I can and will assume whoever is behind this is most definitely not a ham operator nor someone in that community on account of the website not looking like something from 1995.

If there's anything I found to be common of all the ham operators I've met or heard of, it's that they're all electrical engineers at heart with not a single fuck in the world available for form or aesthetics. Jank and old-fashioned are their pride and passion.

Source: Father is ham operator, has the time of his life janking it up with his ham friends who likewise jank it up.

P.S. Not supporting POP3 is asinine.

I know the person behind this personally and can attest that they are a licensed ham.

I don't mean to be crass, but a ~2 year old HN account with no discernible attachment to a real-world identity, and 38 karma, means nothing.

You can google their username which looks like a pretty discernible attachment to a real-world identity to me.

Oooh, check out Mr. Five-digit-user-id over here (for the kids: an old /. reference).

The user name is their radio callsign, which you can look up in the FCC database. I don't know how much more attachment to a "real-world identity" you're looking for.

Ad-hominem much? It sure matters who the person in question making the statement is, but what's particularly relevant here, and to my comment, is that it's not easily discernible who they are.

What is their callsign? It is public record.

KQ4GVP (that's me!)

Hammie here. Can confirm. :-)

There is so much truth to this statement -- all ham websites, even my own are straight HTML or at least 10-15 years behind modern web standards... and we like it that way.

Well, not a ham operator myself, but one of my friends (a Swede, living parttime in Denmark, married to a Dutch woman) is one, and has an IT business in which he (also) delivers websites. So I guess, anecdotally, not all ham operators are 10-15 years behind. (Actually, he even operates from e.g. his car, operating either his Sweden or his Denmark radio through his ‘microphone connected to it’ using a ‘very long cable running through the internet’. Not really old school there.)

I’m a licensed operator and I’m not an electrical engineer, I got my license in order to operate a radio telescope when I was a physicist. Websites I build are more modern than this, and I do have one for ham radio resources. There’s your counterexample.

I am unfamiliar with how radio telescopes work, do you transmit as well as receive on them? If you transmit, I assume you send your callsign as well every 10 minutes? Do you run into issues staying below 1500W/200W PEP?

I was sending not very high powered pulse signals at the time and observing response signals. The signals were automated with gnuradio. Callsign was part of my automated sequence, sent periodically.

Now, most of the work done with radio telescopes are passive, but they are really just large dishes capable of receiving any radio signal, including ham stuff.

I'm a ham but not an EE. Got licensed for use while offshore sailing.

Often Amateur Radio websites are functional at low bandwidth as the hobby is in some way designed for use when the main systems fail.

Still a lot of truth to your comment.

Hello! I am the person that made this service. I am a relatively new ham and I thought the domain was cool so I picked it up. I'm a high-school student, lol

POP3 is supported, by the way, I just didn't list it. That's my fault https://docs.mailcow.email/client/client-manual/

I'm happy to be pleasantly proven otherwise, wishing you best of luck.

Kudos on POP3 support. I never liked IMAP as I've always preferred to keep my emails between the server and client stored independently. Call me old fashioned, albeit in a different vector from hams.

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.

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 [email protected] 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.

> I'm strongly inclined not to trust this without more info on who is behind it and how well secured their infrastructure is.

A child, it seems:

> DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE FOR ANYTHING IMPORTANT. QSL cards and using it for basic contact is fine, however, using this in place of say a hotmail address is not ill-advised, seeing as this service is ran by a high-schooler and I cannot guarantee an SLA.