“Roger” or “Copy” or neither

Roberto said:
I was once hailed by a French Coast Guard plane off Guyana, (the bloody thing appeared out of nowhere and passed at very low altitude), they asked me to spell the name of the boat, as it has quite a few letters when I had spelled half of it they said ''ok ok that's enough''; I suspect they just wanted to check I knew the phonetic alphabet as possibly drug smugglers do not ?
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Correct, drug smugglers say stuff like “roger that” and “over and out”.
 
Mark-1 said:
I don't hear it much but it doesn't bother me at all, it's two extra syllables and it's clear they mean "out".

I sometimes use copied, wilco and roger because I think they sound cool and nautical. No idea what is supposed to be said. Mostly I just say "Understood."

I've heard a pro use "break/break" which I googled to find it was an aviation thing and highly useful IMHO.
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I associate Wilco with WWII films involving spitfire pilots or Lancaster crew. As I recall the notes on my VHF course advised against such things
 
fredrussell said:
The only phonetic alphabet letter drug smugglers get right is “Charlie”

They usually fall into the trap of saying “Henry” for H. Dead giveaway.
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A friend's daughter was bad at spelling so I reminded her it was "I before E, except after C".

She said she thought it was the order you're supposed to take your drugs in.

Another aquaintance was off to a music festival when I was off to hospital for chemo. I said "I bet I have more drugs than you this weekend". "Bet you don't" he replied. He didn't show up for work until the following Thursday.
 
I make a point of not caring about coms in films or on boats. It's not worth the effort as long as those involved understand.

I do remember several years ago spending a night flying over some dodgy place in close support of some blokes on the ground after several hours of intense and impeccable coms discipline I finally signed off with "Roger, wilco, over and out" to which everyone on the net lost it completely for a moment.
 
Buck Turgidson said:
I'm sure with todays AI super computers someone could finally solve that mystery.
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I watched a documentary a few years ago where they interviewed a couple of old radio operators who said there was no mystery. STENDEC was a very common mistranscription of a signal the aircraft would have been expected to make. That wouldn't sell papers though
 
Mark-1 said:
I watched a documentary a few years ago where they interviewed a couple of old radio operators who said there was no mystery. STENDEC was a very common mistranscription of a signal the aircraft would have been expected to make. That wouldn't sell papers though
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Funny because my RT instructors in the RAF, some of whom were old enough to have crewed that flight didn't know the answer!
 
I mostly use my radio when locking in or getting fuel, I'm on first name terms with most of the guys and gals at the other end of the radio but we still use proper etiquette. I usually return an instruction with 'all copied, standing by' then when we are finished ' boat name..out'
 
My partner (of two years) has never been sailing so I try to give her the basic info without "mansplaining". One bit was when I said "never ever use "roger" on the radio. With that I called Falmouth coastguard, only to have her acknowledge "roger".
 
Buck Turgidson said:
Funny because my RT instructors in the RAF, some of whom were old enough to have crewed that flight didn't know the answer!
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Obviously they hadn't watched the documentary!

Seriously, fair enough, I guess the documentary or my memory is wrong. Unless they weren't familiar with something local to the crash - like the airfield ID or something.

EDIT: I swear I hadn't watched the vid before I posted this! (In fact there wasn't time so I'm in the clear.)
 
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