Kevin Brown

ok so ive been licensed for about 8 months now and i still feel weird about this. like i know the NATO phonetics, Alpha Bravo Charlie etc, but i dont always know when im supposed to use them vs just saying the letter itself. sometimes i hear guys on 40m just rattling off callsigns without phonetics and sometimes everyone is super strict about it. is there like an actual rule or is it just kind of a feel thing depending on band conditions or what? also i asked my elmer about this and he said something like 'use them when there might be confusion' but that's pretty vague to me. like almost any letter could be confused for another one depending on noise right? Q and U sound similar, B and D, etc. so wouldnt you always want to use phonetics then? or does it slow things down too much in a pileup or something. i genuinely dont know the unwritten rules here and it feels like everyone else just kind of... knows.