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Author Topic: Dangers of putting your call on your car.  (Read 1141 times)

N1AUP

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Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« on: February 18, 2023, 12:05:01 PM »

Can a ham police officer or lawyer offer up an opinion?

Are there any drawbacks on putting your callsign on your vehicle?

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W7CXC

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2023, 12:21:56 PM »

Well one can look up full name and address. If you t someone off they can find you and possibly do bad things!
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KD9PQB

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2023, 12:29:07 PM »

Neither a lawyer nor a police officer but it seems pretty obvious that advertising one's call sign gives others access to a lot of information.  Once you have someone's name and address you've got everything they've ever put on line.  First thing is residence - from map and image to property taxes and real estate listings, and whether owned or rented and what it last sold for and when - gives a pretty good estimate of net worth.  If they're on LinkedIn, you got a CV.  They may have had a news article written about them or their spouse that will pop up in a search, scores from competitive events they or their kids were in, etc. You can usually get a phone number or two along with a list of all of their relatives - which can be similarly searched if there's not much info on the primary interest.  Search the phone number and you can often find ads they've posted and under what "handle".  A lot of people use the same "handle" on all of the web sites they post on, so you can run a search on their handle and find out what their interests and leanings are.  A hit on an obituary can give you a good bit of their family tree.  States often have a searchable public registry of convictions.  And none of this costs a dime.  And then their are the sites that will do all of this for you for a fee.

I remember reading if your vehicle has vanity tags, you're more likely to be a victim of crime, maybe just because people with vanity tags typically have more money and are a more attractive target than those who don't.  Maybe if you have a vanity tag with your vanity call sign, it increases.

It's the nail that stands proud that is soon pounded flat.  There's a lot of value in anonymity, which sadly is vanishing daily for obvious reasons.  I'd cling the the remnants and skip the call sign display.   
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W4CP

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2023, 12:33:58 PM »

I'm not with the police or a lawyer, but I'll list my considerations.

I've had my call on my car via a ham license plate since 1971 and have had no problems I would attribute to that. I've lived in small towns, medium-sized cities, like Raleigh and Winston-Salem (NC), but I also lived in Houston for several years.

But you know, a ham call on your car, like a sticker or a ham license plate, IMO, could mainly be used to get your home address from an on-line ham call database.

What I did to overcome that, is use a PO Box for my FCC address.

I waivered on that.  Generally, a person who is a ham has a good job with an accompanying income, so thieves might consider that a good house to break into. They could also note that by visible antennas, however.

Then it occurred to me, a ham's house would be the LAST place you'd want to break into to get jewels and furs and things like that!!!  We've spent all of our money on ham radios!! :-)

BUT, upon further consideration and my years of experience being around other hams, I'd say that hams have a greater than average likelihood of owning guns. Yes, some hams are very anti-gun, but in general I'd bet that the average ham would be more likely to be a firearms owner than not.

And guns are what an experienced thief wants to steal the MOST.  Stolen guns can sell for MORE than their new price on the underground market. Criminals like to have a gun which can not be traced to them, and convicted felons can't buy guns anyway (most places.)

So that would make our residence a prime spot for a knowledgeable thief to want to hit, and our callsign can lead them straight to our doorstep.

So I have a PO Box as my FCC address. Maybe it's more than is needed, but I'm proud of my callsign, and don't want to have to hide it!

BTW, years ago you could NOT have a PO Box as your official FCC location.  When I was first licensed, back in 1968 at 13 years old, my parents lived out in the country, and our address was Route 3, Selma, NC.  THAT was not enough for the FCC, they wanted to know pretty precisely where the transmitter(s) would be located.  So I had to list my location as on Hwy. 52, 2 miles north of the intersection of Hwy. 52 and Hwy. 15, or something like that.

So that's my take on the question.

73,
Curt W4CP
« Last Edit: February 18, 2023, 12:39:45 PM by W4CP »
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KG4RUL

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2023, 01:17:20 PM »

I have had a call sign plate for 20+ years with no adverse effect.  YMMV
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K6SDW

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2023, 01:23:08 PM »

In 6-land I was led to believe the police or fire would see your ham callsign and allow you to enter an area under emergency conditions, such as a major fire since we had two-way radios in our cars and could help provide emergency communications. I've never tested this theory, but I've had my callsign on my different vehicles since early 1970's...true story, a couple of times back then I was pulled over for having a "questionable license plate!!" When a cop would run my plates, for some reason it only showed the letters and not the number and show an error - a cop friend said the patrolman was suppose to substitute a * symbol for the number...eventually the DMV fixed the issue.

