Let’s call Slash and Slant Slang … or I might get a Stroke ! 
Is propagation really that bad today, that we have to discuss things like this … ? HI
73
Luc ON7DQ
1 Like
Guru will be here in a minute to tell us it’s “barra” (or more accurately “barra oblicua”).
In Glasgow, of course, the “barras” means something quite different!
73 de Wlat
1 Like
You are right, Walt, I was reading all the comments and thinking about writing a post to tell you that we say “barra”. Of course this “barra” / (traditionally used for maths division) and not the newer one \ which we call “barra invertida” and as far as I know arrived to our day by day world with computers.
We say EA2IF"barra"Móvil = EA2IF/M and EA2IF"barra"Marítimo Móvil = EA2IF/MM.
“Barra” is also the bar where a “caña” or even better a pint of beer is served to a thirsty SOTAist on return of an activation 
Cheers,
Guru
3 Likes
In my early times in ham radio I always heard “stroke” and never “slash”.
In 1985 I became a mainly telegraphist operator so all I heard was the morse (dash dot dot dash dot)
Since I found SOTA ans started to work phone again, I heard “slash” quite often and I have even adopted that word instead of stroke because I had the feel it had became more common than the old stroke I used to hear and say back in my early times of phone activity in the 80’s.
After having learned that CEPT states that stroke is the right way to pronounce / it’s clear I will adopt it again and will forget about slash.
However, I admit I don’t say it much when I’m activating because I just say Echo Alfa Two India Foxtrot Portable.
73,
Guru
Similarly here - I use Golf Four Mike Delta Portable… but you’d be amazed the number of people who don’t understand two letter suffixes and assume the call I’m using is G4MDP 
I blame the prevalence of mangling the Phonetic Alphabet…
I believe it’s call a “virgule” in Oxford.
Skip K6DGW
Mangling the Phonetic Alphabet is sometimes a question of lessons learnt in order to avoid mistakes. When I activate I say Foxtrot for the F at the end of my callsign and I don’t think there are misunderstandings, but I guess it’s mainly because I’ve become quite a well known ham within the SOTA community and also because of the alerts and spots on SOTAwatch, but when I’m chasing SOTA or DX or whatever using phone, my Foxtrot is often understood as Oscar i.e. EA2IO and when signals are poor and I think I must be a weak and difficult to understand signal, I usually say Florida instead of Foxtrot and it’s better understood.
I confess I don’t like the word Foxtrot (neither the dancing). On the other hand I love the sound of the letter F in morse (dit dit dah dit)
We can’t have it all…
Cheers,
Guru
I use them both, and I’ve not been misunderstood so far. “Slash” provides a better sound picture in SSB and is easier to pronounce, but the editors of the CEPT regulations have not been SOTA activists unfortunately . . .
Vy 73 de Markus, HB9DIZ
I was testing out VLB vertical at 1900CEST today in my sister’s garden (JN23) whilst the food was cooking. 20m seem very busy with lots of QSOs taking place and a 9K2 station with a biblical sized pileup and a ZS6 with an unduely large pileup. Neither 9K2 or ZS6 are exotic so I suppose people were glad to hear something from outside 1500km from their QTH.
That certainly appears in the Oxford English Dictionary, although I have never heard the word used to refer to a “/” symbol. In French, “virgule” means a comma, which is used in most continental European countries rather than a dot to signify a decimal point.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
No wonder I stick to CW only.
Even the international phonetic alphabet isn’t always used on voice. There’s no hope for /
I think we used ‘SLANT’ in the RN & Military in general, but it was rather a long time ago so I may well be corrected.
I have only ever heard “slant” used by American operators.
When “slash” emerged as the favoured expression at the dawn of the computer era, it caused mild amusement amongst the older generation - because when I was a schoolboy “slash” had rude connotations!
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
1 Like
While not as official as the CEPT directive, this is a current question on the FCC Technician Class Exam (lowest level - least technical). The correct answer is “D” - all choices are correct. So no preference by the FCC.
T1F06 (D) [97.119©]
Which of the following formats of a self-assigned indicator is acceptable when identifying using a phone transmission?
A. KL7CC stroke W3
B. KL7CC slant W3
C. KL7CC slash W3
D. All of these choices are correct
The FCC is a bit more generous than that. They allow “portable” for "/P’.
Each indicator must be separated from the assigned call sign by a slant (“/”) or any suitable word that denotes the slant mark (“portable,” “stroke,” etc.).
wunder
And earlier in this thread that appears to be the norm in the UK.
As many of us US operators know we in the US are a bit lax about the use of /P or portable (or even using the call district when out of your call sign’s one as in W6PNG/7 if I operate in Oregon, my call indicates Call District 6 (Cal) and Oregon is in Call District 7).
The reason I asked the correct pronunciation of “/“ isn’t just about “compliance” but also to ensure that non native English chasers aren’t presented with a non standard word for “/“ and hence adding to a possibly confusing situation. M/W6PNG from a guy (i.e me) with a trace of a UK accent can be confusing and chasers might initially think I’m in Wales with a call sign MW6PNG if band conditions are rough.
Paul M/W6PNG
because when I was a schoolboy “slash” had rude connotations!
And so he had when I was a schoolboy. But Slash has grown older now.
Ahoi
Pom
1 Like
Congratulations, thanks to you I now owe my employer a fair amount of my time spent youtubing Use Your Illusion and Appetite for Destruction music videos 
2 Likes
dahdididahdit
Operating FM from Austria as OE/G4YTJ/P I initially used “stroke” between “OE” and my UK callsign, but was queried about it. The chap I was working eventually realised and asked if I meant “slash”. I used “slash” afterwards without any issue. I guess that might be anecdote rather than good data but it does seem to work.
John
G4YTJ