why do pilots say roger?

Answer 1

Incidentally according to the “Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins” by William and Mary Morris(Harper Collins, New York, 1977, 1988). ROGER -- "in the meaning of 'Yes, O.K., I understand you -- is voice code for the letter R. It is part of the 'Able, Baker, Charlie' code known and used by all radiophone operators in the services in the 40's - 50's.

From the earliest days of wireless communication, the Morse code letter R (dit-dah-dit) has been used to indicate 'O.K. -- understood.' So 'Roger' was the logical voice-phone equivalent." Also from “I Hear America Talking” by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976).“Roger! A code word used by pilots to mean ‘your message received and understood’ in response to radio communications; later it came into general use to mean ‘all right, OK.’ Roger was the radio communications morse code word for the letter R, which in this case represented the word ‘received.’ ‘Roger Wilco’ was the reply to ‘Roger’ from the original transmitter of the radio message, meaning ‘I have received your message that you have received my message and am signing off.” Wilco implies "I will comply"

Then of course there is the "Roger Beep" (Di-Dah-Dit) which legend has it was innovated by the Space Missions as a quick way to "Roger it" No source for this "but have it on good authority - by a guy who was there" hi hi. From the DX Reflector Ok, I have heard and seen a half dozen explanations, now here is one from one who has "Been there- Done That". "Roger" in both military and government communications definitely came out of the old cw days (and yes I did send/receive cw messages at the beginning of my career). The "R" was sent as a confirmation of receipt of a message,or a portion of a message. "R" was used, not "QSL". In voice communications , it thus became "Roger".

Even in front-line operations such as by forward observers (I did that too). We used Roger and Negative You had to be completely confident in what you were sending or receiving after all, it could , and often was, life or death as to what got thru the communications lines. I cringe almost every time I hear any military movie communications. WILCO means: I will comply with your orders. OVER means I have finished my transmissions and turn the channel over to you to transmit. CLEAR means I am finished with this communication and am standing by on the channel. OUT means I have completed transmission and am completely finished and closing this station or switching to another channel. So you can see why I cringe with "Roger Wilco Over, Clear and Out" WHAT DID HE SAY????

Navy Pilots say the use of Roger Wilco is frowned on, use one or the other as applicable.

In addition to "R" Roger, early CW use for "correct" was Morse "C", this carried over to the phone circuits as "Charlie". This is still used by Morse ops and can still be heard on some military voice circuits as in "That's Charlie" or "That's a Charlie readback". Usually following a readback of a message and meaning 'that is correct'. One will also see the occasional reference to FOXTROT messages as in the "DO NOT ANSWER" also encountered on military circuits. This is also from the CW "F" meaning 'do not answer'.

Mach....you are wrongo!
According to the CURRENT pilot/controller glossary:
ROGER- I have received all of your last transmission. It should not be used to answer a question requiring a yes or a no answer.:

Answer 2

Legally speaking, the word "Roger" is simply a way of letting ATC know that the pilot received their last transmission. It can NEVER be used as a response to a question. To answer in the affirmative, pilots use the word "Affirm" and NOT "Roger".

Examples of when "Roger" can be used would be when ATC lets the pilot know what the wind is doing on Final Approach...for example "G-ABCD, winds are 310 degrees 40kts", to which the pilot can legally reply "Roger".

There are several legal requirements to which a pilot must read back the information given to him by ATC. Some of these include taxi clearances, departure clearances, landing and take-off clearance, barometric pressure settings, speed/height clearance limits etc. However, there are a few to which a simple "Roger" will suffice....weather information passed on, or traffic in the vicinity. Often times when I flew in the U.S. the pilots wouldn't even reply roger, they'd just click the mic once to acknowledge, however back in Europe when I fly the pilots will indeed use the word "Roger" instead of the click on the mic.

Hope that helps to answer your question

However, there are more often times that a pilot must answer a question in the affirmative, and thus "Roger" will not do.

Answer 3

Roger is a short way of saying "I have received all of your last transmission". When using a radio it is not easy to distinguish between similar sounds, especially when spelling. For example, B, D, and T might be mistaken for one another. For this reason Phonetic alphabets were developed. One early alphabet started Abel for A, Baker for B, Charlie for C, Dog for D, etc, including Roger for R. Before voice could be transmitted, the Morse Code was developed to communicate using radio waves. Instead of spelling out the words "I have received your last transmission", it was abbreviated to the letter R, or dit dah dit in Morse Code. Later with a voice transmission, the letter R was still used, only phonetically (Roger). Since then, in aviation, the phonetic alphabet has changed. It starts Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and R is now Romeo. There was resistance to change "I have received all of your last transmission" from Roger to Romeo, so it's still Roger.

By the way, many older pilots have used Roger to answer affirmative. Today however, this is not correct. "Affirm" or "affirmative" would be used.

Answer 4

Because of Roger Murdock, the co-pilot, who appears to resemble Kareem Abdul Jabar.

Answer 5

roger mean that the person saying it has received the last transmission to its fullest and that it does not need repeated, it also lets the sender know that the receiver is still on standby for any following transmission

Answer 6

it means they want to roger you.

Answer 7

"Roger" means nothing more than "I heard ya!" It doesnt mean anything else.

Answer 8

it is a other word for affirmative or ok or transmission recieved

Answer 9

It means, "Transmission understood."