[aprssig] Another Bootlegger? my experience with one

[Shanon KA8SPW]

  Our bootlegger, lets call him ABC, was first noticed in February of 
2003. I got involved in May. We tracked him to his new home about 7 
miles from us. Knocked on the door. Roommate answered. Had a nice chat, 
left our phone numbers.

The 22 year old culprit finally called me a few days later and was very 
hostile. He said he was a ham years ago at age 13. One time we tracked 
him to a ham's house. The call sign came back to a young kid.

Long story short, and trust me there is enough to write a small book, he 
finally took the station off the air after a few days. He was driving by 
my house all hours of the day and night. He had one of those little 
import sports cars, Mitsubishi, with the large loud muffler. Guess what 
his plate was? Yep, ABC.

He posted a message, as me, on a gay chat room asking for a good time, 
leaving my full contact information. Funny I only got one email, no 
phone calls. I wonder if I should be feel hurt or thankful that is all 
that I got. I was able to do a search on what I knew of him and learned 
plenty about him, right down to birth date and where he worked. I found 
a chat room where he even boasted that “steal my car, I will find you”.

My wife was so scared, enough to make sure I kept a loaded firearm 
within reach for a while. I have a permit to carry and do most of the 
time anyway. I have kept all the documentation of that incident. I also 
have pictures and recordings. Do you want to put your family in this 
situation? Next time, I will just document and turn it over to the FCC 
office.

We even offered to help him get his ham license and enjoy the hobby. Try 
and be nice and see what happens. How does that old saying go? "no good 
deed goes unpunished".

I suspect there must be a “ham” helping ETI somewhere...

Good luck!

Shanon KA8SPW