so i just got my general license a couple months ago and ive been doing mostly SSB on 40m and i keep hearing people use phonetics for their callsigns but not always consistently and some guys seem to make up their own? like i heard someone say 'Nebraska' for N and 'Texas' for T and i wasnt sure if thats like... wrong or just a regional thing or whatever. my elmer told me to just stick with NATO but i dont always remember them under pressure especially when someone asks me to say my call again and im fumbling around trying to remember what X is. is there an actual rule about this or is it more of a convention thing

its not a rule in the legal sense, the FCC doesnt mandate you use NATO phonetics specifically. but theres a really good reason they exist - they were designed so that each word sounds distinct from the others even over a noisy channel, which is why you dont want to just improvise. 'Nebraska' and 'Nevada' sound way too similar if the band is rough, whereas November is pretty unambiguous. the made-up ones drive me a little crazy honestly, especially in a pileup. just learn the standard ones, give it a few weeks of actual use and it becomes second nature. X-ray is the one everyone blanks on, dont feel bad about that.

yeah i had the same thing when i started. i just printed out the alphabet and taped it to my desk for like the first few months lol. after a while you stop needing it. some of the old timers around here use their own versions and it honestly doesnt bother me that much as long as they're clear but if your call has an S and someone uses 'sugar' instead of sierra and theres qrm you can see how that gets messy real fast