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Comment by venusenvy47 | Hacker News Reader

Also, when you provide your callsign to them, they have access to your home address because of it being an FCC requirement. So you have to be willing to give up your privacy whenever you mention your callsign.

So if you use your callsign as your email address, anyone who receives an email from you will know your name and home address.

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That's a common misconception.

You don't have to give the FCC your home address. You only have to give them an address that you can receive mail at. This can be a P.O. box, a relatives house, your local ham club, etc

It still connects your online identity with a physical address associated with you in some way. That's a lot more info than an email address alone ought to supply.

If you use your own domain you'd also have that same kind of connection in the whois records. You can of course bypass that by using other information in there but it will be the equivalent of using a PO box.

The WHOIS records for a lot of domains are hidden by default now and only know to the registrar, available in specific scenarios upon request.

I always use a proxy like RespectMyPrivacy.org for whois DNS data fields.

When using ham radio, you must transmit your callsign and therefore show your identity. Also all ham communication must be unencrypted. There's really no way to conceal your identity and operate legally. If this isn't for you, then don't participate. Having an email tied to your callsign is just for ease of communication. Someone can send an email to my callsign@winlink.org and it will be relayed to me over a ham radio mesh network to my receiver. Totally open but I just wouldn't use it for anything I wouldn't want someone else to see.

Just like with social media networks, one may have multiple accounts with different rings of contacts. One ring might be people they know in real life and another might only be online "friends" they don't really trust with knowing their real identity.

I'm not arguing against disclosing your callsign when connecting with other hams.

I just wouldn't recommend using your callsign as part of your primary email address that you use to associate with all your online accounts.

Understood, but you have to think of this before you register your callsign because they publish the history of addresses that have been used. So it's too late for someone like me, who has already used his home address. The PO box would be the most private, at whatever cost that is. I would definitely not want to use my work address (which is what many people recommend), because anyone receiving an email from me would know my name and employer.

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