HAM whuffo?

[WUzombies]

Whuffo is the best term I have to describe the type of person, it's a skydiving term for non-jumpers. It comes from "wha for you jump outta dem aeroplanes" which is the question that 99% of the world gives a skydiver as a first response.

HAM whuffo, there has to be a better term for it, is there one already?

Friday about 20 minutes from camp, well after dark, a Trooper found me traveling 7 over the speed limit on an FM road outside of Whitney. After the usual introductions the very next thing he said was "what's with all the crazy antennas?" He then got the same look that my wife gives me when I begin a technical answer for a question she didn't really mean to ask. I think he was disappointed we were out of free candy from the kidnapper van.

 

[WJ - Firefly]

I get the same question about my rig.... and my house!

 

[Counterpoise]

I used to have a bumper sticker and a front plate that said, "In God We Trust, All Else We Monitor". If a cop ever asks you if your radios will receive police frequencies, which is forbidden in some states. Just say I don't know what are they? Then ask him or her. Does your police radio receive ham frequencies?

 

[expeditionnorth]

I'm a porcupine, he who has the most antennas wins

there used to be those bumper sticker that read "hams do it till their megahertz"

do you have amateur radio plates? maybe that'd help, as they would recognize that as a public service volunteer

hopefully he let you go with a warning

 

[Mad Garden Gnome]

"its so's i knows when the black helicopters are comin"

​

 

[WUzombies]

I used to have a bumper sticker and a front plate that said, "In God We Trust, All Else We Monitor". If a cop ever asks you if your radios will receive police frequencies, which is forbidden in some states. Just say I don't know what are they? Then ask him or her. Does your police radio receive ham frequencies?

About 9 months ago I lost track of the speed limit changes on a small FM road well after sunset and was stopped by the oldest Trooper I've ever met. After the normal introductions he is waiting for me to dig my license out and asks "what's with all the antennas?" He got that same look my wife gives me when she accidently asks a question she didn't want a technical answer to. He cleared that stop FAST (with a warning, yay me) probably to get some distance between the crazy family in the van and himself.

Side note, I made approximately 10,000 traffic stops in my previous career, the rare occasion I asked about mounted radios the conversation was generally fun and enlightening. Long before that conversation would begin and by the driver's behavior with how they pull over I had a pretty good feel for how the stop was going to progress, before I even knew who the driver or passengers were. If someone spent the money to have a radio that could transmit on the frequencies of the trunked APCO-25 network AND had a digital radio key to allow them, then good for them. The VHFpolice used frequencies of just a few years ago are evaporating outside of very rural areas.

 

[expeditionnorth]

About 9 months ago I lost track of the speed limit changes on a small FM road well after sunset and was stopped by the oldest Trooper I've ever met. After the normal introductions he is waiting for me to dig my license out and asks "what's with all the antennas?" He got that same look my wife gives me when she accidently asks a question she didn't want a technical answer to. He cleared that stop FAST (with a warning, yay me) probably to get some distance between the crazy family in the van and himself.

Side note, I made approximately 10,000 traffic stops in my previous career, the rare occasion I asked about mounted radios the conversation was generally fun and enlightening. Long before that conversation would begin and by the driver's behavior with how they pull over I had a pretty good feel for how the stop was going to progress, before I even knew who the driver or passengers were. If someone spent the money to have a radio that could transmit on the frequencies of the trunked APCO-25 network AND had a digital radio key to allow them, then good for them. The VHFpolice used frequencies of just a few years ago are evaporating outside of very rural areas.

Cool
I was questioned about my mountain top activities a few years ago by a forest ranger
I invited him over to see what i was doing, showed him the radios, explained things etc
he invited me to his suv cruiser & gave me a demo of the commercial gear it was loaded down with
I gave him one of my qsl cards & I got his business card in exchange
he also gave me access the following year to a better remote location for the VHF contest

I guess the moral is you treat them with respect & you will receive respect

 

[KyleGrant]

I used to have a bumper sticker and a front plate that said, "In God We Trust, All Else We Monitor". If a cop ever asks you if your radios will receive police frequencies, which is forbidden in some states. Just say I don't know what are they? Then ask him or her. Does your police radio receive ham frequencies?

Haha we say that in LE, but "In God we Trust, all others we run through NCIC"

For my fellow hammerheads I have a sticker on each side of my camper shell that just says 146.52. The questions and reactions I get are HILARIOUS, I had one guy say "Wow, that must've been some race!" It's a nice way (aside from the antennas) to let fellow HAMs know we can chat, the general public has no idea what that means.