2005-02-23 - 9:29 p.m.
One of the many random things taking up what might be otherwise useful space in my head is the phonetic VHF radio alphabet. You know the one - alpha bravo charlie delta echo etcetera etcetera...
But the other day it actually came in handly. At work, no less. My fab boss and I were on a teleconference on a tinny, not very audible speaker phone with someone from the fire marshall's office who was in turn speaking on a staticky cell-phone. He was trying to give us specs for some equipment, information which is of course absolutely riddled with random numbers and letters, and things were not going well: "OK, that's CPF3 -"
"TCSC?"
"No, *CPF* *3*"
"CTS -"
"No, *C* *P* *F*"
And I suddenly realised that for once my random knowledge might actually help. I leapt in manfully:
"Sorry, was that Charlie Papa Foxtrot or Charlie Papa Sierra?"
And from there on everything went swimmingly - "Roger, that was Charlie Papa Foxtrot, and we want radio signal Foxtrot Romeo Sierra Golf Mike Romeo Sierra..."
Finally we hung up, and my fab boss looked at me openmouthed and said "What the hell was that? Now *that* was butch."
Tee hee...
