It is unfortunate that we have such ilk even within the ham community. This was probably why political discussions were always frowned upon over the air. You would think that people who studied for, and took the test (that requires at least SOME intelligence) should know better. I know the feeling about being the target of malicious intent (read up on fcc V. Timothy Hoffman, et al -1996). Whats even more sad is that we have no power to actually self police anymore. We can (as an Official Observer) send a card and file a report. But what else gets done? It would be nice to be able to tell these (and other ignorant souls) that ham radio is no place for them and make it stick.
About the only way to get creeps like this off the air is to file a formal notice barring them from using the repeaters locally (if they are owned by a club). Individual repeater owners also have this option, but getting action on it can sometimes take a while.
Anyway, lets hope these creeps get whats coming to them.
-eric
On Oct 19, 2013, at 11:24 PM, Zach Shifflett wrote:
> Hi all,
> Disclaimer: if you're not in the mood to read a long winded rant, just
> delete this message and I'll totally understand. There's just
> something that happened tonight that I have to get off my chest.
> All right, here goes:
> So tonight, I've been up sitting in my office reading a book with my radio on.
> There are these two guys who get on late on a local repeater most weekends.
> They're not the most likable of characters at the best of times, but
> tonight they were just completely beyond all sense of propriety.
> First off, they were talking about politics.
> I know this isn't like a cardinal sin or anything, though personally I
> try to stay away from politics on the air.
> So these guys are talking about politics for a while, and it just
> devolves into an all out racist, ignorant, unbelievable rage fest.
> These folks were going on about how Obama is just in the white house
> to take revenge on white people, and how the government is full of
> terrorist democrats who got into politics just so they could take
> innocent people's money and use it to abort babies and take our guns
> away.
> They went so far as to say that the president is a peace of trash who
> hasn't gotten over the fact that black people used to be slaves, and
> just wants to destroy America.
> Now, while I don't agree with that thesis, I know there are people out
> there who do, and it's a free country, so you can have whatever
> opinion you want and it's fine with me. What really angers me is how
> these guys are getting so pissed off on the radio that they're
> screaming and ranting nonsensically for hours and hours over the air.
> This kind of thing reflects poorly on the ham community as a whole,
> and just seems like terrible manners.
> And the sad thing is that isn't even the worst of it.
> There's a repeater in another town about 20 miles away that has a net
> every night that I frequent.
> You seriously couldn't find a better group of guys than that are on this net.
>
> So these two guys who had just finished ranting about politics finally
> stop, and the one guy says to the other, "so yeah, how bout that
> pathetic bunch of idiots who hang out on the .825 machine every
> night..." and so on and so on.
> Then, they started in on talking shit and laughing at one of the guys
> on the net, who not only did they name in person over the air, but is
> another blind ham.
> I think this particular ham they're talking about, who is also the
> blind ham, might have a minor intellectual disability or something, as
> sometimes he can be a little hard to understand, but said ham is one
> of the nicest guys on the net, and always has a good word for
> everybody he talks to.
> So here are these guys, who aren't even in the local club or anything,
> never to my knowledge volunteer or do anything with any of the ham
> outfits in the area, and they're talking for 2 straight hours on the
> open air and laughing at other hams, calling them out by name, who
> haven't even done anything wrong.
> It took every ounce of self-restraint I could manage not to get on the
> repeater, but I knew doing that would just feed the fire.
> Ok, that's it. Thanks for listening.
> I just had to get this out there. I was literally so pissed off my
> hands were shaking.
> 73,
> Zach, kk4ruz
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