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From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: Re: Automobile Ham call sign plates
Message-ID: <397@terak.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Feb-85 16:59:56 EST
Article-I.D.: terak.397
Posted: Tue Feb 26 16:59:56 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 3-Mar-85 03:28:37 EST
References: <8484@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: Terak Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Lines: 27

> Ham plates are NOT just vanity plates !!   What if some constable finds that
> his radio just went out and he needs a HAM to patch him through to his home
> precinct?  What  T H E N ? ? ?  If the next passing ham doesn't have his
> callsign plates on because he is too destitute to pay "vanity" rates for them,
> the public interest will be poorly served indeed!

C'mon, let's get serious.  If we really want to claim that we should
have cut-rate vanity plates because "we can perform a communications
service", then CB'ers are even more entitled.

While it is only a minority of hams who actually have mobile equipment,
the vast majority of CB'ers are mobile-only.

In addition you'll find a great number of radio-dispatched business
vehicles on the road.  Should they get cut-rate plates too?

And how about cars equipped with mobile telephones?  Especially the
new cellular phones which provide a much more flexible and convenient
communications service than ham radio?  Should you get a cut-rate
vanity plate if you have a mobile phone?

The days of hams having a monopoly on civilian mobile radio equipment
are long gone.  The days of hams regularly "serving the public interest"
never existed to begin with.  Let's face reality, and behave like the
"responsible citizens" that we like to think we are. ----- Doug, N7FB
-- 
Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug