Do You Wear Your Ham Radio Badge on The Street?

[Jeff K1NSS]

Taking kind of an informal poll about golden ham radio badges.

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For my part, I usually wear my badge only in the shack. It kind of puts me in the mood to call CQ. That said, without it, I would feel under-dressed on the air.

After couple of days polling on a number of ham Facebook groups , ham radio badges have received quite a beat-down. As one might expect, current and retired public safety operatives generally frown on ham shields. Amateur operators are also widely dismissive, with a few curious about how to obtain one, probably as a joke.

Sure, they're funny as the dickens. But on the other hand, there's something elusively trainwreck-ish about these shiny things that fascinated me from the moment I saw them advertised, something that puts them in the realm of ruby-eyed skull rings, key-chained Day-Glo rabbits' feet, and Theme Mudflaps. Something primal is going on here, straight out of the Crocodile Brain, from which your Better Judgement knows nothing good will come. And yet...and yet...

Well, we passed along our observations to our corporate partner Deluxe Luxury Laboratories, and after a bit of a brainstorm, we're proud to announce the rollout of a next-generation ham radio badge module, AKA the personalized B4 Big Boss Body Badge.


Further details now at www.dashtoons.com.

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[NQ6U]

"This is the city, Los Angeles, California. It was Thursday, September 12. It was hot in Los Angeles. We were working the Day Watch out of Emcomm Whacker Division. My partner's Bill Gannon. My name's Friday."

[NA4BH]

"This is the city, Los Angeles, California. It was Thursday, September 12. It was hot in Los Angeles. We were working the Day Watch out of Emmcomm Whacker Division. My partner's Bill Gannon. My name's Friday."

So we gotta wait a day until you tell us your name?

[NQ6U]

So we gotta wait a day until you tell us your name?

"The story you are about to read is true. Only the call signs have been changed to protect the stoopid."

[KB3LAZ]

I don't wear one at all.

[KG4CGC]

Doesn't the mainland have an amateur radio related thong for purchase?

[VE7MGF]

badges? we don't need no stinken badges.

[wa6mhz]

I wear my ARRL HQ Red badge on my Callsign hat at Ham Radio events where my callsign is relevant. Swapmeets, Ham Conventions, some radio club meetings. But never on the street or where I meet the non-ham public. All they would do is give a WTF?

[Jeff K1NSS]

I'm sensing a collective Island NO and that's pretty consistent with opinions in other venues. Feelings tend to run strong. In another forum, someone suggested that I go to Hamsexy because "this is a respectable place." These things ain't cheap and somebody besides me must be buying them, facetiously or not. I'm getting curiouser and curiouser about who invented the ham radio badge and how far back they go.

Moreover, I wonder if the badge might be the the tip of an uncomfortable iceberg. Could a case be made that having a personal radio station is one ON AIR sign away from a pretend police cruiser? I say this as a lifelong (at least in the imaginary sense) ham. Radio history might refute that, in that personal radio stations were the genesis of grown-up radio stations. But it's my impression there's a little whacker running through all radio DNA, and it usually doesn't get expressed so obviously as a Crown Vic bristling with whips.

[Jeff K1NSS]

I wear my ARRL HQ Red badge on my Callsign hat at Ham Radio events where my callsign is relevant. Swapmeets, Ham Conventions, some radio club meetings. But never on the street or where I meet the non-ham public. All they would do is give a WTF?

See, I don't consider the ARRL badge in the same realm as the ham shield. That's a simple identifier, like a branded name tag for retail clerks, nothing that suggests you think you're so big. Well, okay, it might suggest you have the ghost of Hiram Percy Maxim in your corner, but I mean, that shield is a whole other kettle of Joe Friday.