I find that a lot, that tech-support people are fine with alpha-bravo-charlie. Most other people have to think about it; one is reduced to saying "em as in mike, vee as in victor, ess as in sierra" and so on. I'm long supposed that tech-support people, and their ilk (sysprogs for instance), often have to spell things so they've acquainted themselves with a good way of doing it.
I did notice, ~after~ I wrote the question, that you'd written "eh-eff-tee", not "ee-eff-tee". Didn't figure it out, though, even then. I'd have tried for "ay-eff-tee", but that's 'way too likely to be misread as "aye-eff-tee". (There's an ASCII adaptation of the IPA that's actually pretty handy. Only problem is, no one's ever seen it, except a few of us geeks. If we all understood that you could have written "/aI Ef ti/", without fear of ambiguity.) --- Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313 /* I would as soon write free verse as play tennis with the net down. -Robert Frost */ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: Monday, October 4, 2021 10:11 I struggled for vernacular phonetic vowel names and apparently failed. If the newscaster had been an aviator he couldd have said Alfa Foxtrot Tango. But an aviator or a mariner wouldn't have needed to. I believe he said in defense that it appeared in caps in his script. But if that came off a teletype everything would have been caps. I once recited a serial number to Tech Support using NATO phonetic alphabet. She understood immediately; no request for clarification. Perhaps she was a veteran. Why can't local emergency services concur on a phonetic alphabet? --- On Mon, 4 Oct 2021 09:35:39 -0400, Bob Bridges wrote: >Ok, I give up. I have favorite-newscaster stories, too, but I don't get this >one. What's an EFT cargo hatch? Is this so obvious a failure that I'll be >required by law to kick myself when it's explained to me, or something that >only pilots know, or what? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
