The moron strikes again!

Yet another Email has come and in the interest of keeping everything out in the open here we go.

Here is the email sent this time.

Several years ago the video meet system that later became hamcam was created by a few guys who had good honest values and a real burning passion for the ham hobby. These guys were friendly, welcoming, enthusiastic and above all else inclusive. Hams from all over the world were encouraged to join the growing community of fellow hams who’d embarked on this new arm of the hobby. 

Fast forward a few years and what was created is being trashed by a few individuals who are in it for all the wrong reasons. They are in it for themselves for the power and control that comes with it and not for all the reasons mentioned above. 

Darren (SA3DSX), Roger (KE8LCM) and all his “admins” are intoxicated by the power they hold over the users who log in to their systems each day. They abuse users, use fowl language, share racist, masoganistoc and homophobic jokes and are generally not nice people. Disgusting individuals who are going to get what’s coming in the direction of them and theirs!!!

The biggest problem is the way they discriminate against certain people. Darren has today copied Roger and has banned Mike from his room “just in case it was him” who’s been distributing these emails recently, or in case he has some sort of involvement. Well, he doesn’t. You’re looking in the complete other direction. Fighting for bullying and discrimination is close to my heart and I’ll die fighting for it!

Shut the rooms down or the damage to you will be far worse than a few stolen photos, and much closer to home! 

73.

Here is my response.

These video rooms are still very all inclusive. Those who join us and see the various hams who still come in the rooms from all around the world and of all walks of life know this. We have only ever banned 3 people from these rooms for the following reasons.

The first real ban was on a ham who we all liked but he had a problem of getting belligerent with people. If he thought you did not know what you were talking about he told you with many four letter words included and with anger.

The second ban was a little more recent… A ham from Australia who we also all tried very hard with but when news articles began being written about him interfering with ADSB Transmissions, Interfering with allstar nodes and circumventing bans when node owners would block his node from being able to connect he would then use one of our nodes as a middle man and then connect to the node he was banned from. Now he told me that he was experimenting with ADSB and was using a closed system that did not transmit over the air and I believe him personally but we all know how the court of public opinion works. These articles are out there and I did not want to see AmateurWire or any single person who came into those video rooms end up having their names drug through the mud being “guilty by association” so after several days of thinking about it he was asked nicely to leave, he was told why and that was that. Now he uses VPN’s every once in a while to still get into our rooms and spy or whatever and that’s fine. Every time the ip gets banned and eventually he will run out of them.

Let’s fast forward to the man of the hour who has truly triggered all of this… Mike KF4BOG. We all have tried extremely hard with Mike to help him. Multiple hams have hosted allstar nodes for him, myself included. I have spent time remotely logging into his computer with his consent and with him watching the whole time as I spent hours configuring a node to run in VMware on a laptop for him. We have done EVERYTHING possible to accommodate him and make him feel just as much a part of the community as anyone else but something changed recently. Mike sent an email to the group for Hamcam and to keep a long long story as short as possible without losing context, Mike tried to bully his way into an admin role or other role in the group. He said things about keeping the Americans With Disabilities Act in mind and so on. We actually took Mike into a room privately… Myself (KE8LCM) was present as well as Darren (SA3DSX) And Martin who I can not remember his call right now but he is a ham as well. We took the time to talk to him about this and not in any attacking kind of way and he basically threw two other hams under the bus with his first story that they had contacted him and threatened him. Their ultimate goal was to take down AmateurWire and to get to Darren who has put more work into keeping the HamCam community alive and thriving. He told us they threatened to get his ham license revoked and that they would destroy his computer. Later Mike spoke to us again and said that story was a lie and that he had used AI to write the email and make it sound intimidating because he wanted a role in the group. This is NOT how we do things around here. We do not threaten our way into roles and power and we certainly do not try to use our disabilities as leverage. We have several other hams in the groups who are also disabled and they are disgusted with how one person has tried to use their disabilities as a catapult into some sort of official role or title within the groups.

In these video groups we are all equals. We all spent days talking about what to do with the situation because Michael betrayed trust, he lied and for what? Power or to feel important. He did not realize he was already important to us. He was so important that we ultimately decided that he would be allowed back into the room after a few days and we would just forgive and forget with the understanding that if anything like this happened again he would be out for good. Fast forward to now….. If you who are writing these emails anonymously are not Michael himself then you need to come clean because THESE EMAILS are why he has now been removed from all rooms. Because he has been known to do this type of thing once we have no choice but to assume that you, Mr. Anonymous, are Michael himself. So if you feel so strongly about this and want to see Mike be able to be included once again I would suggest you unmask yourself since you are in fact the reason he has now been removed from the groups. We are all friends and nobody believes the nonsense you are spewing. Everyone in the email list knows that everything you have claimed we are doing are lies. Almost every single person who joins the rooms now all have Moderator access to the rooms. Nobody is clinging to power. My room for example was created for myself and two other friends to get on and chat. Eventually others joined and that was a bonus. I have met a whole lot of incredible people and I do not regret a moment of it. Everyone has something to add, Even Mike… and it’s sad that in your quest for justice for him you have caused him the most harm.

In closing, if you care that much about Mike being able to join the rooms and be part of the community then come clean. Take off your mask, stop hiding and own up to your actions. Your threats do not scare us. We are not worried about you because nothing you claim is going to go anywhere. We are not a registered club, we are not a registered organization of any kind. Everyone understands that them being on any of these systems is a privilege not a right. Access is always FREE and some people do donate and we are grateful for that. They all understand that these things are gifts, their way of helping out and every single person who gives whether it be $1 here and there or $50 or even more are all appreciated equally. Nobody gets special treatment. You can be disabled and still be an asshole. There is no room for that here. Everyone has something to contribute and help each other with. This is the spirit of our hobby and the AmateurWire and HamCam communities. As far as the video rooms go, all are always welcome and not everyone will stay. I understand that we are not everyone’s cup of tea. This is the way life is but no matter what when someone comes looking for help with anything, we are all always there and someone is bound to know how to help you out.

For everyone who stuck around reading all of that I do apologize that it was so long but they were things that needed to be said. They were said here publicly in the interest of transparency. Again unlike the person sending these emails threatening us I will not do it in the shadows. We have nothing to hide here because we are all Brothers and Sisters in this hobby. We are a large and sometimes dysfunctional family and while we may not always agree on everything we are all still here for eachother.

Roger KE8LCM