Is Amateur Radio like an RF chat room? I don’t think so. I see an internet chat room as a place where anyone can go and chat about anything. With very little control. They have to have supervision 24/7 in order to maintain some control. I have heard many storied about solicitation in the internet chat rooms. Who are you talking to? How do you know? You can’t hear what they sound like. They may say one thing and, in reality, be something completely different. Police officers use this tactic to meet and trap internet criminals as they try to solicit young people.
Ham radio, on the other hand, contains a lot more control. Starting off with the fact that you must pass a test to be granted a license. Next, ham operators police their own ranks. You could try to operate an amateur station without a license, however it wouldn’t take long before other operators found out. After kindly explaining to you that you must have a license, if you continued to operate you would soon get a letter from the FCC. Yes, you would have been reported by other operators. Improper and illegal operations are reported, thus keeping the ham radio bands clean and proper. Quick verification of your call letters in just a few keystrokes away. Call sigh databases help operators find names and locations of fellow operators. You can find out who is talking.
What are your thoughts on this subject?
