[FedCom] Scannists can help prevent terrorism.

[Steven Donnell WA1YKL]

JER1538A@aol.com wrote:

> sounds like cold war era east germany........

Or more like modern day Iran, China, or the United States(for the past yr
and a half,,). First the Gov tried to get people to rat out their
neighbors w/ the "TIPPS" program, then they called on commerical truckers,
and now its the boaters,,,. While all nice in theory, I feel it doesnt do
much more than foster the (current) climate of fear; In short, the
terrorists have won, w/o even firing a shot,,. One would hope that if
somebody saw something that was actually "suspicious"(how ever you care to
legally or tactically define that term), they would contact their LOCAL
authorities w/o the need of any toll free#,,.Which FYI, only ensures that
the ph# that you are calling from will be logged, even if your Caller ID
is blocked,,.

Part whats so amusing about this is that overr the yrs Ive done a lot of
photographing of things that include trains and commercial radio towers,
along w/ some aircraft and boats, for both personal enjoyment and as used
in my scanner column. In the current context, Im sure this activity would
instantly be seen as "suspicious" by Joe Public. Better make sure that
hotdog vendor doesnt have a Stinger in his cart,,. Is it just me or is
this starting to sound like an episode from "Get Smart"...? Yes the threat
is REAL, but lets TRY and stay within reason...

While its entirely possible that some radio hobbyist might overhear some
"chatter"on an FRS, MURS, or even Ham freq, its just as likely(or more so)
these Comms would take place over freqs/modes that Big Brother has deemed
"Not Readily Available To The Public"...

Even w/ all the noise about restricting freq and other radio sys info, we
should take sec and see how events have affected other hobbys such as
train/plane watching. As I mentioned to a friend of mine, following the
9/11 attack; We should thank our lucky stars that there is NO indication
whatsoever that none of the hyjackes made use of any Ham/scanner gear. Or
else we would likely be experiencing a major shift in the Public and
Political views of our hobby.

Nuff said, goin back under my rock,.

Steve     DE  WA1YKL