What is the significance f the numbers 10-4 when communicating on a radio? Why is it 10-4 and not any other #?

Answer 1

look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10-4#10-0s

Answer 2

Actually, 10-4 can have different meanings depending on what agency or department is using it.

While its almost universal that 10-4 is an acknowledgment of a transmission, our 9-1-1 center uses it for another reason as well.

If a police officer acknowledges a job by saying 10-4, we know that he is a 2 man unit and that a back up car isn't necessary.

There are all kinds of 10 codes. A lot of departments use them, but many are starting a trend towards "plain language" dispatching. This is because during multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional incidents, 10 codes can be confusing and its possible to miss something important if it isn't said in plain language to an agency who doesn't use 10-codes. So the reason its 10-4 is because its only one code on a whole list of them.

Another example is 10-1. This is an emergency transmission that means an officer needs assistance. Whenever a 10-1 is given out, every available unit responds without being dispatched.

Air Traffic Controllers do not use 10-codes. Roger is the accepted international acknowledgment. Roger wil-co means I understand your transmission and will comply.

Hope this helped.

Answer 3

Its something called a "Ten code" and is basically verbal shorthand for voice communications over radio. Check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten-code

for a more thorough explanation of Ten-codes and what the various Ten-codes mean.

10-4 means "message received."