why do people say "roger" on the cb to indicate they understand? how did that come about?

Answer 1

the letter r has been used since the early days of Morse code to indicate that a message has been received. the voice code equivalent for r is roger.

Answer 2

The word "Roger" indicates receipt of a message. From around 1938 it was the British and American military phonetic for the letter "R" abbreviation for "Received," later replaced by "Romeo."

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 acknowledgement of transmissions or as a "yes." When voice radiotelephony 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.

It is still used today in military parlance to acknowledge the receipt of a command or orders, i.e. "Roger, returning to base" or "Roger that".

Answer 3

The whole term was "Roger Wilco". Not sure where it was started, but it was in the early days of two way radio and meant that the message was received and understood.

Answer 4

from roger rabbit