> I'm sure I'll get a lot of hate for this My experience in the amateur radio community is that hate is exceedingly rare, although disagreement is common. > E

> I'm sure I'll get a lot of hate for this My experience in the amateur radio community is that hate is exceedingly rare, although disagreement is common. > Every single person here uses high powered encrypted communication without a license, it's a cell phone. So let's have a discussion: do we really want these kickass bands to become another cell phone band? I think it's useful to have a part of the spectrum on which deafening corporate rent-seeking cannot hide. I work full-time on cryptology, so I'm no stranger to the benefits of developing network protocols with cryptographic primitives in mind. However, the radio spectrum is a great place to let many flowers bloom, and the amatuer bands appear to be experiencing a lovely, overdue bloom right now. I bought an Icom-7100 last year, and the rapid growth of linux support for hacking on low-signal modes is wonderful to see, and I think it's happening because this band is the way that it is. > FCC regulation of ham radio is at best antiquated cold war bullshit Listen: I'm all for completely abolishing the FCC. However, I also recognize that the amateur radio licensing program plays a very important role in society: it allows us to stand and be counted in favor of tinkering and experimentation in the mainstream of some of the best bands on the spectrum. It prevents the government and its cronies from claiming that these bands are fallow and better utilized as even more centralized, profiteering, plastic bullshit. I don't disagree with your thinking, I just ask that we apply different thinking to different parts of the spectrum so that we can have a more robust and diverse experimental reckoning of the airwaves with which we're blessed.