Are you a General or Extra? I don't see a Jeff Renkin or a Jeffrey Renkin listed at
QRZ. What is your call OM?

Gee, how did I know not to use my real name because some wacko like you would be
looking me up on QRZ to get my address and whatnot. Why were you trying to look me
up? So you could put me on all sorts of mailing lists or come visit my house and
throw eggs at it? Grow up!

We may be forced to give out our callsigns on the ham frequencies but anyone that does
it here is just asking for trouble. Might just as well post your real email
addresses here too while you are at it so you can get lots of spam.

Now instead of trying to find my address so you can pull your pranks, why not read the
rest and learn....

Gee...a straight shootin' lateral thinker (like me) for a change!

Yair... we have the same problem in Oz where some idiots think that
putting a ham callsign at the end of a usenet post is going to provide
some golden aura of revelation about the individual placing the post
and that anyone who doesn't put their ham callsign (if they have one)
on usenet is anonomously 'hiding'.

And keep in mind that many just look up and steal a callsign and identity like this other
guy did. How many 50 year old men do you know going around on newsgroups calling people
"Butthead"?

He made the mistake of not picking a callsign that belonged to someone closer to his real
age.

I mean...you're dead right (and my line of thinking is) that *all*
anyone is going to be able to do with a ham callsign is to run off
like a snivvelling little sneak to a database and (possibly) get a
name and an address. Then what? Are they going to send a posse around
and blow up your household mailbox?

The type of person that goes around calling people names like "Butthead" when there are
statements in a discussion he does not like MIGHT do something like that, yes.

Thus the reason you never post your callsign or personal info. Keep in mind if the
callsign this guy was posting was really his, he would not be calling names and starting
fights for the same reason that everyone can find his name and address too! But since it
is not his callsign, he doesn't care if you would do anything to the house of the poor
person who the callsign really belongs to.

Anyone who would be posting with their REAL callsign would not be stirring up fights with
anyone on a newsgroup, would they? Or course not. His actions and age have shown us
what is going on here.

Or sit scouring the airwaves
hoping to come across you on-air so that they can give you an earful?

He doesn't have a license, or he would not have made the statements he did, like that you
need to learn morse code to get a ham call sign. Any REAL ham knows you don't have to
pass a code test for well over a decade now and can still get a ham license and call
sign. The fact he didn't know this shows he is not a ham.

And the argument that putting a ham callsign into a post provides
'credibility' is a load of hooey.

What it provides, is proof that the person is either an idiot, or that he stole someone
else's callsign.

Let's face it, if anyone can pirate
a ham callsign on-air...they can sure as hell do it on usenet as well.
And the average newsgroup player would be absolutely *none* the wiser
about the person or the personality on the other end of the post.

Except when, as in this case, he steals the callsign of someone who is much older than he
is not knowing the age of the real callsign holder, and makes statements about ham radio
that are not only wrong, but would be something all real hams would know and not make a
mistake about.

Is a mere ham callsign going to tell them anything more about an
already anonomous situation? It is going to tell them whether you're a
beer-swilling yobbo or a connoisseur of fine red wines, or whether you
drive a beat up jalopy or drive a Rolls-Royce.

No, it just provides the guarantee that your house will be egged or rocks will fly through
your windows by some angry teenager that can't stand to lose debates on newsgroups.

As I profess, a ham callsign is nothing more than a mere *radio*
transmission identifier and usenet is all about computers, landlines
and stuff. But, no doubt, you have your fair share of poor misguided
souls who seem to think that a ham callsign is some sort of extension
of their personality.

Or in some cases, belongs to the personality it was stolen from.