Radio Chatter: NATO vs NYPD Trivia Quiz

Answer: Adam

To get the pedantry out of the way early on, although it is known as the "NATO phonetic alphabet", it is more precisely an alphabet to which words are aligned acrophonically to letters.

While NATO/Nato is used in this quiz, the alphabet is also known as the the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) alphabet. ICAO developed the system in the 1950s and it is recognised by leading transportation organisations.

The International Phonetic Alphabet. is something different altogether.

The A word is spelt out "Alfa" rather than "Alpha" since some non-English speakers may not be familiar pronouncing "ph" spellings as an "f".

Answer: Boy

Before the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) alphabet system was officially introduced in the 1950s, other systems were in use.

Telegram operators in the USA, for example, encouraged senders to use codewords.

Military organisations also had their own systems.

Newspaper journalists spelt out words, substituting names for letters, when telephoning stories to their copytakers.

Answer: Charles

In WW2, the Royal Air Force had its own alphabet, but when America joined the war, all Allied forces adopted what became known as the Able, Baker alphabet.

Answer: David

At airports in the USA that are used by a lot of Delta Airlines flights, "Delta" is replaced by "Data", "Dixie" or "David" to avoid confusion, as "Delta" is also the airline's callsign.

Answer: Eddie

Before the NATO alphabet was introduced in 1956, Jean-Paul Vinay, of the University of Montreal, created a new alphabet equivalency list in 1951.

He used different words for the letters C, M, N, U, and X that we now know.

Answer: Frank

Long before the NATO alphabet, words were used for letters by military organisations.

In WWI, the British Royal Navy used: Apples, Butter, Charlie, Duff, Edward, Freddy, George, Harry, Ink, Johnnie, King, London, Monkey, Nuts, Orange, Pudding, Queenie, Robert, Sugar, Tommy, Uncle, Vinegar,William., Xerxes, Yellow, Zebra.

The British army used a similar list, with substitutions at Vic, X-Ray, and Yorker.

Answer: George

Some US police forces believe their system is easier than Nato's.

They would never use "Geoffrey" as it has too many syllables. This is also the reason they prefer "Frank" to "Foxtrot".

Answer: Henry

Assigning words acrophonically to letters helps improve clarity in radio transmissions.

Allied to that is the use of certain words to indicate understanding of messages.

Trained radio operators will use "affirmative" for "yes" "negative" for "no"; "loud and clear" to indicate the strength of signal and "go ahead" in reply to someone calling them.

They will also clearly state "over" when they have finished speaking and await a reply and "out" when they finish speaking but do not expect a reply.

Despite its popularity on television and on the silver screen "over and out" is a nonsensical voice procedure that does not exist in the real world.

Answer: Ida

Ida is the first female name that the NYPD uses.

In fact out of 19 names, it uses just two female names - the other is Nora.

The NATO alphabet uses just one female name, "Juliett" [SIC] and five male names.

Answer: John

You will have noticed the "tt" at the end. This differentiates the name from "Juliet".

While English speakers will immediately sound the "t", native French speakers may leave it silent

Answer: King

Phonetic alphabets have their roots in the flag system that ships used in days before radio.

Using Popham's Telegraphic Code, words and letters had flags that could be used in combination to spell out an order.

Probably the most famous flag signal that most people know is Lord Nelson's instruction before the Battle of Trafalgar in December 1805: "England expects that every man will do his duty".

Nowadays we are used to seeing the whole signal flying at one time, but that is not how it would have looked when originally flown.

The signal required twelve "lifts" for the eight full words and the four letters that spelt out the word "duty".

Answer: Larry

Not all police services in the US mimic the NYPD's alphabet. The Los Angeles Police Department does up to King, then uses "Lincoln" for L.

Answer: Mike

LAPD uses "Mary" for M.

Answer: Nora

In the USA, many police forces continue to use an alphabet set out in an April 1940 newsletter released by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO).

Some believe that the police alphabet is shorter and punchier than its military counterpart.

There are some minor variations between individual services.

Answer: Oscar

Almost astoundingly for a city in which "Oscar" means so much, the Los Angeles Police Department uses "Ocean" instead!

Answer: Peter

If you have a good ear for TV cop show radio dialogue, you may have heard the LAPD use "Paul" instead.

Answer: Queen

While US police forces use their own alphabet, in places such as the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, police officers use the NATO system.

One US officer opined: "Police had their alphabet before NATO. When NATO/ICAO became a thing, old heads at police departments didn't want to switch. Then their rookies became old heads and still didn't want to switch."

Answer: False

No, the NYPD uses "Robert".

While the double 't' ending is prescribed by NATO and organisations such as the Civil Aviation Authority, in some English-speaking places it is listed as "Juliet".

Similarly, the first letter is written as "Alpha" instead of the prescribed "Alfa".

Answer: Sam

Not all countries are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO/Nato).

Russia, for one, is not. It also has a phonetic alphabet.

Its alphabet has more letters. The equivalents of the 26 Nato letters are: Anna/Anton/ Aleksei, Boris, Caplya, Dimitri; Yelena; Fyodor; Galina; Hariton; Ivan, Ivankratiji, Kilovatt. Leonid, Mihail, Nikolai, Olga, Pavel, Schuka, Roman, Sergei, Tamara, Ulyana, zhuk, Vasili, znak, yery, and Zinaida.

Answer: Thomas

The LAPD uses the shorter "Tom".

Answer: Union

As well as using a phonetic alphabet, police forces, the military and in aviation dictate numbers individually.

For example, an aircraft with the callsign QFA 355 will announce itself as "Quantas three five five". In the UK a police patrol car with the callsign RA70 will announce itself on air as "Romeo Alpha seven zero".

Again, it is a question of clarity - particularly in circumstances where the strength of the broadcast signal may be poor.

Answer: True

However, transmissions need not be confined to the recognised alphabet. In aviation, for example, individual airlines have their own callsigns: "Shamrock" for Aer Lingus"; "Speedbird" for British Airways; and "Clipper" for Pan American.

Answer: William

The NATO alphabet is also used in calling out the unique codes for the world's airlines and airports in radio transmissions.

There is a slight diversion between codes used by International Air Transport Association (IATA) and International Civil Aviation Organization.

IATA uses two letters and ICAO three - for example BA and BAW for British Airways.

One designation that is not acceptable for any airline is SOS.

Answer: False

The NYPD uses 'Yellow". Across the continent, the LAPD uses "Young".

All three, by the way, agree on "X-ray" for the 24th letter.

Answer: Zebra

The desire for clarity in signalling has a long history stretching back to the days when flags were used.

The First International Code of Signals was drafted in 1855 by the British Board of Trade. It contained 70,000 signals using 18 flags.

The Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization has updated the code periodically over the years since. It sets out to a very detailed level the kind of 'conversations' that can be had by flag alone.

It also uses the Nato alphabet for a system of coded distress radio transmissions. For example, "Alfa Echo" means "I must abandon my vessel"; "Bravo Foxtrot" means "aircraft is ditched and requires immediate assistance" and "Delta X-Ray means "I am sinking".

Meanwhile, Zulu Zulu means "End of quiz".