I'm not cutting anything off... 45 years ago I bet you left your doors unlocked too. Enjoy your plates. Put your damn SSN number on your plates I really don't give a rip. Not for this person.
Fred, I don't know if it matters for your website, but for anyone else, I will tell them that there is a problem with the Arkansas DFA webpage listed on Fred's site. While it tells you about amateur radio license plates in Arkansas... it doesn't tell you how to actually GET THEM. The clickable link to the Special License Plate Office brings up a completely blank webpage! I called the state office by phone and was forwarded to a person in the special license plate office. Who in turn told me to just go to my local DMV office and that they could supply the form there... also implying I could apply for and get the license plate there in the office. Wrong! I went to the local DMV and after 20 minutes of the nice lady consulting manuals and making phone calls, she explained that she finally found the right person at the state office who would be momentarily e-mailing her a copy of the application which she would print and give to me. Which then needed to be: 1. Filled out and signed 2. FCC license attached 3. Mailed to an office in Little Rock 4. Then WAIT. They have to manufacture the tag and will notify you when ready by mail and are adamant that you not inquire with them about it in the meantime. Interesting fact... you can have MORE THAN ONE ham tag in Arkansas with the SAME CALLSIGN. If I had more than one vehicle in my name, the first would be N4UFO, the second could be N4UFO 1, then N4UFO 2, etc. Who knew? It only lists space for up the three additional tags, so not sure if that's the limit or not. (If you have more than 4 vehicles, well... ) Anyway, I scanned the form in and uploaded a copy. This is MY SCAN of their form, but not THEIR upload. If the Special License Plate Office webpage ever returns, I suggest you obtain it there instead. 73 & GL, Kevin N4UFO
Kevin, This is the norm. DMV Web sites are changing all the time. The ARRL has a page with these links. But they rarely update it. I always found broken links to the different states on that page. When I did the ground work for my amateur license plates page, I sent the results of my research to Dan at the ARRL. He sent me a very nice reply thanking me for saving him all of the work. A few weeks later, he updated that page. I invited him to refer to my page if he needed updates. The WordPress plugin [that I use to generate that table] is supposed to alert me if any of those links are broken. So far, I haven't had any notifications. But I created that page only a couple of months ago. If they do break, I should be able to search up the new link and update my page. So, aybe my site is a better place to look for that information. Thanks for the info. All we can do is wait for them to fix THEIR web pages unless someone has got a better link for it. 73, Fred, WB4AEJ
I seriously thought about getting ham plates. Then I looked at the news and all the psychotic freaks that are out there right now with all the it seems weekly live shooters, mass murder suicides, and people thinking they would get away with storming the US Capital without spending years in prison. (WTF where they thinking?). I decided giving those freaks a map to my house is probably not the best course of action. I will stick with my random alphanumeric license plate #thankyou.
I get this all the time. I have yet to hear of a single instance where an amateur radio plate lead to a crime. And I have had them on my vehicles for forty-six years. But live in fear if you must. The rest of us are getting on with our lives. Thank you.
I don't live in fear, but I do perform risk assessments for a living every day. One thing I've learned. There is a first time for everything. YMMV
Just to be clear, the page you link to... is fine. It's a link ON that page, where you are supposed to go to get the 'how to' information that is broken. Hopefully they will get that fixed soon as I brought it to their attention during the first phone call. A comment as to ARRL and frequency of updates... I learned some years ago when I assisted with some problems on LotW, the staff at ARRL is not as large as we might all imagine. If you are a member then 'We' are the ARRL... not just the people at the office. I used to hold a section appointment at one time and conversations I had at hamfests taught me that some people see the ARRL the same way as they might the government... 'why haven't you done this yet' and 'why isn't this that way'... My reply was, 'I can't wait for you to volunteer and help fix it.' You could then hear the crickets. 73 and thanks for the work... Kevin N4UFO
I have had call sign plates for about 15 years with no issues. Maybe place a couple NRA window stickers on your vehicle? That might make the thieves pause? Or would they be more excited because they can take your guns and radios? Driving down a street looking for ham antennas on houses would probably be easier for a thief than trying to track down a ham plate.
I agree. I don't think the average criminal is even going to know what your ham plate means. When I had a ham tag on my truck (have a veteran's tag on now) nobody knew what it meant and everyone thought it was a vanity plate but they couldn't figure out the meaning. Unless said criminal actually knows about ham callsign plates and knows where to look up the callsign, the chances of anyone breaking into your house because they saw your callsign on your license plate are nil. I'd be far more concerned with the radio inside the vehicle getting stolen if they happened to know what an amateur radio tag is, but then most likely the antenna(s) on the vehicle are going to give away the secret that you have radio equipment on board.
You're not far off. I've heard of thieves targeting vehicles with NRA stickers because they thought there might be a gun inside.
