Yeah for the purpose of the point they are the same. Point was that there is a difference between publicly available via directed search or public info posted overtly be others in an alternate location.RichD wrote:No not the same at all. You are leasing a phone number from the telco. That is a private transaction. The listing of your number is another matter; you choose to list or not. As you get to choose your caller id string.psilosin wrote:so are phone numbers but some people might not want them posted places (like bathroom stalls) without their knowledge.
However Amateur Radio is a public service and one of the central tenets of this is that everything on HAM is fully open including the identity of the operators. You aren't allowed to transmit code or obfuscate things.
The basic notion is that it is public spectrum and Industry Canada wants it to be easy for the clubs to self-regulate. There is potential for abuse and this keeps everyone honest. But the other reason is that the openness encourages innovation which is why you have wonderful things like APRS and so on.
People are paranoid about things like Facebook privacy, blocking their liscence plate number from photos, not posting a phone number etc...but as Jesse just pointed out, by posting a call sign you have also revealed your real name and physical address that you may not have intended to, to a crowd of people that you really do not know, who otherwise would never have known. Just making yourself that much easier to mine so it should be your choice to reveal not someone else.
All the info re-pasted by Jesse was previously released on Delica.ca by the individuals so that is fair.