[BC] Big copper theft in IA

[Cowboy]

On Sunday 12 February 2012 02:02:33 pm Rob Landry wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 11 Feb 2012, Cowboy wrote:
> 
> > Catching thieves, protecting the citizens and their property ( what we 
> > pay them for, and their reason to exist in the first place ) produces no 
> > direct cash income to local government, or government at any level for 
> > that matter. Persecuting the citizens, like speeding tickets, does !
> 
> Speeding automobiles are dangerous. Some 30,000 people die in traffic 
> accidents every year in the U.S. as things are; can you imagine what that 
> number might be if police stopped enforcing speeding laws?

 About the same.
 Speeding automobiles don't kill. You never have a speeding automobile 
 without a driver. 
 People who can not drive, are on cell phones, fixing makeup, eating
 McDeath sandwiches, or drunk, and any combination of things causing
 their attention to not be on driving, they are what kills.

 Speed, in and of itself, is quite benign.

> The potential harm in stealing someone's ground system is, by comparison, 
> rather less.

 I would disagree.
 In the above circumstance, we have an ultimately self-curing problem,
 albeit with sometimes regrettable collateral damage.

 By comparison, how many are killed, or have ever been killed for that
 matter, on the unlimited speed Autobahn ?

> > Another solution is to shoot the thieves !
> 
> That seems rather harsh; even under Shari`a law they'd only have a hand 
> cut off.

 But even under Shari'whatever law there would still have to be
 police to catch them, and that ain't happening.
 Therein lies the problem.
 That, and a general disregard for fellow human beings as permeates
 the general attitudes in this country.

> But I doubt it would make any difference what penalty you apply. Even if 
> you've got them on camera and call the police, the thieves would likely be 
> long gone with their booty by the time the cops arrive.

 We agree !!
 Since we agree that official law enforcement is totally ineffective against
 real crime, and only marginally effective against speeders, I would submit
 that our system of crime and punishment is broken, rendering the law abiding
 citizen, and public serving broadcasters, and others, as the real victims.
 ( which I blame on lawyers )

> > Since we can't shoot them, and any other personal deterrent is likely
> > also illegal, our only solutions are to make it somehow impractical,
> > close to impossible, to remove the system, such as encasing buried radials
> > in concrete, or something similar.
> 
> At the 1510 site in Waltham, Massachusetts (I forget the call letters; 
> they seem to change with the weather), the ground system is under a paved 
> parking lot. 

 While methinks this approach quite effective, most stations will not ( nor
 should they ) go to the trouble and expense to pave over ground systems,
 in order to circumvent criminal's rights.

> The best approach I've seen so far was at a station in Monterey, 
> California, back in the '80's. The tower was in the bay at the end of a 
> pier off Cannery Row, and the ground was salt water, with no radials at 
> all. That station ran only a kilowatt, but you could hear it 40 miles 
> away.

 I'd be interested in the antenna description on the license ??
 Got a call sign ?


-- 
Cowboy