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as someone who is not familiar with this world (but takes deep interest in (n)etiquette), would someone be willing to do a quick breakdown of ham netiquette, "b

by a-dub 5y ago

as someone who is not familiar with this world (but takes deep interest in (n)etiquette), would someone be willing to do a quick breakdown of ham netiquette, "being neighborly", fears of encryption and how abuse is managed in the ham world? i ask because maybe there are some learnings and lessons there that could apply to internet policy today. it sounds like certain things, like anonymity, are banned? there's some sort of community policing? i'm super curious.

jtdressel 5y ago
I don't have a lot of time, but this was an interesting question. If you message me I'll dig up references. There are nuances and exceptions to almost everything I list below. The radio spectrum is a scarce resource. Two of the main reasons amateur radio users are given access to the spectrum is to help with disaster recovery and to advance the art and science of radio. Callsigns are public - you can look up anyone's to see who they are. You're required to give your callsign at the end of your transmission, and every 10 minutes. There are some limitations on content. No music, no profanity, no commercial uses, and no encryption. netiquette varies based on what you are doing. In general, shorter range bands have better sound quality and are more casual. Longer range has worse sound quality (or no sound like morse or ft8). If you're on one of the shorter range bands (e.g. 70cm) you'll often find people who are keeping in touch with friends, or just looking for someone to talk to. On the longer range, you'll run into stuff like contests - all the other person wants to know is who you are, and where you are. They're trying to see either how many contacts they can make in a period of time or how far away they're able to make contacts. There are "formal traffic" nets - which pass messages. Local nets will route traffic they can't deliver to regional nets, and then back down to local nets. Usually they just pass practice traffic around - until a disaster occurs and they are needed. More info https://www.arrl.org/nts-manual https://www.arrl.org/nts-manual The lowest level license is the Technician. You can find the Technician exam pool online in several formats. https://www.arrl.org/files/file/VEs/2018-2022%20Tech%20Class%20Pool%20Final%20with%20errata.pdf https://www.arrl.org/files/file/VEs/2018-2022%20Tech%20Class... Edit: I forgot about you abuse question. Hams tend to police their own or will work with the FCC to report people misusing the airwaves. The practice version of this is called "fox hunting" - where someone places a transmitter and you try to find it. Most hams care about keeping the hobby alive. If they find someone who's broadcasting with too much power or without a license usually they'll try to work with that person to correct the behavior. If that doesn't work, they'll often work with the FCC.
swalberg 5y ago
Only been a Ham for 2 years, but the etiquette I've observed falls along the lines of "don't do things that make it hard for other people to have fun". Like checking to see if the frequency is in use before sending, and not blasting out a wide signal when a narrow one will do. Respecting band plans, both formal and informal, especially digital people sticking around established watering holes and not splattering the CW areas. Don't tune up (sending a tone to configure your antenna tuner) on someone's frequency. Another part is "let people do their thing". Like if someone's in a special activity and managing a pileup (lots of people trying to call), just give them the exchange and move on. Due to the asymmetric nature of propagation, stuff happens. You may not hear anyone using the frequency but they hear you just fine. If band conditions take a turn for the worse, politely tell the other person you're losing them and thanks for the conversation. Anonymity is banned; FCC part 97 says you have to use your call sign every 10 minutes and at the end of the transmission. Ultimately the FCC is responsible for enforcing these but of course don't have the time. People can report people to the FCC and they _may_ open an investigation depending on that nature of it. There's also the ARRL volunteer monitoring program where participants listen on the air and, through the program, send out notices of good and bad behavior, optionally referring cases to the FCC. It's usually stuff like "guy constantly being a jackass on a repeater and ruining it for others", with a good bit of "sending outside your privileges" and "not identifying yourself". That said we've all accidentally sent outside our privileges, we've all stepped on people. It happens. As amateurs we know that if we don't do a good job of operating we'll lose the spectrum, so it's usually not a huge problem. There are jerks, there are also people that don't know they're being jerks.
VLM 5y ago
Yeah there's no anonymity. As for community policing the FCC itself polices some, and the official observer program has been replaced by the volunteer monitor program which is mostly the same thing. I think you can assume much like on the net, there's at least ten times as many lurkers listening as there are people talking. Back in '28, 1928, the radio amateur's code was written which was a pretty good attempt at letting people talk as much as possible while eliminating ore reducing flame wars over the air. https://www.arrl.org/amateur-code https://www.arrl.org/amateur-code This mentions the informal, sometimes ignored, ban on political speech: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_amateur_radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_amateur_radio My guess is over the last century the more authoritarian govts banned it, and the free-er countries have lots of people who like to collect contacts and you're not going to get a collectible QSL card in the mail from a guy if over the air you call him a filthy (insert appropriate political slur here) so naturally people tended to not talk about politics, because gotta collect QSL cards or contest points or whatever. On the radio, the quality of your station and antenna and your skills determine how many people you can talk to, so competition, so people are more civil to each other. On the internet, unfortunately everyone "hears" everyone, so there's no gain from not being a jerk, so there's lots of jerks.

