8 ms·

Email.radio – Free Email Domain for Licensed Ham Radio Operators

150 points by notmysql_ 3y ago

mal10c 3y ago
Neat, but I wish there were more information. I'm an active ham but curious about how much space I get, are my emails encrypted or readable on the server, etc.
- robcohen 3y ago
  They are using Mailcow, so no, your emails are not encrypted. In general, unless you're using PGP, email is not reasonable to assume that it's encrypted ever. I use Protonmail, and I still don't trust it at all.
  - nilespotter 3y ago
    Indeed they are encrypted [1], just not with user-supplied credentials. [1] https://docs.mailcow.email/manual-guides/Dovecot/u_e-dovecot-mail-crypt/ https://docs.mailcow.email/manual-guides/Dovecot/u_e-dovecot...
- kq4gvp 3y ago
  Storage is 1GB by default (you can ask for more when you reach that limit), and emails are sorta encrypted. I find it weird that emails are ‘encrypted’ with a key pair that are on the same email server. I’m going to attempt to find a way to make emails encrypted with your own key/pass combination.
giancarlostoro 3y ago
I'm not a ham operator, though I debated it a few years ago, I just don't even know where to start, and have zero equipment. I wonder if a better email would be to match your call sign, I assume you have to announce it when communicating with new people? Or am I making a bad assumption, even so, that would maybe make it much easier for someone to figure out how to get to you via email.
- mal10c 3y ago
  For ham operators, there's Winlink, which is an email system that uses ham frequencies to exchange messages. And yep, there are rules where you need to say your call sign periodically, and Winlink does that on your behalf.
- robcohen 3y ago
  Check out the ARRL website. They have a few ham radio Technician class (lowest class) books that you can study and take the test with. https://www.arrl.org/getting-your-technician-license https://www.arrl.org/getting-your-technician-license Once you pass, you can use some of the ham radio bands. Plenty of guides on reddit on how to start.
- thcipriani 3y ago
  If you're in the US, spend a weekend doing flashcards on https://hamstudy.org/ https://hamstudy.org/ then find an exam to get your ticket. Buy a cheapo handy-talky. Use radioreference to find your local repeaters. And get on the air! You are required to announce your call sign. And you can find anyone by their call sign in the FCC's Universal License System.
  - crossroadsguy 3y ago
    Is there a primer somewhere that tells us someone, who is interested but knows pretty much nothing about all this yet, what all this means? As in what are the equipments one must have (as bare minimum), or should have, what are the daily uses (other than things like helping out during disaster etc)? What are the fun aspects of it - for someone who is setting into and not from an “old timer’s” pov? I am mostly curious about what it would be mean to use it actually. Will one need to have huge antennas and consoles etc? Or something handheld works and if it’s handheld then how short the range is? Whenever I try to read about it, almost everywhere it immediately becomes pedantic and jargon filled.
    - wiml 3y ago
      It's such a broad hobby that there isn't really a least common denominator. The easiest way to get into it is probably voice chat on VHF — a cheap Baofeng brand handheld radio and a license will get you on the air and you can decide if you want to spend a few hundred USD on a better radio. But these days, a lot of stuff can be done using cellular+internet that used to be the domain of hams. Voice comms can be fun (the local repeater nets kept me sane during pandemic isolation) but they're not exotic any more. The other corners of the hobby are kind of esoteric. It's hard to say what might interest you.
TimTheTinker 3y ago
I'm strongly inclined not to trust this without more info on who is behind it and how well secured their infrastructure is. As the center of online identity, email is incredibly vulnerable -- even more so than access to a person's phone number. Don't use email by anyone you can't trust to respect your privacy and especially to keep it safe from malicious, capable third party threat agents.
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  I can and will assume whoever is behind this is most definitely not a ham operator nor someone in that community on account of the website not looking like something from 1995. If there's anything I found to be common of all the ham operators I've met or heard of, it's that they're all electrical engineers at heart with not a single fuck in the world available for form or aesthetics. Jank and old-fashioned are their pride and passion. Source: Father is ham operator, has the time of his life janking it up with his ham friends who likewise jank it up. P.S. Not supporting POP3 is asinine.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - reesericci 3y ago
    I know the person behind this personally and can attest that they are a licensed ham.
