# What are these large antennas coming out of this car's trunk?  Also antenna design questions.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-large-antennas-coming-out-of-this-cars-trunk-also-antenna-design-questions/656665>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 25, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-large-antennas-coming-out-of-this-cars-trunk-also-antenna-design-questions/656665 "2013-04-25T14:45:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-large-antennas-coming-out-of-this-cars-trunk-also-antenna-design-questions/656665/21 "2013-04-26T02:29:12Z")

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It’s always nice to learn the say hello and goodbye in a few different languages. I can do French, Russian, Spanish and German.

I don’t do HF mobile, but many hams do VHF/UHF mobile using repeaters.

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-large-antennas-coming-out-of-this-cars-trunk-also-antenna-design-questions/656665/22 "2013-04-26T07:51:43Z")

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> [@Clothahump](#):
>
> Another vote for that being a serious ham operator. If you see that car on a regular basis, look at his license plate. A lot of hams will get personalized plates with their call sign on them.

AND, this was a thing long long before personalized license plates were ever even imagined. My brother was a ham radio kid as a teen-ager back in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s, and his car has his call sign on the license place. It was common even then.

Personalized license places (other than that) came much later — [since August 1970 in California](https://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/newsrel/newsrel10/2010_24.htm).

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