There are two situations in which the phonetic alphabet is used.
- Computer Command Codes
- Transmitting over Garbled Channels
In either of these situations it is important to avoid confusion between letters which sound similar. The phonetic alphabets allow this.
Access Codes
Verbal and terminal based access codes can use any word in the english language, however, standard protocol dictates that Command Codes follow a stricter format to allow for command codes to be transferred even over communication lines with a high level of static and potential for missing data, while minimizing retransmission of verbal information.
Command Codes
May use any phonetic word to replace a letter which both allows for a greater number of possibilities and thus shorter keys to be more secure.
Garbled Communications
Garbled communications can be a large problem when transmitting important information. In this case the phonetic alphabet is marked as primary and other phonetic replacements are generally not used, unless transmitting a command code.
Alphabet
| Letter | Primary | Secondary | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Alfa | Abel | Apple | Alfred | Amsterdam | Adam | Anatole | Anton | Ancona | Antonio | |||
| B | Bravo | Baker | Beer | Benjamin | Baltimore | Boy | Berthe | Berta | Bologna | Barcelona | |||
| C | Charlie | Casablanca | Como | Carmen | |||||||||
| D | Delta | Dog | David | Denmark | Dora | Dolores | |||||||
| E | Echo | Easy | Edward | Edison | Eugene | Emily | Empoli | Enrique | |||||
| F | Foxtrot | Fred | Florida | Frank | France | Franze | |||||||
| G | Golf | George | Gallipoli | Gaston | Gustav | Genova | Gerona | ||||||
| H | Hotel | How | Harry | Havana | Henry | Heinrich | Historia | ||||||
| I | India | Item | Isaac | Italia | Ida | Irma | Imola | ||||||
| J | Juliet | Jig | Jug | Jack | Jerusalem | John | Joseph | Julius | |||||
| K | Kilo | King | Kilogram | Kaufmann | Kursaal | ||||||||
| L | Lima | Love | London | Liverpool | Lincoln | Louis | Ludwig | Livorno | Lorenzo | ||||
| M | Mike | Mother | Mary | Madagascar | Marcel | Martha | Milano | Madrid | |||||
| N | November | Nan | Nuts | Nellie | Nice | Nora | Nicolas | Nordpol | Napoli | Navarra | |||
| O | Oscar | Oboe | Orange | Oliver | Oslo | Ocean | Otto | Otranto | Oviedo | ||||
| P | Papa | Peter | Paris | Pierre | Paula | Padova | |||||||
| Q | Quebec | Queen | Quintal | Quelle | Quarto | Querido | |||||||
| R | Romeo | Roger | Robert | Roma | Raoul | Richard | Roma | ||||||
| S | Sierra | Sugar | Samuel | Santiago | Suzanne | Savona | |||||||
| T | Tango | Tar | Tommy | Tripoli | Theodor | Torino | Tarragona | ||||||
| U | Uniform | Uncle | Uppsala | Union | Ursule | Ulrich | Udine | Ulysses | |||||
| V | Victor | Volume | Veteran | Venezia | Valencia | ||||||||
| W | Whisky | William | Washington | ||||||||||
| X | X-ray | Xantippe | Xavier | Xiquena | |||||||||
| Y | Yankee | York | Yellow | Yokohama | Young | Yvonne | Yegua | ||||||
| Z | Zulu | Zebra | Zeppelin | Zara | Zaragoza | ||||||||