    - ryanisnan 3y ago
      I don't mean to be crass, but a ~2 year old HN account with no discernible attachment to a real-world identity, and 38 karma, means nothing.
      - esdf 3y ago
        You can google their username which looks like a pretty discernible attachment to a real-world identity to me.
jancsika 3y ago
Makes me wonder-- is there a simple forum or something where only Ham Radio operators can sign up and post stuff? It'd be neat if the 2nd step to signup was to get on and verbally ask one of the other operators to confirm your account. :)
- zikduruqe 3y ago
  https://www.qrz.com https://www.qrz.com I believe.
bitzun 3y ago
How is this better than the arrl.net forwarding service? http://www.arrl.org/member-support http://www.arrl.org/member-support
- shizcakes 3y ago
  ARRL membership is not free.
  - LeoPanthera 3y ago
    Neither is an amateur radio license.
    - BenjiWiebe 3y ago
      One year of ARRL is more expensive than 10 years of a ham radio license.
- kq4gvp 3y ago
  I mean it's not really. I just find it cool to have a short domain which I use for QSL cards.
anonymousiam 3y ago
There's another way to do this. 30+ years ago I added an MX record for my callsign to the ampr.org DNS. Back then Brian Kantor was the admin out of UCSD. He passed several years ago and I'm not sure who's running it now. The DNS is intended to resolve ampr.org domains to IPs on AMPRNET (not Internet), but they are bridged so it doesn't matter. https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/11/24/0051236/brian-kantor-internet-and-amprnet-pioneer-wb6cyt-dies https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/11/24/0051236/brian-kanto... Anyway, my mail server still gets mail to (anything)@(my call).ampr.org. Of course it's mostly spam. https://www.ardc.net https://www.ardc.net
dawidpotocki 3y ago
It's weird for me to see IMAP with STARTTLS on 143 instead of IMAPS on 993. Not sure why anyone would do this.
Sophira 3y ago
Nice idea! However, I can't seem to access the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, which are required to be agreed to in order to sign up. (Yes, I am one of the ~12 people in the world who actually read those.) Are these available anywhere?
- kq4gvp 3y ago
  Hi, sorry! I forgot to upload the nunjucks template! I'm finally at school so I'll do that right now :) Edit: https://email.radio/terms https://email.radio/terms and https://email.radio/privacy https://email.radio/privacy
hkt 3y ago
I love this kind of thing and massively encourage the (seemingly very young!) operator to keep their desire to provide useful and interesting stuff for their community. People who do that carry on their crafts and interests to a new generation and are to be applauded. One thing I'd add that's slightly less positive is.. well, running email infrastructure is a huge PITA when it goes wrong. Be careful!
tedchs 3y ago
I tried signing up and got an error: Template render error: (/root/email.radio_admin/views/applied.njk) [Line 32, Column 54] Error: Unable to call `date["getFullYear"]`, which is undefined or falsey at Object._prettifyError (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/lib.js:32:11) at /root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:464:19 at Template.root [as rootRenderFunc] (eval at _compile (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:527:18), <anonymous>:21:3) at Template.render (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:454:10) at /root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:301:27 at createTemplate (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:254:9) at handle (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:265:11) at /root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:276:9 at next (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/lib.js:258:7) at Object.asyncIter (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/lib.js:263:3)
- kq4gvp 3y ago
  Fixed! Also it no longer runs in the root directory (if someone points that out later).
  - doublerabbit 3y ago
    That it was running from the root directory. Tell me you hadn't planned to keep it in /root/? If anyone uploaded a malicious file, they could potentially gain access to the whole system. Especially as this is an email client that allows attachments.
    - kq4gvp 3y ago
      I haven’t planned to keep it in /root. It ran as a separate user, but in that directory. Plus that thing only contains the homepage and the form, not emails, accounts, attachments, etc. That’s also ran as a separate user (as mailcow is dockerised)
jdpedrie 3y ago
I recently setup a new domain with a wildcard forwarder (e.g. *@newdomain -> my real email). I hand out specific names to companies that want emails, and if they bug me I just blackhole that address. It has worked well so far, though it might break down eventually if the domain gets spammed? Not sure. Anyways, the domain I used has a 5-character TLD, and some sites have rejected it for that reason. Just a word of warning that >3 char TLDs might not be universally useful. Those sites probably store passwords in plaintext too.
