so ive been licensed for about 4 months now and im still a little confused about when youre supposed to use the NATO phonetic alphabet vs just saying the letters normally. like on 2m repeaters around here most people just say their callsign normally without spelling it out phonetically, but then i was listening to some HF stuff and everyone seems to go full phonetic every single time even mid conversation. is there like an actual rule about this or is it just kind of a customs thing that varies by band or mode or whatever. i dont want to sound dumb on air but i also dont want to be that guy whos overly formal when everyones just chatting casually

honestly its mostly just a practical thing and not really a hard rule. on a local 2m repeater where signals are usually clean and everyones callsign is familiar, yeah most people just say it normally. but on HF conditions can be rough, theres QRM, sometimes the other station is in a pile and copy is just harder, so phonetics really do help. i always go phonetic when im making initial contact or if the band sounds at all sketchy. once youre in a QSO and youve already exchanged calls a couple times some people drop it, thats fine. the thing is dont half-do it though, ive heard people mix up NATO with random stuff they made up and it actually makes it worse. like saying "K for kitchen" or whatever, just stick to the actual phonetics if youre gonna use them

yeah same thing happened to me when i started. what helped me was just memorizing the standard list so it became automatic and then i could decide when to use it instead of fumbling around. also worth knowing some people get weirdly particular about this lol, had an old timer correct me once for saying november foxtrot instead of going full call. just feel it out for the repeater or net youre on tbh