[Swprograms] Fwd: [uk-radio-listeners] Alpha Bravo Yankee Zulu

["Richard Cuff" <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

Not exactly shortwave (BBC Radio 4) but of interest to the amateurs among us...

Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mike Terry <miketerry73@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Apr 10, 2006 2:36 AM
Subject: [uk-radio-listeners] Alpha Bravo Yankee Zulu
To: DXLD <dxld@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: BDXC News <bdxc-news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>


The history of the NATO alphabet devised 50 years ago

Last week's BBC Radio 4 programme on the NATO phonetic alphabet is available
on the BBC website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/pip/dho56/?focuswin

It is now 50 years since the NATO alphabet, in common use by aviators, the
police, airline booking clerks, etc, was devised. The original intent was to
have a system of linguistic purity which would avoid some of the
catastrophic misunderstandings arising from communications during the Great
War. Is it perhaps the only vestige of an internationally unifying dream
which still has some use?

The alphabet approved by international aviation and telecommunications
bodies now has some strangely dated sounds, but is nonetheless immediately
recognisable across the globe. How and where it is still used is almost
impossible to calculate, and yet any radio wave at any time of day will
contain part of it.

This programme tells the story of this phonetic alphabet. Alongside
historical evidence and linguistic analysis (the syllable-count and stress
pattern are supposed to make this alphabet error-proof), there are also
snatches of eavesdropped sound from air-control conversations with aircraft,
interviews with police officers - remember Zed Victor One? and secrets of
Army signals operatives working in code.

Listen here (requires RealPlayer)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/alpha_bravo

( 73 Trevor M5AKA - Southgate Radio Club -
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/april2006/nato_alphabet.htm )




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