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When I got my ham radio license they told us that listening is never against the law. decrypting anything or transmitting on unlicensed frequencies are major of

by aeonik 4y ago

When I got my ham radio license they told us that listening is never against the law. decrypting anything or transmitting on unlicensed frequencies are major offenses, on the other hand.

kube-system 4y ago
That’s probably a bit of a generalization — they likely said that thinking about the FCC rules that a new ham would be dealing with. Since the focus of those test/classes is to get an FCC license. As I understand, telecom traffic is a big exception to this because of wiretap laws which are not FCC regulations, they’re criminal law which the FCC doesn’t really have anything to do with. Try searching radioreference forums for “pager decoding” as a counter example. I didn’t spend a lot of time searching FCCs site but they do mention this parenthetically in this article: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/interception-and-divulgence-radio-communications https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/interception-and-divulg... Of course, you should be able to follow wiretap law by listening to your own devices. They same way people use wireshark legally: run it on your own network.
- aeonik 4y ago
  Thank you for the link. I definitely need to review the legislation. I definitely remember that the license let's me operatea police scanner while your driving. For example here in Michigan the law explicitly allows ham radio licensees more privileges: http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-750-508 http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-750-508
  - kube-system 4y ago
    Well, most states don't penalize anyone for operating a police scanner. It seems pretty important that MI would have that exception the way that statute is written, otherwise it would prohibit the ownership of ham radios. Because ... > a radio receiving set that will receive signals sent on a frequency assigned by the federal communications commission of the United States for police or other law enforcement, fire fighting, emergency medical, federal, state, or local corrections, or homeland security purposes. ... doesn't just describe police scanners. It describes basically all VHF/UHF ham radios.

by aeonik 4y ago

When I got my ham radio license they told us that listening is never against the law. decrypting anything or transmitting on unlicensed frequencies are major offenses, on the other hand.

kube-system 4y ago

That’s probably a bit of a generalization — they likely said that thinking about the FCC rules that a new ham would be dealing with. Since the focus of those test/classes is to get an FCC license. As I understand, telecom traffic is a big exception to this because of wiretap laws which are not FCC regulations, they’re criminal law which the FCC doesn’t really have anything to do with. Try searching radioreference forums for “pager decoding” as a counter example. I didn’t spend a lot of time searching FCCs site but they do mention this parenthetically in this article: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/interception-and-divulgence-radio-communications https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/interception-and-divulg... Of course, you should be able to follow wiretap law by listening to your own devices. They same way people use wireshark legally: run it on your own network.

aeonik 4y ago
Thank you for the link. I definitely need to review the legislation. I definitely remember that the license let's me operatea police scanner while your driving. For example here in Michigan the law explicitly allows ham radio licensees more privileges: http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-750-508 http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?mcl-750-508
- kube-system 4y ago
  Well, most states don't penalize anyone for operating a police scanner. It seems pretty important that MI would have that exception the way that statute is written, otherwise it would prohibit the ownership of ham radios. Because ... > a radio receiving set that will receive signals sent on a frequency assigned by the federal communications commission of the United States for police or other law enforcement, fire fighting, emergency medical, federal, state, or local corrections, or homeland security purposes. ... doesn't just describe police scanners. It describes basically all VHF/UHF ham radios.