Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

[Tony VE6MVP]

At 04:13 AM 2007-10-18 -0600, Nate Duehr wrote:


Interestingly, all of them also have a bar code on them nowadays, but
I've never seen an officer use a laser reader or anything like that
to scan them. I think it's just there for authentication if the
plate is made fraudulently, but I don't know. It's also badly
positioned, so that many license plate holders partially cover it.


That might only be there for use when the plates are issued to the vehicle 
owner.  And also for any inventory checks.


Up here in Alberta the registration paper printed on the computer and the 
year/month stickers also have bar codes on them for tracking 
purposes.  Also our registries are now privatized so you have your pick of 
dozens of places to go in the larger cities and even villages of four or 
five hundred people usually have a registries office.   That same office 
might also have a credit union teller and/or post office and/or insurance 
agent and/or travel agent.  With one or two people with all the hats.


To stay slightly on topic our ham plates are free except for the service 
charge. You still have to pay the $50 per year registration fee of 
course.  The vanity plates are $250.


Tony

RE: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

[Mike Besemer (WM4B)]

Amateur radio tags don’t cost any extra in GA, but we pay $20 for the plate 
each year, plus an ad valoreum tax on the value of the vehicle.  It costs me 
about $600/year to tag 3 vehicles, and mine is just a junker.

 

Oh… and we DO have a state income tax and a sales tax too.

 

Mike

WM4B

 

From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of 
Ron Wright
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 7:23 AM
To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

 

Nate,

Here in Florida we have over 60 vanity plates. To get a vanity plate issued it 
cost $60,000 up front and then cost the user $20-30 extra.

We got all kinds of them. Here in Tampa area the most popular is the football 
team, the Bucs plate. In the 4 counties (there are more) over $600,000/yr is 
collected for this one plate. The other most popular are universities, Space 
Suttle, and animal type like the cougar, mannattee (ugly sea mammial) and 
dophin. The anti-abortion plate gets some. We don't have a pig plate yet, but 
about 2 elections ago it was added to our state constitution one must kill pigs 
in a humane manner. The pig plate is coming.

Ham plates are not considered vanity and cost $5/yr extra and do say Amateur 
Radio on them.

Yep license plates are big money to the state. A regular plate cost about 
$30/yr for small care, $35 for large. But we don't have state income taxes yet.

73, ron, n9ee/r

>From: Nate Duehr <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:nate%40natetech.com> >
>Date: 2007/10/18 Thu AM 05:13:37 CDT
>To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com 
><mailto:Repeater-Builder%40yahoogroups.com> 
>Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

> 
>Sorry this is heading WAY off-topic, but I had to share the insane 
>list of license plate types we have here in Colorado now... and a 
>comment about Mike's 1991 posting about plate lookups containing 
>whitespace...
>
>On Oct 18, 2007, at 12:12 AM, Mike Morris WA6ILQ wrote:
>
>> Yep.
>> Cops have been known to mis-understand ham plates...
>
>Colorado now has something like 50 different plate types -- the State 
>legislature went nuts when they realized that the things could make a 
>permanent income for the State, and the more types, the more likely 
>someone will buy one.
>
>Every plate is different, completely different.
>
>We have pink plates...
><http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/REGISTRATIONS/breastcancer.htm>
>
>And the Bronco's Country plates... in Orange, of course...
><http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/REGISTRATIONS/ 
>BroncosCharities.htm>
>
>And the Columbine memorial plate... (actually a nice rendition of the 
>State flower for a good cause)...
><http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/REGISTRATIONS/columbine.HTM>
>
>And Pioneer plates, for those that can prove a direct ancestor lived 
>in Colorado at least 100 years ago...
><http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/REGISTRATIONS/pioneer.HTM>
>
>Ahh, just go here, and you can click on 'em and see 'em. Tons of 'em...
><http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/wrap.asp?incl=registrations/ 
>plateindex>
>
>If nothing else, it'd be REAL rare to be pulled over for "strange" 
>plates out here, ever again... the cops probably have a hard time 
>even keeping up with all the different types, and probably carry a 
>book to double-check them all, now.
>
>I really thought this whole thing started up out here with the mass 
>influx of Californians in the late 90's and early 00's -- I figured 
>they just brought the whole crazy license plate thing with them. 
>Maybe not.
>
>> Back in 1991 there was a usenet comment thread in the
>> computer-risks digest on running ham radio license plates
>> on DMV computers. My posting to it is here:
>> <http://groups.google.com/group/comp.risks/browse_thread/thread/ 
>> 2cc5fefb628c6cf7>
>
>Most computers nowadays would be querying this from an SQL database 
>behind the user interface with something akin to the "SELECT ___ 
>WHERE LICENSEPLATE LIKE " statement...
>
>Which (even though that's not proper SQL in the example here, and 
>it's not exactly how you'd do it...) would match all of your 
>combinations today.
>
>If it's coded right, the location of whitespace in the string 
>wouldn't matter at all, anymore. (In fact, the query is probably 
>hard-coded into the RDBMS itself, as a stored procedure, and has tons 
>of bounds checking and whitespace removal built into the query.)
>
>In fact, the whitespace would probably be stripped out of the plate 
>number BEFORE the database lookup query, in the "bounds checking" 
>part of the user interface code, th

