"Larry Roll K3LT" wrote:

[THIS IS THE PART WHERE KIM
QUOTES THE PART OF RILEY'S
E-MAIL WHICH IS THE SUBJECT
OF THIS THREAD:] (snip)

(snip) While that's true, just because
a person has a right to do something
doesn't mean it's right to do it on every
occasion. While the call sign may fit the
constitution, for every instance where
a parent or uncle or grandparent doesn't
want a young person to get involved in
Ham Radio because of something they
hear on the bands, then you have taken
the ARS one step closer to extinction.
Then we can sit around and debate what
happened to all those Amateur
frequencies that industry bought at
auction---debating, of course, on the
internet and cellular because that'll be
all we have left. The first amendment will
still be alive and well, just as it is now,
tho, if that's any consolation. (snip)


Thanks for posting this again, Larry. I didn't say anything when I first
read it, but I remember having some doubts - doubts which still linger to
this day. The most obvious is why Riley singled out Kim for this
admonishment, without mentioning W4TIT (VA), W6TIT (TX), K5TIT (FL), K6TIT
(CA), N0TIT (FL), N4TIT (FL), W1ASS (MA), W2ASS (MA), W4ASS (NC), W5ASS
(TX), and similar callsigns. In other words, Kim's callsign, and similar
callsigns, are not exactly unique.

Clearly, letters only become vulgar when one attaches a specific meaning
to them. Without a context to make "TIT," or other such letters, vulgar, I
can't really envision a "parent or uncle or grandparent" keeping a child out
of Amateur Radio simply because those letters appear in a callsign.

Finally, I noticed most of the callsigns above belong to males (all except
one, a club call). The absence of any comment about those callsigns (from
Riley, you, or others here) makes me wonder if a callsign with the letters
"TIT" only becomes vulgar when used by a woman. Would Riley say those
callsigns bring Ham radio "one step closer to extinction?" Would Jim omit
those callsigns from his list (the topic this thread spun off from)? Would
you as aggressively challenge one of those guys, like you've done with Kim,
if any one of them were active in this newsgroup?


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/