One of the things I have been asked about

is how I seem to have no trouble running my antenna wire and setting up my little portable station. I attribute this to using a little discretion and some common sense.

For one thing, I run a simple discreet little show and stay out of the way. When I set up shop in a Wally World lot a while ago I looked around and found the most out of the way part of the lot, set up shop and minded my own business. The slingshot was out for just a couple of minutes and then placed in a pack which went into the bed of the truck. Out of sight out of mind. Generally nobody will even think to ask you how you got your antenna wire up into a pole or tree. If they do, evade the subject if you can.

Incidentally, think before letting fly with a one ounce sinker in a slingshot. Take a worst case scenario view before you let fly. Breaking a car windshield is not a good thing to do because for some reason, people get upset over things like that. If there is any chance at all of a miss or of breaking something either change your position or just go somewhere else.

Using a Garand and grenade launcher really isn't too bright of an idea to run a wire with even with a reduced load as people tend to get a little worried about things like that. Even an inert rifle grenade will make a lot of people get pretty upset.

The other thing is that I do not set up shop dressed like a coastwatcher complete with a Webley revolver strapped to my hip. You blend in and leave anything that draws attention home. You do not want to look too much more out of place than you already are. Leave as much of the surplus gear that you possibly can at home, especially anything that looks like a weapon.

This may surprise some of you, but sometimes camoflage gear can actually draw attention to you instead if hiding you. Believe it or not, sometimes jeans and a T-shirt will hide you a lot better than Marpat does.

Although a lot of us may find that taking OD mast sections and stenciling them to look like Bangalore torpedoes is funny, there are an awful lot of policemen out there that would read 'Torpedo, Bangalore M1A1 Lot AP-663 6-44' on the side of a harmless mast section and call the bomb squad immediately.
Expect to be detained for a while if you do this. In this day and age some people do not have a sense of humor.

Setting up an OD field desk with a Garand leaning against it and setting up a camoflauge net over it is also a pretty good way to be the recipient of unwanted attention, while the rig resting on a pickup tailgate and a guy dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt sitting in front of the rig is not really going to draw a whole lot of attention.

Being seen sitting there drinking beer is not a good idea, either. Even if you have a designated driver it looks like hell and doesn't do much for your name or the hobby. Leave the beer in the cooler for after hours or better yet, in the refrigerator for when you get home.

Although I have not been the recipient of any police attention yet, it's a pretty safe bet that one of these days some officer is likely to roll up and ask a few questions. I have a few casual answers because I will be doing nothing wrong. I keep a copy of my license in my pocket and that generally covers a lot of ground and I am not creating a scene of any sort. My guess is that if the police show up I will have a few questions asked and he will roll off.

(Update: I was at a Starbucks after hours and a cruiser rolled up and looked around, asked me how I was doing and drove off. I attribute this to the Starbucks people calling them and telling them I would be there for a while after hours. I had asked permission and showed them my license and for some reason they OK'd it.)

Unless you are using something like a park, scenic turnoff, large parking lot ala WallyWorld, you can generally get permission if you know how to ask for it and you'd be surprised how willing people are to help out. Hams fall into the same catagory as merchant mariners. Most people have heard of them but few people know very much about the. As a seaman, one person asked me, "Merchant Marines,huh? Don't they fight pirates?" That time I wished I had a copy of my profile picture from this blog in my pocket, complete with sword.

Hams have a reputation of getting messages through at the right time under adverse circumstances and years ago before I licensed, someone once told me, "It was a ham radio guy that saved Apollo 13 when NASA lost communications with them!" Of course, I didn't believe it then and I don't believe it now, but there are countless stories of ham operators providing emergency communications over the years.

While there are a lot of people out there that do not know that hams are simply radio enthusists of varying degrees, they do share a reputation of being on the list of good guys. Incidentally, whatever you do, do not do anything to smudge that reputation. Be polite.




my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/