Ten codes were first used by the police to provide clear messages to another officer in the shortest possible time.

For example saying ¨10-4¨ is a clear and short way of say ¨That is correct , message understood¨

These abbreviations allowed more radio traffic to pass through when a limited amount of channels were available.

In CB applications obviously the non generic codes for police use wouldn’t be used.. eg: ¨10-87¨ = ¨pickup or prisoner transfer¨

Mostly CB’rs used these ones:

10-4 message understood – ok

10-20 what is your location

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CB_slang has a good selection of other CB slang words , which were more often used than the ten codes.

http://www.swdxer.co.nr/

Not that many CB’ers use all of the codes, though, or know what they all mean. The most common ones are 10-4, 22, and breaker.