Pulled over for antennas
 

Well, I'm not really sure how to go about this one. The cop must have been a complete idiot is all I can think. The ticket is already thrown away after I called the courthouse, but let's begin.

Today I was pulled over by a cop, who spotted the 3 antennas on the back of my car. He started off by saying "what is your business with all these antennas?". I informed him I am an amateur radio operator (as my license plate clearly says, but I didn't say that), and these are my radio antennas, one VHF and two different UHF's. I pointed to the radio in my center console. He saw that it was on scan mode and saw the screen flashing all sorts of different things. (I scan the repeaters). He said "No I think that's a scanner, and that's illegal in the state of florida for a motorist to be using". I explained it is not a scanner, and I am licensed to have and use this equipment. He wouldn't accept my radio license card, and instead wrote me a ticket.

I called the courthouse, (ironically, where I got my damn license!!), and explained I am a ham radio operator, here's my call sign. They looked it up on the FCC site, and almost imediately once they verified it was me, they through out the ticket, and apologized. End of story there.

But my god, I have never been pulled over for my antennas on my car before. Maybe it was because I drive an old police Caprice? Did he think maybe I was trying to impersonate a cop or something? Surely the ham radio tag would have been a clear sign that it's not the case, but I am just so dumbfounded right now.

Seems like the cop, when seeing your license and license plate should have apologized for pulling you over and wished you a nice day and gone about his business.

jr

That's how I feel, and I would have been completely understanding and wished him a happy new year. But the bigger issue is, he refused to look at my FCC license, and I guess he just didn't look at my plate hard enough. It's not a standard plate by any means. Normally our plates are XXX XXX, but mine is XXXXXX (no space). In fact, that lack of space is the same amount of digits with no space, as government vehichles (though their plates are yellow, mine is standard white with the orange on top of florida).

Maybe he had a bad day? I don't know. I'm glad the court house easily took care of it, otherwise it would have been an interesting day in court.

Inx64 wrote: "Maybe he had a bad day?"
Actually, tomorrow he'll have a bad day.

You might call back and get them to send you a letter about dismissing the ticket. It would suck to get stopped several years from now and find you have a bench warrant for failure to appear or some such nonsense.

Good luck!
Chip

Police departments require their traffic cops to write X number of tickets per month. I wonder if this guy didn't meet his December quota or something? Or maybe he's just an idiot like you said.

It's the area of Florida - I was visiting Orlando/WDW in 2002 and wanted to stop by the Woodcraft store in Casselberry. I was in a rental Malibu equipped with Onstar, and I had both my XM radio and "travel" CB antennas magnetically stuck to the roof of the car. I was in line at the register in Woodcraft, and looked out at my car - and saw a cop writing down the tag number. I dropped what I had, left the store and approached the cop. He wanted to know what I had for radios in the car. I went down the list - XM personal portable, a GE CB, and the in-dash radio. He had me open the trunk and hood looking for other radios - and gave me the rationale - it seems the drug trade down there like the I-4 corridor, and I fit the profile - late model 4-door with antennas. I had to power up all of the radios for him, and he gave me a polite "thanks" before leaving me - with hood, trunk and 2 doors open. He never asked for ID, where I was from, or even looked me square in the eye,

So much happens that we are not aware of, so I guess caution got the best of him.. Your cop sounded like a jerk...

You know, I also didn't think of it, regarding all the incidents that have happened recently, I guess maybe they are on high alert?

I will see about getting a written copy showing this is an accident so no sudden warrent shows up.

It's sad how few people even know what Ham radio is....Back in college I knew someone in the ham club that signed 2 of his cars up to park in the school lots (needed plate number), hams (at least here in Wi) can have the same plate on multiple cars as he had, and when campus police/security saw the same plate for both cars on the application they told him that was illegal...He had to prove to them that it WAS legal!

I remember reading about something similar! I think it is possible in Florida, as long as it's obviously on one car at a time (I mean how else would it be on two cars at the same time if you only have one plate?).

I don't know if it's true though, I never bothered to look it up much.

Many states allow multiple cars owned by a ham to display the ham's call letters.

jr

That's very interesting to know, thanks! I only own one car, but if I own a second it'd be nice to use multiple plates.

Texas also allows same call sign plates on two vehicles. Can be confusing for unknowledgeable cops. The plates also say "Radio Operator" across the top. Texas practically gives them away too, fee is $0.

I went back to standard issue plates. Ham radio plates are just too darned easy to get name and address info from various call sign databases. That is if someone knows what it is in the first place.

Probably hung-over from the night before and PO'ed that he had to work on a holiday. :nono:

Unbelievable! I've never had a cop question my antennas or radios, even when I've been pulled over for speeding. :nono: And I don't have a call sign on my car or any other indication of being a ham.

I'd make sure it really is squashed and hope I saw the cop at the courthouse!

Sorry he has to work on a holiday, I have been there and done that, but, it's his job, as it was mine when I worked on holidays for the company I worked for.

These are the antennas on my car, I just can't imagine this being a problem though and it's silly.

http://i.imgur.com/l1hQ1aY.jpg

(PS to those curious about glass mounted antennas, don't bother. Transmitting may work halfway decent, but receiving sucks).

Some of the hams around here have antennas so big they scrape the bottom of the bridges, lol, and they are mounted to the bumper!

Haha yea, gotta have that 5/8 wave HF you know. I'm just using a 1/4 wave VHF antenna primarily. In the trunk I have a 5/8 wave tucked for safety, in case of an emergency.

