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$25,000 of Communications Gear In a $500 Car
In perhaps one of the finest displays of technological excess in automotive communications gear, one "enthusiast" has managed to cram over $25,000 worth of gear into a $500 car. The car is rigged for just about every conceivable communications band including FM, UHF, VHF, HF, and WTF. What other amazing displays of technological excess have others seen? "The equipment seems to cover an amazing array of technologies, many of which seem to be redundant. For instance, just how many handheld 144 MHz radios do you need? It seems like the owner of the Ham Car is capable of listening to every police/fire/ems/military channel in the world. Simultaneously. There's a laptop and we assume there's some form of cellular or satellite communication setup for that, too."
Yes, thieves left the car, but stole the stereo.
Not to downplay the hilarity of your buddy's choice, but that's pretty common regardless of how crappy the car is. I had a friend who had a stereo (wasn't even that great - just a basic Pioneer CD player) stolen from a nearly brand new Trans Am in high school, and they left the car too. Reality is unless you're setup with some chop-shop, it's hard to really fence a whole car, and you're much more likely to get caught. On the flip side, bust the window and rip out the radio and if you make it away you're very unlikely to ever by caught.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
And he still can't achieve his original goal, which was of course communication with the 'girl' life form.
He SHOULD be ticketed for that! Why are hams so special that they can talk to their friends or business partners while driving when I cannot? Fuck that! Fine them and confiscate their radios!
I hate hams with a passion. I lived next door to one for years and he was absolutely insufferable, going on about how he had the right to use radio spectrum but I did not. He caused me endless interference and all of my complaints to the FCC were totally ignored. Hams do nothing but screw up my wifi and TV and prevent the rollout of technologies that would obsolete them. They cause problems for law enforcement trying to be vigilante types and have no benefit in modern society. Ham radio needs to go the way of the horse and buggy, and the quicker the better. I'm sure there are millions of more productive things we could be doing with radio spectrum resources than letting some old badger yammer away at some other old badger without paying for the resources they are using.