So thanks to my next door neighbor, I found out the guy a few houses down from me (actually like a mile away), happens to be a licensed ham.. Neighbor gave me his phone number and he's agreed to help me out with studying and setting up an antenna or whatever.. I haven't figure out how much he's into it yet but he said the test isn't that difficult.
One thing I've been wondering about that has bugged me ever since I got into this is that when you get your call sign, everyone knows who you are, where you live, etc etc. From just your call sign, you hand out your address, then to google maps and anyone can see your home from street view, peer into your backyard, find your home's value, possibly were you work, etc etc. It just seems so ripe for making ones self a victim of the numerous scam artists, stalkers, identity theft, etc.
Then you folks go and display your call signs on the internet.
That doesn't concern anyone? In this day and age with easy access to information, I'm very careful with my information. We don't throw out any garbage that has anything which could identify us.. we rip the address tag off magazines, burn bank notices, junk mail, etc.. I use a virtual credit card number for internet purchases, never hand out personal information when someone calls me, and it basically takes an act of God to get me to hand over my social security number to anyone but a bank.
One thing I've been wondering about that has bugged me ever since I got into this is that when you get your call sign, everyone knows who you are, where you live, etc etc. From just your call sign, you hand out your address, then to google maps and anyone can see your home from street view, peer into your backyard, find your home's value, possibly were you work, etc etc. It just seems so ripe for making ones self a victim of the numerous scam artists, stalkers, identity theft, etc.
Then you folks go and display your call signs on the internet.
That doesn't concern anyone? In this day and age with easy access to information, I'm very careful with my information. We don't throw out any garbage that has anything which could identify us.. we rip the address tag off magazines, burn bank notices, junk mail, etc.. I use a virtual credit card number for internet purchases, never hand out personal information when someone calls me, and it basically takes an act of God to get me to hand over my social security number to anyone but a bank.