Actually I have had excellent results with a Larsen KG 2/70 glass mount antenna. A properly designed glass mount should act like a series capacitor with the antenna.

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...1&d=1483389731

Hmm, I'll need to double check what's going on then, TX is reasonable but RX is weak. I wonder if it's the defroster lines causing issue. It's up high enough I can just cut those lines out with a razor because you can't see it from the rear view mirror anyway.

I forget who makes this particular antenna, it was at my local Orlando Hamcation that I got it from a year ago, when I also bought a quad band transceiver for the house.

XMIT ok but receive weak... could be the conductive heater elements. You would have to completely remove those from the glass where it mounts.
Then again, there ARE some crappy glass mount antennas. :scratch2:

Mine bumps the overhead check at the McDonalds and has to be folded when I drive into parking garages.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...t/IMG_6758.jpg

I had to move it from where I originally wanted on the roof because it was hitting the trolley lines. :thumbsdn:

Just got done removing the lines on the upper area where those antennas are, completely with a razor. Put new adhesive on the inside part and stuck it back on. RX is much much better. So yea, had to scrape them off.

It was great working the holidays. The money was really great, 2.5X hourly.
New years didn't make that much difference, but Christmas Eve was sacred to me and my family. :thmbsp:

My 2 cents....The cop probably thought you were trying to impersonate an officer. The fact he saw 3 antennas was most likely the giveaway. Had you only had 2, he might have not said anything.

I've heard that scanner useage is legal if you're a licensed amateur. Though I have not confirmed that. (I don't have a scanner anyways).

I don't know what to make of him not wanting to see your ticket, other than he's obviously ignorant.

Oh well, you can't stop him from citing you, but you can fight it and sometimes win.

Scanners... around here they have all switched over to the Harris P25 digital system which is encrypted and cannot be scanned with any conventional scanner. I have several trunk tracker scanners that are useless now. Happened last August.

They are honestly digital here, but using SDR# and some software on Windows, you can decrypt it pretty easily, and it does work rather well, but I use that in the house off the attic antenna, since I don't feel like lugging a laptop in my car, then it may just in fact look too much like a cop which is clearly not my intent.

I need to research it further. From what I understand (which ain't much!) there are two modes those can operate one being highly encrypted.

Yea you'll need to research it, I have no idea honestly what mode my PD is using, but it decrypts it in mere miliseconds.

There are many streaming audio 'stations' with scanners from various entities. Don't know how much delay is involved. No antenna farm required.

Chip

Those have been inactive for my area since last August when they switched to digital encryption. Someone would have to optain one of those Harris radios that is authorized to monitor the radio traffic before it can be streamed. That ain't going to happen. :sigh:

Gotta get TuneIn radio for a phone, iPad or Roku. I can stream all Police, Fire, EMS, and even the Nightingale Rescue Helo - latency is about 3 minutes, per the local cops. With my hearing aids, and bluetooth, I can stream radio to my head 24/7 without anyone even knowing....

https://www.rokuguide.com/channels/tunein-radio
There's also an app in the Itunes store, and possibly with Android as well.

Edit: Ooh! You can stream TuneIn radio from the web!!

Please check and let me know if Addison-Carrollton-Farmers Branch Texas is on their site. I bet not. That would defeat the whole purpose of these 3 cities banding together and blowing $12 million on a whole new communications center and Harris P25 radios.

With all the nerds that like cracking codes like HDMI's HDCP and such, and all the people playing with cheap SDR's hooked to powerful computers, and all the crooks that want early warning/citizens that like to keep track of their municipalities, if it ain't publicly cracked yet, give it time.

http://tunein.com/search/?query=texas%20police

Scroll down to Stations, and click more when you reach the end of the list - there are 100s listed, and yes, Carrollton is listed.

Probably delayed (3-4 minutes latency) simplex, like our Police precincts - you only hear the cop, not dispatch. Still interesting, as the cops repeat much of what is being said by dispatch. Something like "Dispatch, 224, show me as responding to the disturbance at 112 Main Street."

Thanks but... as usual nothing. My city, Farmers Branch, not listed at all. If they could monitor Carrollton they could also monitor Farmers Branch since they share the same communications system. Proir to last August they shared the same Motorola trunking system :sigh:

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...1&d=1483627999

[QUOTE=lnx64;3175992]Well, I'm not really sure how to go about this one. The cop must have been a complete idiot is all I can think.

Cop idiot? Is that an oxymoron? Oh no jus looked definition... gotta find opposite word.

Will our society ever properly educate cops? I guess not. Sad ho much harm they do but we cannot live without them :tears:

I think the vast majority are trained well and do an excellent although often thankless job. But when you are a group of well over one million individuals and the press and others start looking you over with a fine-toothed comb, the small minority of misfits among them will become a highly sensationalized subset.

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Wow what a bloody idiot!!!

One time I saw a car in my area LOADED WITH ANTENNAS!! -- From the hood to the trunk,more antennas on it than I could count!! (I dunno if the guy was a field agent or what)

He was cutting thru Burger King parking lot and I wanted to ask him if he worked for FCC or what not but he was gone within seconds.......


Wow...... Having all those antennas on your car is insane!!!!!!! (Unless they are needed for proper field work (Each antenna recieves different freqs better))

Down where I used to live (4 miles south of now) you would very
frequently see a car with a large (like 8 element) Yagi and
a rotator on top, maybe 200 to 300 MHz. It would stop and rotate,
then go on.

It tracks animals with radio collars moving around our University
experimental farms areas.