Had a recent incident, that has caused me some lifestyle changes. Had my HAM license for a couple years, two years ago I put a sticker on the back of my pickup with my call sign. On the weekends I drive for Uber/Lyft (which is also part of why I don't have a radio hard mounted, too many questions from riders). I live in Denver, which unlike a lot of cities, we've only had sporadic riots/violence. Normally, when I go out to drive, I work 3 am to 10 am on Sat. and Sun. mornings, quiet time, not a lot of other drivers out/about, can usually make decent money.
Few weeks back, 3:30 in the morning, dropped these two young ladies off at their apt. downtown, as I was driving away, I encountered a small staggler group of protestors looking for trouble, did my best to avoid them, however, I did still come into contact with them as they were crossing the street, and as has been shown online, they like to screw with motorists, rideshare drivers are a favorite target, they also seem drawn to "non-stock" looking vehicles. I was giving them their room, they were taking their sweet time crossing, I got a ride request about 10 minutes away, started to creep forward, they continued their slow walk across, finally there was a bit of gap between a few of them and I gunned it, never came close to any of them (might have brushed one, not positive) as I sped away things were thrown.
Two weeks later, came out one morning to leave for work and something felt off, couldn't put my finger on it. Stopped to get gas then I realized, my stereo antenna was broken off and something was smeared on one headlight. I live in a suburb of Denver, rarely do we have issues in my neighborhood.
Later in the day messaged a friend with Denver police about what had happened, in the course of the discussion, it came up about me being a HAM operator, he asked if I anything identifying me as such on my vehicle, then it hit me, I mentioned my sticker, he reminded me that the FCC website is public information, anyone of these idiots could have seen it, knew what it was and how to look it up.
I have since removed the sticker and a couple of others from the vehicle to make it less identifiable, but thought it would be a good warning to give to others that might have the stickers or ham radio license plates.
Few weeks back, 3:30 in the morning, dropped these two young ladies off at their apt. downtown, as I was driving away, I encountered a small staggler group of protestors looking for trouble, did my best to avoid them, however, I did still come into contact with them as they were crossing the street, and as has been shown online, they like to screw with motorists, rideshare drivers are a favorite target, they also seem drawn to "non-stock" looking vehicles. I was giving them their room, they were taking their sweet time crossing, I got a ride request about 10 minutes away, started to creep forward, they continued their slow walk across, finally there was a bit of gap between a few of them and I gunned it, never came close to any of them (might have brushed one, not positive) as I sped away things were thrown.
Two weeks later, came out one morning to leave for work and something felt off, couldn't put my finger on it. Stopped to get gas then I realized, my stereo antenna was broken off and something was smeared on one headlight. I live in a suburb of Denver, rarely do we have issues in my neighborhood.
Later in the day messaged a friend with Denver police about what had happened, in the course of the discussion, it came up about me being a HAM operator, he asked if I anything identifying me as such on my vehicle, then it hit me, I mentioned my sticker, he reminded me that the FCC website is public information, anyone of these idiots could have seen it, knew what it was and how to look it up.
I have since removed the sticker and a couple of others from the vehicle to make it less identifiable, but thought it would be a good warning to give to others that might have the stickers or ham radio license plates.