3 ms·
Ham radio relies on self-policing within the community to ensure compliance with the rules - the biggest one being "no commercial use". The "no commercial use"
by tjohns 5y ago
Ham radio relies on self-policing within the community to ensure compliance with the rules - the biggest one being "no commercial use".
The "no commercial use" rule ensures companies aren't using the limited ham radio spectrum as a workaround to getting their own dedicated license and frequency allocation.
If encryption were allowed, there'd be no way for other users to verify whether traffic is commercial or not.
- alibarber 5y agoI always thought that encryption not being allowed was a way to discourage illegal commercial use of it. No business wants their comms in the clear with no means of verifying the sender of the message - so ham radio would be useless to them.
- fragmede 5y agoBut even not-for-business, I don't want someone else to be able to impersonate others, so signatures/verification still needs to be supported. Otherwise someone who's good at voice impersonations of others could wreak havok.
- tjohns 5y agoThere is no rule against using digital signatures for authentication. Your actual message just has to be in the clear. The exact wording is in 97.113: "No amateur station shall transmit... messages encoded for the purpose of obscuring their meaning".