by a-dub 5y ago

jtdressel 5y ago

I don't have a lot of time, but this was an interesting question. If you message me I'll dig up references. There are nuances and exceptions to almost everything I list below. The radio spectrum is a scarce resource. Two of the main reasons amateur radio users are given access to the spectrum is to help with disaster recovery and to advance the art and science of radio. Callsigns are public - you can look up anyone's to see who they are. You're required to give your callsign at the end of your transmission, and every 10 minutes. There are some limitations on content. No music, no profanity, no commercial uses, and no encryption. netiquette varies based on what you are doing. In general, shorter range bands have better sound quality and are more casual. Longer range has worse sound quality (or no sound like morse or ft8). If you're on one of the shorter range bands (e.g. 70cm) you'll often find people who are keeping in touch with friends, or just looking for someone to talk to. On the longer range, you'll run into stuff like contests - all the other person wants to know is who you are, and where you are. They're trying to see either how many contacts they can make in a period of time or how far away they're able to make contacts. There are "formal traffic" nets - which pass messages. Local nets will route traffic they can't deliver to regional nets, and then back down to local nets. Usually they just pass practice traffic around - until a disaster occurs and they are needed. More info https://www.arrl.org/nts-manual https://www.arrl.org/nts-manual The lowest level license is the Technician. You can find the Technician exam pool online in several formats. https://www.arrl.org/files/file/VEs/2018-2022%20Tech%20Class%20Pool%20Final%20with%20errata.pdf https://www.arrl.org/files/file/VEs/2018-2022%20Tech%20Class... Edit: I forgot about you abuse question. Hams tend to police their own or will work with the FCC to report people misusing the airwaves. The practice version of this is called "fox hunting" - where someone places a transmitter and you try to find it. Most hams care about keeping the hobby alive. If they find someone who's broadcasting with too much power or without a license usually they'll try to work with that person to correct the behavior. If that doesn't work, they'll often work with the FCC.

swalberg 5y ago

Only been a Ham for 2 years, but the etiquette I've observed falls along the lines of "don't do things that make it hard for other people to have fun". Like checking to see if the frequency is in use before sending, and not blasting out a wide signal when a narrow one will do. Respecting band plans, both formal and informal, especially digital people sticking around established watering holes and not splattering the CW areas. Don't tune up (sending a tone to configure your antenna tuner) on someone's frequency. Another part is "let people do their thing". Like if someone's in a special activity and managing a pileup (lots of people trying to call), just give them the exchange and move on. Due to the asymmetric nature of propagation, stuff happens. You may not hear anyone using the frequency but they hear you just fine. If band conditions take a turn for the worse, politely tell the other person you're losing them and thanks for the conversation. Anonymity is banned; FCC part 97 says you have to use your call sign every 10 minutes and at the end of the transmission. Ultimately the FCC is responsible for enforcing these but of course don't have the time. People can report people to the FCC and they _may_ open an investigation depending on that nature of it. There's also the ARRL volunteer monitoring program where participants listen on the air and, through the program, send out notices of good and bad behavior, optionally referring cases to the FCC. It's usually stuff like "guy constantly being a jackass on a repeater and ruining it for others", with a good bit of "sending outside your privileges" and "not identifying yourself". That said we've all accidentally sent outside our privileges, we've all stepped on people. It happens. As amateurs we know that if we don't do a good job of operating we'll lose the spectrum, so it's usually not a huge problem. There are jerks, there are also people that don't know they're being jerks.

VLM 5y ago

Yeah there's no anonymity. As for community policing the FCC itself polices some, and the official observer program has been replaced by the volunteer monitor program which is mostly the same thing. I think you can assume much like on the net, there's at least ten times as many lurkers listening as there are people talking. Back in '28, 1928, the radio amateur's code was written which was a pretty good attempt at letting people talk as much as possible while eliminating ore reducing flame wars over the air. https://www.arrl.org/amateur-code https://www.arrl.org/amateur-code This mentions the informal, sometimes ignored, ban on political speech: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_amateur_radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_amateur_radio My guess is over the last century the more authoritarian govts banned it, and the free-er countries have lots of people who like to collect contacts and you're not going to get a collectible QSL card in the mail from a guy if over the air you call him a filthy (insert appropriate political slur here) so naturally people tended to not talk about politics, because gotta collect QSL cards or contest points or whatever. On the radio, the quality of your station and antenna and your skills determine how many people you can talk to, so competition, so people are more civil to each other. On the internet, unfortunately everyone "hears" everyone, so there's no gain from not being a jerk, so there's lots of jerks.