In a January 2018 editorial, former ARRL CEO Tom Gallaher, NY2RF, wound up with a bit of egg on his face by asking readers whether the term “handle just set your teeth on edge? It makes mine grind. It’s on my top-ten list with ‘good buddy,’ and it conjures up visions of bears and green stamps,” presumably because it originated on CB.

He tells how he wrote to CBS-TV to tell them that “to a ham radio operator, handle is an odious term because, not only do hams not use “handles,” we also regard the term and the practice as belonging to lesser practitioners than ourselves.”

Unfortunately, Gallaher set a few teeth on edge himself, since the term handle predates CB by decades, and has long been in use by hams as a synonym for name, as evidenced by the clip shown above from Radio News, May 1938.

Occasionally, I hear similarly misguided commentary that the term skip is similar taboo as having allegedly originated on 11 meters. This myth should also be put to rest, as shown from the clip below from the same magazine: