Letter (alphabet) of sounds to make words. A letter is classed as either a consonant or a vowel, depending on how its sound is produced (vowels are "a", "e", "i", "o", "u", and sometimes "y" and "w"). The basic Roman alphabet is used by about one hundred languages, with slight variations. Some versions contain as few as twenty-one characters, some as many as thirty. Letters have specific names associated with them, which may differ with language, dialect, and history. "Z", for example, is usually called "zed" in all English-speaking countries except the US, where it is named "zee". As elements of alphabets,
Letter beacon in the USSR: The link with the USSR and, more recently, Russia is further supported by the existence of single letter beacons transmitting letters existing only in the Cyrillic Morse code alphabet. The ENIGMA group also accepted these locations for cluster beacons "C", "D", "P" and "S", adding Vladivostok for beacon "F". A recent source (2006) regarding locations was published on the Web by Ary Boender. This publication also contains an extensive list of letter beacon frequencies, both current and historical. The following locations are given for cluster beacons: For solitary beacons and markers, Boender suggests these locations: Transmissions of