In article , "Jim Hampton"
writes:

This actually is quite good and applies to the old timers as well. I have
one question if anyone remembers back to around 1959. The guy who got me
*really* interested in amateur radio was Russ, W2ZS. I met him around 1959
or possibly 1960 and remember him making contacts when I was invited into
his shack. I do remember folks back when using "the handle here is ...".
My question is did that start with CB or did CB pick it up from amateurs
originally? It seems (at least back then) more like the Southern "y'all
come again real soon". Sort of folksy and warm if grammatically incorrect.

The term "handle" goes back before 1900 and is attributed mainly to
westerners, particularly cowboys. Etymologically in English, a
general form of handle is something that allows grasping an object.
So, one could "grasp" (understand or know) someone if they gave
you their name...hence, "my handle is Jim" (or whatever name).

Class C and D Citizens Band (the 11m variety) wasn't created until
1958 and the "my handle is..." phrase goes back well over a half
century before that in parts of the USA.

LHA.

"Merl Turkin" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 18:20:50 -0400, Dan/W4NTI wrote:

These are keepers. Especially like item 19. That one applies to HF as
well.

Beep

Dan/W4NTI


(snip)

I like item 31:

"Make sure when you reply to a usenet post that you quote the entire
message you're replying to instead of just a small relevant portion of
it."

I like item 32:

Make sure when you reply to a usenet post that you don't quote the entire
message, as you are wasting everyones time. Assuming of course they are
smart enough to look at the previous post.

"Jim Hampton" wrote in message ...
I do remember folks back when using "the handle here is ...".
My question is did that start with CB or did CB pick it up from amateurs
originally? It seems (at least back then) more like the Southern "y'all
come again real soon". Sort of folksy and warm if grammatically incorrect.

The term "handle" goes back to before ham radio. It was commonly use
by hams as an alternative to "name" or "nickname", because often a
"handle" was not related to the person's actual name ("Slim", "The
Duke", etc.) Just a bit of jargon.

And originally the cb term meant the same thing. But over time,
"handle" in cb lingo came to mean something quite different from a
person's name or nickname.
"Handles" were used instead of callsigns as a way of concealing a cb
user's true identity, both from others and the FCC. Thus, they became
the antithesis of callsigns.

And that's why the term has dropped from amateur usage.

73 de Jim, N2EY

"N2EY" wrote in message
m...
"Jim Hampton" wrote in message
...
I do remember folks back when using "the handle here is ...".
My question is did that start with CB or did CB pick it up from amateurs
originally? It seems (at least back then) more like the Southern "y'all
come again real soon". Sort of folksy and warm if grammatically
incorrect.

The term "handle" goes back to before ham radio. It was commonly use
by hams as an alternative to "name" or "nickname", because often a
"handle" was not related to the person's actual name ("Slim", "The
Duke", etc.) Just a bit of jargon.

And originally the cb term meant the same thing. But over time,
"handle" in cb lingo came to mean something quite different from a
person's name or nickname.
"Handles" were used instead of callsigns as a way of concealing a cb
user's true identity, both from others and the FCC. Thus, they became
the antithesis of callsigns.

And that's why the term has dropped from amateur usage.

73 de Jim, N2EY

Thanks for setting the record straight Jim. What these CBers can't get
straight is that Amateur Radio pre-dates CB radio by many decades. So most,
to all, of what CB does is a copy of Ham radio, which the CBers then
proceeded to screw up.

Just another example of how CB has, and is ruining ham radio.

Dan/W4NTI

"Dan/W4NTI" w4nti@get rid of this mindspring.com wrote in message link.net...
"N2EY" wrote in message
m...
"Jim Hampton" wrote in message
...
I do remember folks back when using "the handle here is ...".
My question is did that start with CB or did CB pick it up from amateurs
originally? It seems (at least back then) more like the Southern "y'all
come again real soon". Sort of folksy and warm if grammatically
incorrect.

The term "handle" goes back to before ham radio. It was commonly use
by hams as an alternative to "name" or "nickname", because often a
"handle" was not related to the person's actual name ("Slim", "The
Duke", etc.) Just a bit of jargon.

And originally the cb term meant the same thing. But over time,
"handle" in cb lingo came to mean something quite different from a
person's name or nickname.
"Handles" were used instead of callsigns as a way of concealing a cb
user's true identity, both from others and the FCC. Thus, they became
the antithesis of callsigns.

And that's why the term has dropped from amateur usage.

73 de Jim, N2EY

Thanks for setting the record straight Jim. What these CBers can't get
straight is that Amateur Radio pre-dates CB radio by many decades. So most,
to all, of what CB does is a copy of Ham radio, which the CBers then
proceeded to screw up.

Just another example of how CB has, and is ruining ham radio.

Depends on which ham radio. I don't run into very many of 'em around 14.020.

Dan/W4NTI

w3(c)RV

In article ,
(Brian Kelly) writes:

And originally the cb term meant the same thing. But over time,
"handle" in cb lingo came to mean something quite different from a
person's name or nickname.
"Handles" were used instead of callsigns as a way of concealing a cb
user's true identity, both from others and the FCC. Thus, they became
the antithesis of callsigns.

And that's why the term has dropped from amateur usage.

Not entirely.

Pretty much, though.

I picked up the habit of using "handle is Brian" back
when a number of spot 10M AM freqs were functionally the equivalent of
today's neighborhood 2M FM reperaters and I still use it. It's just
ingrained reflex from 'Wayback days and I've never gotten any
"feedback" about it.

Because you don;t use it in an attempt to conceal your identity.

As you point out the big difference between ham usage of the term
"handle" and CB usage of the term is in the handle itself. "My handle
is Brian" is obviously my legitimate given name. "The handle here is
Road Snake" is another whole pure CB ballgame.

10-4

In defense of the CBers ever since the FCC dropped CB licensing CBers
they don't get FCC callsigns so they can't use 'em like we can ours
even if they wanted to.

Which FCC did because the cb users were not using callsigns for the most part
anyway, long before the rules changed. "Handles" rather than callsigns were
common with a significant part of the cb crowd around here well before 1970.

'Cept in the case of us 'Wayback licensed
CBers who do have FCC issued callsigns. On those very rare occasions
when I get on 27 Mhz you'd hear "This is KLK 1937, the handle is
Brian" . . . Works fine.

Ayup.

73 de Jim, N2EY