Roger that...
 

does anyone know the origin of the call "Roger" ? I'm curious as to how and when this came about.

In the former British Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabeth "Roger" was standing for "R", just like the "Romeo" in the NATO-Alphabeth now.

R simply was the abbreviation for "received".

IIRC it's usage even reached back to the morse-times, but I don't have the time to look that up right now.

I feel like I'm watching Lee Ermey on "Mail Call" (LOL)... :)

In the old days of radio when Morse code was still used, radiomen used the letter "R", dot dash dot (di-dah-dit) as a quick way to transmit acknowledgment of transmissions or as a "yes." When voice radio telephony was developed, the old radiomen stuck to the "R" as meaning yes. Since the phonetic alphabet for "R" then was Roger, the carryover was a natural logical development.

Roger is abused (no pun) quite often as people think it means "I will comply" when it fact it only means you received the transmission. "wilco" is of course the phase that affirms that you are going to comply.

Simply saying roger doesn't mean it's gonna get done where as "roger, wilco" gives the brass warm fuzzies :P

"roger, wilco" is a little bit too much for my taste since "wilco" already implies that you have received and understood the message.

Roger is abused (no pun) quite often as people think it means "I will comply" when it fact it only means you received the transmission. "wilco" is of course the phase that affirms that you are going to comply.

So has "wilco" also come from the same system?

Thanks for the info guys.

Wilco is the short of "Will Comply" and yes, I think it's from the same time.

and .... over & out.. means that the transmission is finished and you are signing off..

Interpretations may vary depending on where you live eg BC's over & out - here in Australia when I was doing my sig training (in the 80's) over meant " I have finished my transmission and am waiting for your response". Out meant " I have finished my transmission and I do not require you to respond". We used to get a proverbial kick in the butt from the RSO if we used over and out :-)

Cheers

Goanna

And in some parts of the World there is "Charlie Charlie" !