clicked right away so thats when i really got why they exist