Re: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

[Ron Wright]

Nate,

Here in Florida we have over 60 vanity plates.  To get a vanity plate issued it 
cost $60,000 up front and then cost the user $20-30 extra.

We got all kinds of them.  Here in Tampa area the most popular is the football 
team, the Bucs plate.  In the 4 counties (there are more) over $600,000/yr is 
collected for this one plate.  The other most popular are universities, Space 
Suttle, and animal type like the cougar, mannattee (ugly sea mammial) and 
dophin.  The anti-abortion plate gets some.  We don't have a pig plate yet, but 
about 2 elections ago it was added to our state constitution one must kill pigs 
in a humane manner.  The pig plate is coming.

Ham plates are not considered vanity and cost $5/yr extra and do say Amateur 
Radio on them.

Yep license plates are big money to the state.  A regular plate cost about 
$30/yr for small care, $35 for large.  But we don't have state income taxes yet.

73, ron, n9ee/r


>From: Nate Duehr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Date: 2007/10/18 Thu AM 05:13:37 CDT
>To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

>  
>Sorry this is heading WAY off-topic, but I had to share the insane  
>list of license plate types we have here in Colorado now... and a  
>comment about Mike's 1991 posting about plate lookups containing  
>whitespace...
>
>On Oct 18, 2007, at 12:12 AM, Mike Morris WA6ILQ wrote:
>
>> Yep.
>> Cops have been known to mis-understand ham plates...
>
>Colorado now has something like 50 different plate types -- the State  
>legislature went nuts when they realized that the things could make a  
>permanent income for the State, and the more types, the more likely  
>someone will buy one.
>
>Every plate is different, completely different.
>
>We have pink plates...
><http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/REGISTRATIONS/breastcancer.htm>
>
>And the Bronco's Country plates... in Orange, of course...
><http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/REGISTRATIONS/ 
>BroncosCharities.htm>
>
>And the Columbine memorial plate... (actually a nice rendition of the  
>State flower for a good cause)...
><http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/REGISTRATIONS/columbine.HTM>
>
>And Pioneer plates, for those that can prove a direct ancestor lived  
>in Colorado at least 100 years ago...
><http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/REGISTRATIONS/pioneer.HTM>
>
>Ahh, just go here, and you can click on 'em and see 'em.  Tons of 'em...
><http://www.revenue.state.co.us/mv_dir/wrap.asp?incl=registrations/ 
>plateindex>
>
>If nothing else, it'd be REAL rare to be pulled over for "strange"  
>plates out here, ever again... the cops probably have a hard time  
>even keeping up with all the different types, and probably carry a  
>book to double-check them all, now.
>
>I really thought this whole thing started up out here with the mass  
>influx of Californians in the late 90's and early 00's -- I figured  
>they just brought the whole crazy license plate thing with them.   
>Maybe not.
>
>> Back in 1991 there was a usenet comment thread in the
>> computer-risks digest on running ham radio license plates
>> on DMV computers. My posting to it is here:
>> <http://groups.google.com/group/comp.risks/browse_thread/thread/ 
>> 2cc5fefb628c6cf7>
>
>Most computers nowadays would be querying this from an SQL database  
>behind the user interface with something akin to the "SELECT ___  
>WHERE LICENSEPLATE LIKE " statement...
>
>Which (even though that's not proper SQL in the example here, and  
>it's not exactly how you'd do it...) would match all of your  
>combinations today.
>
>If it's coded right, the location of whitespace in the string  
>wouldn't matter at all, anymore.  (In fact, the query is probably  
>hard-coded into the RDBMS itself, as a stored procedure, and has tons  
>of bounds checking and whitespace removal built into the query.)
>
>In fact, the whitespace would probably be stripped out of the plate  
>number BEFORE the database lookup query, in the "bounds checking"  
>part of the user interface code, these days.  If it isn't -- they  
>need to hire some professionals to write their software...
>
>Sorry... getting way off topic here.  Hey, if you guys don't have  
>wild and crazy plates like the massive list we have here, you could  
>recommend it to a State Senator and make your state some big bucks!   
>(GRIN)
>
>It's a fairly common thing to see cars with one of these custom  
>plates on it and less and less of the standard Colorado plate.  The  
>Amateur Call Letter plates (as they call them) are one of the onl

Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

[Nate Duehr]

Sorry this is heading WAY off-topic, but I had to share the insane  
list of license plate types we have here in Colorado now... and a  
comment about Mike's 1991 posting about plate lookups containing  
whitespace...

On Oct 18, 2007, at 12:12 AM, Mike Morris WA6ILQ wrote:

> Yep.
> Cops have been known to mis-understand ham plates...

Colorado now has something like 50 different plate types -- the State  
legislature went nuts when they realized that the things could make a  
permanent income for the State, and the more types, the more likely  
someone will buy one.

Every plate is different, completely different.

We have pink plates...


And the Bronco's Country plates... in Orange, of course...


And the Columbine memorial plate... (actually a nice rendition of the  
State flower for a good cause)...


And Pioneer plates, for those that can prove a direct ancestor lived  
in Colorado at least 100 years ago...


Ahh, just go here, and you can click on 'em and see 'em.  Tons of 'em...


If nothing else, it'd be REAL rare to be pulled over for "strange"  
plates out here, ever again... the cops probably have a hard time  
even keeping up with all the different types, and probably carry a  
book to double-check them all, now.

I really thought this whole thing started up out here with the mass  
influx of Californians in the late 90's and early 00's -- I figured  
they just brought the whole crazy license plate thing with them.   
Maybe not.

> Back in 1991 there was a usenet comment thread in the
> computer-risks digest on running ham radio license plates
> on DMV computers. My posting to it is here:
>  2cc5fefb628c6cf7>

Most computers nowadays would be querying this from an SQL database  
behind the user interface with something akin to the "SELECT ___  
WHERE LICENSEPLATE LIKE " statement...

Which (even though that's not proper SQL in the example here, and  
it's not exactly how you'd do it...) would match all of your  
combinations today.

If it's coded right, the location of whitespace in the string  
wouldn't matter at all, anymore.  (In fact, the query is probably  
hard-coded into the RDBMS itself, as a stored procedure, and has tons  
of bounds checking and whitespace removal built into the query.)

In fact, the whitespace would probably be stripped out of the plate  
number BEFORE the database lookup query, in the "bounds checking"  
part of the user interface code, these days.  If it isn't -- they  
need to hire some professionals to write their software...

Sorry... getting way off topic here.  Hey, if you guys don't have  
wild and crazy plates like the massive list we have here, you could  
recommend it to a State Senator and make your state some big bucks!   
(GRIN)

It's a fairly common thing to see cars with one of these custom  
plates on it and less and less of the standard Colorado plate.  The  
Amateur Call Letter plates (as they call them) are one of the only  
ones that isn't graphically customized... they also only cost $2 a  
year, though.

Interestingly, all of them also have a bar code on them nowadays, but  
I've never seen an officer use a laser reader or anything like that  
to scan them.  I think it's just there for authentication if the  
plate is made fraudulently, but I don't know.  It's also badly  
positioned, so that many license plate holders partially cover it.

--
Nate Duehr, WY0X
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

[Mike Morris WA6ILQ]

Yep.
Cops have been known to mis-understand ham plates...

WB6GSO was stopped frequently when he had a 1981
Suburban with the 1950s-1960s black characters on yellow
background series (the so-called "bumblebee" plates).
They were issued previous to the 1960s-1970s yellow-on-black
series.  He was really pissed when the plates were stolen
off of his old CHP car and he was issued replacements in
the current colors at that time (yellow-on-black).
As far as I know he still has the yellow-on-black plates
on the 81 Suburban, currently at over 976,000 miles.

Back in 1991 there was a usenet comment thread in the
computer-risks digest on running ham radio license plates
on DMV computers. My posting to it is here:
<http://groups.google.com/group/comp.risks/browse_thread/thread/2cc5fefb628c6cf7>

More below...

