Why the shock?  I'm sure its not a bit different than what you will hear walking down the street in ANY moderate size american city these days.  The great majority of american people have become morally and psychologically bankrupt and it can't help but show wherever social interaction occurs.  Its got absolutely nothing to do with ham radio and everything to do with american society.  THAT'S what sorely needs to be fixed.
Tom

I talk every night (to 2 other hams, no less) on restored TRC-455. I never move off channel 32. Might as well be a one channel CB. We just ragchew. Nothing else. Anyone can join, and every so often we get someone to chime in. As far as wise-asses, we simply ignore them. Don't even answer. They are trouble for like 5 minutes, and then they are gone. No funny lingo. Just English.

For the road, a CB is superior for road info. The 2M/440 crowd cannot touch it. The truckers are a wealth of info.

The gain is significantly higher than that. Modelling the one I have at 22ft in EZNEC shows a max gain of 11dBi. "Some" F/B should be at least 16dB. It will slaughter the G5RV.

I'm going to buy a transceiver to become more active on the vhf/uhf bands.  I'm looking at the Icom 2820h and the Kenwood 710a.

Since I got my license decades ago, before vhf/uhf became viable, my only experience with it is using an old Icom IC-8A HT. I understand repeaters, and the idea of tones, but am confused about how some of the newer "features" such as APRS and D-Star factor into a decision.  I also want to use the radio as a "scanner" to monitor local police and emergency broadcast, but it looks like I can do that with a programmed memory bank scan, and either radio would work-----although I do wonder how well.

So, which radio would any of you buy?  Do I care about aprs or D-Star?  What about Echolink?  I just signed up for that, and will do a little researching about how that works, so maybe that wil  help inform me.  My greatest interest is just to have a better link to local repeaters in cases of emergency, and to '"read the mail", but maybe I would really like the newest bells and whistles, if I only understood what "benefit" or "fun" they offered.   For example, it looks like aprs would allow my wife to track where I am , but I'm not sure what other practical or fun uses it has.  Same with D-Star. I guess it allows me to somehow remotely qso over very long distances on 440, but is that something that lots of people are doing. 

Open to any input.  Thanks.

Has anybody actually tried this?  I'm not talking about loading up your gutters.  I have a one story house.  I'm not even sure of the perimeter dimensions, but I've been thinking of making a loop of insulated hookup wire inside my gutter--running it all around my house, just laying in the aluminum gutter, and feeding it with ladder line and a tuner.  A low, horizontal loop of uncertain dimensions.  I'm concerned about shielding by the aluminum gutter and overall effectiveness.  I know that I'll be trying it soon, just to see if "it works," but has anybody else tried this already?  Decent results, or not really?  I have several antennas already, but have been itching to try this one for a couple of years.  However, I'm waiting for a really cold, really windy, and really miserable day to do my antenna work this fall. 

Thanks!  73, Tony

Why don't you just ignore it?