ok so ive been licensed about 4 months now and i still feel weird about phonetics. like sometimes on the local 2m repeater people just say letters normally and sometimes they go full NATO alpha bravo charlie and i cant figure out when youre supposed to do which one. my elmer told me to always use phonetics but then i hear people not doing it all the time and its confusing.

also is it a rule or just like a suggestion? i looked in part 97 and couldnt find anything that flat out says you have to. and does it matter if youre on HF vs VHF? feels like HF people are way more strict about it but maybe im imagining that

yeah its not actually a rule in the regulatory sense, more of a best practice that got baked into culture over decades. the reason HF folks are more consistent about it is because HF propagation is unpredictable — you might be copying someone through static and a pileup at the same time, so if they say their call is KD9 and then something that sounds like "wex" you need that W-E-X to come through unambiguous. on the local repeater where the signal is usually full quieting it honestly doesnt matter as much, everybody can hear you fine.

that said i always use them for my callsign when i first ID, just habit at this point. where people get lazy is mid-QSO when they're referencing something like "go to frequency 146 point something" and they'll just rattle off numbers without phonetics, which is usually fine because numbers dont have the same ambiguity problem letters do.

the real answer to your question is: use phonetics whenever there's any chance of confusion, especially for calls and names. skip them when the context is totally clear and the signal is solid. youll develop a feel for it.

honestly same boat as you when i started lol. one thing that helped me was just watching how people handle it when conditions get rough — like if theres QRM or the signal is weak everyone suddenly goes back to full phonetics real fast. thats when you realize why they exist in the first place.

also random tip — some people use non-NATO phonetics like "sugar" for S or whatever and it kind of drives me crazy because now i have to think about it for a second instead of just knowing. stick to the standard ones and people will appreciate you for it even if they dont say so