After several instances of inter-agency communication problems, the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) discouraged the use of ten-codes and today the federal government recommends they be replaced with plain, everyday language. The problem came to a head in 2005 during rescue operations after Hurricane Katrina. Over time, differing meanings for the codes came about in different agencies and jurisdictions, undoing the codes' usefulness as a concise and standardized system. The codes were expanded by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International (APCO) in 1974 and were used by both law enforcement agencies and civilian CB radio users. The codes also allowed for brevity and standardization in radio message traffic. Preceding every code with "ten" gave the sometimes slow equipment time to warm up and improved the likelihood that a listener would understand the important part of a message. Charles Hopper, a communications director with the Illinois State Police, developed them in 1937 to combat the problem of the first syllables or words of a transmission being cut off or misunderstood. The ten-codes or ten-signals are code words used as stand-ins for common phrases in radio communication. wrote in wondering why we say things like "10-4" and "Roger" on walkie-talkies and other two-way radios. Reader and frequent question-asker Nate J.
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