so ive been licensed for about 4 months now and i mostly do 2m FM on the local repeaters and occasionally some HF when conditions are decent. one thing i keep noticing is that some guys on the air use the full NATO phonetics every single time they give their callsign, like every transmission, and other guys just say their call normally without spelling it out phonetically at all. and then sometimes people mix random words in like they'll say Tango but then use like... Victor for V but then say something completely different for another letter.

i guess my question is, is there an actual rule about using phonetics or is it just one of those things people do when the signal is rough? i dont want to sound like i dont know what im doing but i also dont want to be that guy who over-does it on a crystal clear local repeater. whats the actual etiquette here

no rule requiring it in part 97 as far as i know, its just good practice. on a local repeater with a strong signal most people just say their call normally and thats totally fine. where phonetics really matter is on HF when youre dealing with QRM or weak signals or working DX and the other station is struggling to copy your call. i've had plenty of contacts where i gave my call twice normally and the other guy still had it wrong, soon as i went phonetic he got it first try.

the mixing random words thing you mentioned is pretty common and honestly kind of annoying because then you get people using stuff like "Washington" for W or "New York" for N and half the time the other guy still mishears it because those words arent optimized the way the NATO ones are. the NATO alphabet was actually tested and chosen specifically so each word sounds distinct even with bad audio, so theres a reason Victor sounds different from Foxtrot and so on. but yeah on a clear local repeater nobody really cares either way

yeah i was confused about this too when i started. what i do now is i just use phonetics whenever im on HF or if the band sounds sketchy, otherwise on the local stuff i dont bother unless someone asks me to repeat my call. honestly just listen to how the regulars on your repeater do it and match that, every repeater kind of has its own vibe