so ive been listening on HF a lot lately trying to get comfortable before i actually transmit and i noticed some guys use phonetics like every single time they say their callsign and others just say it normally like they would on the phone. im a tech right now studying for general and i guess i just dont understand when youre supposed to use them vs when its overkill or whatever

like if conditions are good and the other station can obviously hear you fine does it still make sense to spell everything out? feels like it would slow things down a lot especially during a pileup or contest where everyone seems to be going really fast

also i noticed not everyone uses the nato ones -- heard a guy say "Nevada" instead of "November" the other day which threw me off. is that like a regional thing or just old timers doing it their own way

yeah the NATO phonetics are the standard and youll hear them most of the time but honestly ham radio has never been as strict about it as say aviation or military comms. a lot of the old timers grew up using a different list that was kind of informal -- things like "New York" for N or "Ocean" for O -- and they just never switched over. doesnt really cause problems most of the time since context usually makes it obvious what letter they mean

as for when to use them, general rule is if theres any doubt the other op might not catch your callsign correctly, use phonetics. on a clear local 2m repeater with someone you talk to every week probably not necessary. on a noisy 40m DX contact where youre maybe 57 on a good day, yeah absolutely spell it out. during contests most people just fire the call fast and hope the other station gets it, then phonetics come out if they ask you to repeat. its kind of situational honestly

i made this mistake when i first got on air -- i was so focused on getting the phonetics right that i kept second guessing myself mid-transmission like wait is it Sierra or Sugar lol. just burned the NATO list into my memory eventually and now it comes out automatic. the Nevada thing is probably just habit, ive heard all kinds of variations over the years