Mike WA6ILQ

At 12:59 PM 09/27/07, you wrote:
>Similar tale here in southern CA.  A ham friend has had call sign plates
>since they first came out here, so he haqs the old orangr letters on black
>background plates that are probably 30 years old.

Ham plates were issued on the previous series black on gold plates and
possibly on the ones before that.
I have a photo somewhere of W6AM's 1950s Cadillac Eldorado with a
1kw HF dynamotor powered mobile (extra batteries in the trunk)... and
he had black on gold W6AM plates.
As he drove down the road he used to run 45-50wpm CW with a Vibroplex
bug strapped to his right leg.  And remember, this was in three-on-the-tree
stick shift days...

>He's been stopped many
>times when a cop got suspicious about such old plates on a car only a
>couple of years old, so my friend got a new set of plates.
>
>- Original Message -
>From: sanleontexas
>To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com
>Sent: 27 September, 2007 09:56
>Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates
>
>Don't pity the 'poor cops' too much. A week or two ago my friend Paul,
>W0AIH, who has been a Wisconsin resident for many years and has call
>letter plates with his callsign on all of his vehicles, was driving to
>another town in Wisconsin and was stopped by a local cop who 'just
>didn't think that license number looked right'. Apparently he had
>never heard of ham radio and wasn't aware of call letter plates.

Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

[Nate Duehr]

Ken Arck wrote:

> Ken
> (who hears comments like "You're lucky your call isn't AH0LE" when 
> they see my call plate!)

You think that's bad:  My originally issued license was N0NTZ, which got 
a lot of "Why did you put THAT on your license plate?"

   :-)

It would make for a good club call and motto for a repeater, however.

Nate WY0X

Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

[Ken Arck]

At 01:27 PM 9/27/2007, you wrote:

>What do you have against Mariana Is.? ;->


<---Gee, so the PC way of insulting might be - "Stick it up your 
Mariana Island!"

Ken
(don't say I never gave you anything)
--
President and CTO - Arcom Communications
Makers of repeater controllers and accessories.
http://www.arcomcontrollers.com/
Authorized Dealers for Kenwood and Telewave and
we offer complete repeater packages!
AH6LE/R - IRLP Node 3000
http://www.irlp.net
"We don't just make 'em. We use 'em!"

Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

[MCH]

What do you have against Mariana Is.? ;->

Joe M.

Ken Arck wrote:
> 

> Ken
> (who hears comments like "You're lucky your call isn't AH0LE" when
> they see my call plate!)

Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

[Ken Arck]

I've had call plates on all my vehicles since the 70's. First it was 
WA6EMV when I lived in SoCal and then AH6LE when I moved to Maui. 
I've kept the AH6LE call ever since

Ken
(who hears comments like "You're lucky your call isn't AH0LE" when 
they see my call plate!)


--
President and CTO - Arcom Communications
Makers of repeater controllers and accessories.
http://www.arcomcontrollers.com/
Authorized Dealers for Kenwood and Telewave and
we offer complete repeater packages!
AH6LE/R - IRLP Node 3000
http://www.irlp.net
"We don't just make 'em. We use 'em!"

Re: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

[Dick]

Similar tale here in southern CA.  A ham friend has had call sign plates
since they first came out here, so he haqs the old orangr letters on black 
background plates that are probably 30 years old.  He's been stopped many
times when a cop got suspicious about such old plates on a car only a
couple of years old, so my friend got a new set of plates.

- Original Message - 
From: sanleontexas 
To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: 27 September, 2007 09:56
Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates


Don't pity the 'poor cops' too much. A week or two ago my friend Paul, 
W0AIH, who has been a Wisconsin resident for many years and has call 
letter plates with his callsign on all of his vehicles, was driving to 
another town in Wisconsin and was stopped by a local cop who 'just 
didn't think that license number looked right'. Apparently he had 
never heard of ham radio and wasn't aware of call letter plates.

[Repeater-Builder] Call letter plates

[sanleontexas]

Don't pity the 'poor cops' too much. A week or two ago my friend Paul, 
W0AIH, who has been a Wisconsin resident for many years and has call 
letter plates with his callsign on all of his vehicles, was driving to 
another town in Wisconsin and was stopped by a local cop who 'just 
didn't think that license number looked right'.  Apparently he had 
never heard of ham radio and wasn't aware of call letter plates.