Is Your Amateur Radio Gear Properly Marked?

                        
                            March 2008
                          
                            Is Your Amateur Radio Gear Properly Marked?
                          
                            Back in my "old" Army days, the big thing was to mark your 

                            gear with your Social Security number. It was a good way to identify stuff on a military installation, but not much good in the "civilian" world. For one thing, there was no easy way to track down the owner of a SS number. The SS people just didn't dole out that information to any law enforcement agency trying to trace a stolen lawn mower. A murder, maybe.
                          
                            Back in those days, military people had to have their SS# on all outgoing mail, and yes, even incoming mail! At least that's the way it was when you were in training. These days, we all guard our Social Security numbers like gold at Ft. Knox, and rightfully so. 
                          
                            So, what identifying information do you mark your gear with? There are two basic choices left: the "owner assigned number" and your driver license number. The AON is just a number you make up and keep a record of. If you have something stolen, you can tell the investigating agency that your stuff is marked with (insert number here), and where it is marked. 
                          
                            The OAN is not bad, but it only helps IF an investigating agency suspects the property is stolen AND knows where to find the owner of the OAN. 
                          
                            For example, if your HF rig is found in the trunk of a car in Nevada, having it marked with 12345JTF doesn't tell the officer to check in California where you actually live and where the rig was stolen from. The AON method is especially weak when the item hasn't been reported stolen yet. For instance, it was stolen this morning, and you won't know about it until you get home from work.
                          
                            The Driver License number works better. If the same rig is found in a car trunk in Nevada under suspicious circumstances, the officer seeing CA DL 123456567 on the back of the rig knows right away to run that number, see who it registers to, and check with that city to see if a stolen report has been filed. No report on file? How about checking the residence to see if anyone is at home. Upon checking, the officers in CA find the back door kicked open. You can bet your rig will be taken into custody while this situation is sorted out. This is not going to happen with a vague "owner assigned number" on your gear. 

                            Now, there are some Law Enforcement folks that are against using your Driver License number to mark your equipment due to the fact that is can possibly expose your name and address to the thief, and others. Well, I think the thief that stole the gear already knows your name and address! As for others knowing your name and address? So what! The phone book is full of names, addresses and phone numbers. I fail to see how knowing someone's name and address is a security problem. If it is, we're all in trouble!
                          
                            Bottom line: if you mark your gear with your DL number, it increases the chances of recovery under more circumstances than other numbers, databases entries or anti-theft programs.
                          
                            So, mark it well, and mark it in several places that are hard to see. Just remember to make note of all these obscure places should you need that info later.

                            And yes, it's a Driver License, not Driver's License. At least in Texas, anyway.

                            73,
                          
                            WF5TX