GL/73
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WY4J

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2023, 01:26:07 PM »

I have my call on my tag but what I do is to have Google delete all my personal information from their search engine. I also Goggle my name and address and submit all the seach results to them so they can remove anything that comes up in a search. This is the Google site to remove the info. Follow the promps and in a couple of days all your personal information such as addresses, tel numbers and emails will disappear. I also contact the offending sites that list public information and ask them to remove it. https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/9685456#ts=2889054%2C2889099
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K1VSK

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2023, 02:30:45 PM »

All of these concerns presuppose that someone and particularly some criminal knows what ham radio is. A very presumptuous assumption.

 My experience is that most people have no clue and some even think it’s a word they try to pronounce when asking me it’s significance or meaning. Including cops!

And the above seem true regardless of the fact it says “ham radio” on the plate.

I wouldn’t worry about it.
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KD6VXI

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2023, 05:44:39 PM »

Not really a problem here, I think.

I've had my call on a plate, I've not had my call listed anywhere.

Nobody really cares except other hams.  Seriously.

Thieves are usually after a crime of opportunity.   Way too many movies have been watched with some of the replies here.

Biggest thing here is, nobody wants our radios and computers really aren't worth anything for the most part.

No drug dealer is going to take a 7610 in on trade for an ounce of meth.  Just doesn't happen.



All this said, I once had a guy ask me if I'd be interested in trading a cb radio for a 2 meter rig he had.  Sure, I said.  I was newly licensed and didn't have anything to talk on.

I'm proud of my deal, talked on the local repeater, passed the story along a couple times how I was lucky enough to find a trade for a Cobra CB for a Kenwood 2 meter.....  Blah blah blah.

Cops showed up the next day.  Radio was stolen by the guy that traded me.  I spent a couple hours at the local jailhouse on burglary and possession of stolen property until my then XYL found the turd and explained d he wasn't going to be real happy when I finally got released.

He turned himself in and did some time.  I lost the 2 meter and the cobra cb.  Lesson learned.

So, stolen ham gear does happen.  In 30 years my only stolen equipment was a sticker rage that was broken into.

Had a couple kids come up to the house and ask about the antennas.  Then they saw my kids playing video games and I lost them.

But seriously.  Wanna put your call on the plate?  It's only really going to matter to other radio nerds.

--Shane
WP2ASS / ex KD6VXI
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WA9AFM

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #9 on: February 18, 2023, 06:01:57 PM »

I've had call plates on my vehicles since 1970, both in Illinois and now in Oklahoma; no problems.  I did ask one our local hams who was also 'up the food chain' in the OCPD if there had ever been a burglary when the perp traced the call sign to the residence; not a one.

In Oklahoma, regular automobile registration only requires one tag on the rear of the vehicle; amateur radio call tags are one of the few 'vanity tags' which has two plates front and rear.  The rear plate is registered, the front plate isn't.  I did have a couple of occasions, when entering Tinker AFB, the gate guard stopped me and told me 'my front plate wasn't registered'.  As per recommendation from DMV, I had a copy of the letter in the car to explain why the front tag, which is labeled "Front Tag", didn't have a registration sticker.
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K6AER

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #10 on: February 18, 2023, 06:02:57 PM »

i have had my license for 63 years. Forty eight of those years, my car or truck has had a ham license plate with never a problem other than someone sending CQ with their car horn.

My ham call is registered to a PO box.



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SWMAN

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #11 on: February 18, 2023, 06:16:54 PM »

 I have mine on my truck for 20 years and never a problem.
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K1FBI

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #12 on: February 18, 2023, 08:03:24 PM »

Depends on your call sign. Mine tends to raise eyebrows when I have to pass through less desirable parts of certain Cities.
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K7MEM

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #13 on: February 18, 2023, 08:21:08 PM »

All of these concerns presuppose that someone and particularly some criminal knows what ham radio is. A very presumptuous assumption.

 My experience is that most people have no clue and some even think it’s a word they try to pronounce when asking me it’s significance or meaning. Including cops!

That is very true. When I lived in Arizona, I had call sign license plates for more than 20 years, and never had an issue. People thought it was some "K9" (dog) reference that was printed wrong. No one ever knew what it was. I have even had the police ask me what it meant.

And the above seem true regardless of the fact it says “ham radio” on the plate.

You can get call sign plates or vanity plates with your call sign. If it's a vanity plate, like mine, it doesn't say "ham radio" on it.

Now I live in Michigan. I have a pretty standard plate on the rear, but have one of my Arizona call sign plates (vanity that doesn't say "ham radio" on it) on the front. I doubt that anyone has noticed. License plates have become so ornate that it's very difficult to tell that it isn't a Michigan plate. And, no, there is nothing illegal about it. I checked. Other states may differ.
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Martin - K7MEM
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K5LXP

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Re: Dangers of putting your call on your car.
« Reply #14 on: February 18, 2023, 08:31:38 PM »

You mean someone is going to track me down, break into my house and steal all my radio junk?  I can hardly wait!

Mark K5LXP
Albuquerque, NM
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