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The world has changed. On the one hand you still have FCC 97.315 (on the extra exam) which permits sale of non-certified HF (sub 2M) amplifiers from amateur ope

The world has changed. On the one hand you still have FCC 97.315 (on the extra exam) which permits sale of non-certified HF (sub 2M) amplifiers from amateur operators to amateur operators, which serves as a convenient loophole for 'homebrews' exchange by individuals with technical competence and presumably a sense of responsibility. On the other you have Amazon placing no restrictions on the purchase of BaoFeng UV5R-s at US$ 23 which have wide VHF Tx capacity. Among other things this supplies individuals, nefarious or otherwise, with the capacity to jam or transmit false weather reports on NOAA 162 MHz maritime band (for the hell of it, verified Tx capacity there using a 136-174 MHz Wouxun KG-689 run into a dummy load). With today's pervasive laissez faire mindset, measured tighter restrictions may be a necessary evil.

VLM 8y ago
Since the mid 90s when SAME codes rolled out for NOAA weather radio system, there's been a constant low level nation wide problem with people transmitting "funny" SAME codes like hurricane warnings in north dakota and so forth. It was pretty obvious security issue when the system was released, and the fake alerts usually make it into the news as "news of the weird" rather than "OMG someone has hacked the system" type of story. There is no way to "patch" or fix the system by the nature of its design, all receivers have to trust that any transmission is genuine. Obviously cheap radios (SDR?) are just going to make the problem worse until NOAA alerts are essentially useless. Of course now there's cellphones and their broadcast emergency messages, so I would not be surprised to see the NOAA alert system discontinued in a couple years. Although SAME sounds like a horrible idea, it was well intentioned in that the radio transmissions can carry 30 to 50 miles so people would ignore all warnings given that statistically most of the warnings wouldn't apply to them (sort of like Amber Alert fatigue), so they added all this digital stuff to specify the exact problem (why?) and exact zip codes (good idea).
- paulie_a 8y ago
  I grew up in a small town, in the 90's it would have cost a couple hundred dollars to set off the tornado warning system with a 4 digit DTMF code. It probably hasn't changed since then.
  - lima 8y ago
    In many towns in Germany, you can still trigger the sirens using DTMF codes. Fortunately, everyone forgot about it. It used to be a problem back when illegal CB radio amplifiers and pirate broadcast radio were still a thing :-)
    - paulie_a 8y ago
      I am sure the equipment hasn't been upgraded or the codes even changed in decades. And the code was probably 1234.
      - lima 8y ago
        Yep Most equipment uses Selcall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selcall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selcall
Reelin 8y ago
> With today's pervasive laissez faire mindset, measured tighter restrictions may be a necessary evil. My... uhh... friend doesn't understand what you meant by that. Would you mind elaborating?

VLM 8y ago

Since the mid 90s when SAME codes rolled out for NOAA weather radio system, there's been a constant low level nation wide problem with people transmitting "funny" SAME codes like hurricane warnings in north dakota and so forth. It was pretty obvious security issue when the system was released, and the fake alerts usually make it into the news as "news of the weird" rather than "OMG someone has hacked the system" type of story. There is no way to "patch" or fix the system by the nature of its design, all receivers have to trust that any transmission is genuine. Obviously cheap radios (SDR?) are just going to make the problem worse until NOAA alerts are essentially useless. Of course now there's cellphones and their broadcast emergency messages, so I would not be surprised to see the NOAA alert system discontinued in a couple years. Although SAME sounds like a horrible idea, it was well intentioned in that the radio transmissions can carry 30 to 50 miles so people would ignore all warnings given that statistically most of the warnings wouldn't apply to them (sort of like Amber Alert fatigue), so they added all this digital stuff to specify the exact problem (why?) and exact zip codes (good idea).

paulie_a 8y ago
I grew up in a small town, in the 90's it would have cost a couple hundred dollars to set off the tornado warning system with a 4 digit DTMF code. It probably hasn't changed since then.
- lima 8y ago
  In many towns in Germany, you can still trigger the sirens using DTMF codes. Fortunately, everyone forgot about it. It used to be a problem back when illegal CB radio amplifiers and pirate broadcast radio were still a thing :-)
  - paulie_a 8y ago
    I am sure the equipment hasn't been upgraded or the codes even changed in decades. And the code was probably 1234.
    - lima 8y ago
      Yep Most equipment uses Selcall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selcall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selcall

Reelin 8y ago

> With today's pervasive laissez faire mindset, measured tighter restrictions may be a necessary evil. My... uhh... friend doesn't understand what you meant by that. Would you mind elaborating?