As I was driving home from the airport, I was stopped at the light to turn on Pacific Highway when I see a minivan making a right turn. I looked at the license plate and saw that it was K6JVM; license plates like these are the call letters for an amateur radio license. While I know my own call sign, I don’t know too many other people’s call signs (I know Phil Karn’s, KA9Q as I worked with some of his code years ago and he got me interested in Linux), I happen to know that this call sign belongs to the city council member representing our district, Jim Madaffer. He was yapping on his cell phone making the turn with one hand while his other hand was on the phone.
I know that the hands free law doesn’t go into effect this summer for cell phones and that it is a state law, not one that he had anything to do with, but I think it would set a good example for our elected politicians to do the safe and responsible thing when it comes to driving while talking…use a handsfree device, if you MUST talk.