Real, fake distress calls on Lake Michigan spike: Coast Guard

[JPSan]

July 18, 2017 Chicago Tribune printed this article about fake radio calls that are costing a lot of taxpayers monies and typing up resources and risking first responders lives.

Real, fake distress calls on Lake Michigan spike: Coast Guard - Chicago Tribune

 

[rbrtklamp2]

Saw it on the news tonight they said that it used to be kids playing with radios on the boats but I guess the number of fake distress calls has risen quite a bit in the last few years. It just means that if your experiencing a actual emergency out on Lake Michigan it may take longer for them to reach you if they are chasing some jerk on the coast playing on a radio.

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[FFPM571]

Keep on selling those $29.95 boafengs to anyone.... this is what happens...

 

[NC1]

Keep on selling those $29.95 boafengs to anyone.... this is what happens...

Distress calls can be made using anything that will transmit on the emergency channel, including used Marine radios being sold for $29.95. I did not see any mention of the cheap Chinese radios being the problem.

You are blaming the inanimate object and not the behavior of the person.

I bought a Marine radio from ebay for $10 and never made such calls. So I doubt that the manufacturer's mark or price has anything to do with it - it's the defective person who is causing the problem. Let's put the blame where it belongs.

False distress calls have been going on since well before any Baofeng radio was introduced to the market. This is not a new issue.

 

[FFPM571]

I can see who the Baofeng fans are. Before the onslaught of cheap radios on the market. The amount of BS going on on any frequency was quite a bit less.. Now anyone can get a radio do a bit of research and push a few buttons its a lot easier than when it took a computer or crystal radio

 

[mws72]

Kids grow up, some never grow out of the childhood behavior.

 

[rbrtklamp2]

Kids grow up, some never grow out of the childhood behavior.

+1 on that unfortunately it's the just the truth.

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[NC1]

Kids grow up, some never grow out of the childhood behavior.

Exactly. The idiots and the immature are out to ruin the few freedoms we have left. It is always the person that abuses a privilege to the point it is outlawed or otherwise taken away from everyone.

If they don't use a Baofeng, they will use a Cobra, a West, a Standard, a Motorola, or a modified Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom, etc. If they are intent on doing something, they will find the means to accomplish their goal.
Same thing with the Gun argument - a knife or bat are two popular weapons, but a gun is what everybody who is against guns focuses on, instead of blaming the person who committed the act in the first place.