In the amateur radio world, the ability to quickly and accurately capture callsigns is key to clear and reliable voice communication — especially during SSB contacts. To help complete beginners or children learn this important 'phonetics', Ondra OK1CDJ created a simple and effective web tool called Hamradio Phone Trainer.
Ondra used Google AI Studio to create this tool for teaching phonetic alphabet writing and the ability to correctly recognize and transcribe spoken letters. The project was completed in less than 1 hour, demonstrating that even with modern AI tools, it is possible to quickly assemble a practical supplement for amateur radio education. The project is primarily aimed at children and beginners learning to use standard phonetic alphabets — e.g. NATO/ICAO, as is often used in ham radio operations.
Phone Trainer is available in two language versions:
- English – with a generated voice that sounds natural and clear even with longer combinations of letters and numbers.
- Czech – AI-generated voice is very understandable and suitable for practical use by Czech users.
One of the most interesting features is the voice reproduction of the phonetic alphabet output. The application generates a voice that pronounces letters according to the selected phonetic alphabet. The voice is cached offline, so it is not necessary to call the AI server every time during repeated training. This approach ensures quick response and low latency during training.
🎯 How Hamradio Phone Trainer works
The user can choose a language and difficulty level. The tool then:
Pronounces a phonetic string of letters or a call sign using AI voice.
The task is displayed in letters and the goal is to determine: what word or call sign you hear phonetically.
The application then evaluates the accuracy of your transcription.
This type of training helps improve the ability to reasonably understand voice connections, which is a fundamental skill for any amateur radio operator working on SSB or another phonetic mode.
🧠 Why is it useful?
For radio amateurs — especially those who are starting out — learning phonetic writing is often a hurdle. Common training apps or Android apps exist (e.g. various phonetic alphabet trainer apps), but most are:
simple and primarily text-based,
older or does not use AI voice,
lacks robust language support.
Ondra's Phone Trainer offers a fresh approach using AI voice, which can be more authentic and easier to work with than traditional generated sounds.
📣 Call to the community
Ondra welcomes feedback from both radio amateurs and teachers, who can improve the tool for other languages, different types of phonetic alphabets, or for different skill levels. The project is publicly available and anyone can try it online.
👉 Try Hamradio Phone Trainer here: https://trainer.k1cdj.com