When the police talk on their walky talkie, they always end it by saying 'roger'. who is this roger guy??

Cinna

roger is the little guy in the walkie talkie who is delivering the messages. they have to say roger at the end of every message because sometimes he doesnt pay very close attention, and that usually pulls him out of lala land, atleast long enough to deliver part of the message.

ireland

roger wilco

"...mr. wilco isn't a real person....in fact, the combination roger wilco was never even intended to sound like a name....
it's just chance that both roger and wilco, which have separate meanings, get used often enough together that they seem like a set phrase, and since roger is a given name the whole thing sounds like a name...."
"...roger is a word used in one prominent radio alphabet to stand for the letter 'r'..."
"...the alphabet in which 'roger' stands for 'r' begins 'able baker charlie dog'... and was the official radio alphabet of the u.s. navy before 1954...."

"...the 'r' that roger is substituting for stands for 'received', indicating that a radio message has been received and understood...."

"...'wilco' is not from a radio alphabet; it's a military abbreviation for 'will comply'..."

"...it's necessary to acknowledge receipt of a message with 'roger' before indicating compliance with 'wilco', hence the frequent combination 'roger, wilco'...."
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19970207

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Wilco

MenifeeManiac

Surely, you jest.

BTW, who is Shirley?

Seriously, it is part of a phrase from two-way radio used as a voice procedure. It combines "Roger" (meaning "Received") and "Wilco" (meaning "will comply"). The letter R had been Morse code shorthand for "Received", and over the radio it became "Roger" in the RAF phonetic alphabet

Jessica S

When I was a dispatcher, we didn't use "roger", we used 10 codes. Normally radio traffic was ended with 10-4.

Scabius Fretful

R for roger - international for "Message received and understood".

CGIV76

Police never say Roger when they talk on their Handy Talkies.

chuck_junior

Roger hasn't been used in years. To say a message is received and understood a simple 10-4 is used instead.

Btw, Roger married Shirley.

Voice of Liberty

Roger means "I understand" or "ok" and is said in response to information that is given.

Wilco means "Will comply" and is said in response when the person is given instructions that they must follow.

Now what really bothers me is that on these tv shows, they ofter say "roger wilco". In radio communication that is an incorrect thing to say as they mean roughly the same thing. Its basically a double negative.

joeanonymous

In our city, we don't use the term "roger" but funny enough the fire dept. does. Mayb they know who he is?

Shortstuff13

It means they have received the message & understands. Copy?

lovemytc

Cops do not use "roger". They will either let communications know they received the transmission by saying "10-4 (ok)", or "affirmative", "affirm", "T-4", or "Read" (as in "I read your last transmission"). If you hear an officer saying something else, they might have been in the military or aviation and do it out of habit.

The reason these words are used while talking over a handset, is because you need to make sure the other person understands what you just said, and vice versa. You want to make sure you have a good radio voice, because failure to communicate could be a costly mistake.

Tan D

"Roger" meant message received. "Over" meant a reply is required.

REnate

In the old radio jargon "roger" was a way to say yes or agree without saying yes because it was hard to understand on the old radio type waves.

GreenEyesThickThighs

I do not think that there is actually a roger. I believe that is just code language to say goodbye or I understand.

jman490

When they say Roger today, it does not mean ok. Most of the time police use 10-codes, the equivalent of the old roger is 10-4 which means "message received and understood". However, roger is still used as international codes. For example, when police call in a license plate they might call out "five seven nine roger roger charlie" which would mean they have a car pulled over with the license plate "579RRC" - "Roger" is international code for the letter "R". That's when police use roger, otherwise its either "10-4" or "received"

Captain Moe

We actually say "Received"
If anything at all. Most of the time, we're giving orders to our dispatchers, not the other way around.

Clif S

That NEVER happens it is pure fiction.

Norskeyenta

This is the cutest question ever. I always wonder who Roger is too. Let me know when you find out.

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