- Rudism 3y ago
  In my experience trying to send email from any address with something other than .com, .net, .org, and most 2-character country TLDs automatically counts against it by spam blockers to the point where users have to whitelist the address to see any emails (and even then they sometimes don't get them). Even newer three-character TLDs like .xyz are practically useless for sending emails.
  - jdpedrie 3y ago
    I've seen similar. In this case though, I'm only receiving so it's not a concern.
  - packetlost 3y ago
    I haven't had issues with my .dev domains, but I'll keep an eye out.
- chris72205 3y ago
  I did this as well and have liked it for the most part, but would also recommend using an older, established TLD. I went with `.email` because... it just seemed fitting at the time and it's been depressing how many sites won't allow it because it's "not a valid domain". Or worse, I've been able to register an account successfully only to be blocked by the login form which uses a different validation configuration (looking at you, REI).
- KomoD 3y ago
  > some sites have rejected it for that reason. Very rarely in my experience with a 4-char TLD
ravenstine 3y ago
Too bad this only seems to be a service for ham. If the creator is reading this, is there any reason not to also allow GMRS call signs?
klinquist 3y ago
Neat, I guess - but I just registered "my call sign.com" and pointed the MX record to my primary domain (my last name). I'm working on another ham-related software project. Do you have an automated way of verifying licenses? I was thinking of making someone add a string to the end of their qrz profile, but I'd like something a little more elegant. -W1ADV
- jonesetc 3y ago
  The database of licenses is public through the the ULS [0], and ae7q [1] has a bunch of archives and information about how to use that and provides tools itself that I used when finding a vanity. -K5ETC [0] https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/universal-licensing-system https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/universal-licensing-system [1] https://www.ae7q.com/query/stat/DataBase.php?SCHEMA=Lic https://www.ae7q.com/query/stat/DataBase.php?SCHEMA=Lic
- pcunning 3y ago
  Verifying lisences is a messy process. Most processes I have experenced ask for an uploaded (official copy) pdf from the FCC ULS. LOTW sends a postcard to the registered address. LOTW certs can be used to “prove” your identity but it’s more complicated than most will endure.
- kq4gvp 3y ago
  For email.radio, I tend to just match the IP location to the address listed on the license. I also thought about using the navigator.geolocation location API to automatically verify users, but that could easily be spoofed. I do know that some use postcards and make you upload your official license. EchoLink has an option to charge your card $1 to match your billing address to your callsign address automatically. https://www.echolink.org/validation/validation_ccauth.jsp https://www.echolink.org/validation/validation_ccauth.jsp
  - klinquist 3y ago
    Heh, I use privacy.com credit cards for all online purchases, and they approve any billing address.
ztetranz 3y ago
I don't want to discourage your enthusiasm but please think carefully about this. It might be a fun project now but let me say a few things. What's going to happen in a year or two when you lose interest or get too busy with other things? I'm sure you give no guarantees so you have no real obligation but nobody likes to disappoint people. What's going to happen when something stops working while you're away for a long weekend and someone foolish enough to use this as their primary email address is waiting for something important? I've done vaguely similar things on a small scale for friends but I will never host mailboxes again. They are a PITA. They tend to grow. Some IMAP implementations can be heavy on resources. Migration can be a pain if you want to move to another server. I'll happily to do email forwarding for friends at a hobby level but not be responsible for storing mail. It's just not worth the trouble. Free is not sustainable if it gets popular. With that out the way, welcome to ham radio. I've been a ham since I was 14 and that was over 50 years ago :) My interest and activity level have fluctuated over the years but I still do some digital modes on HF and like to listen around with an SDR.
- kq4gvp 3y ago
  You’re totally right. Maintaining this service will be a toll and in a few years, I may not be interested in this. My current plan is if I ever do have to shut down email.radio, I’ll have the servers up for at least an extra year, then allow people to fetch their data for a couple of extra years. Currently, I’m trying to get email.radio into a ‘low-maintenance’ stage. Meaning, I won’t need to login to the host server practically ever, only to update the mailcow instance. I have plans to keep this sustained for quite a while, as I would like someone to place on my resume, lol.
ShakataGaNai 3y ago
I can register mycallsign.tld for any number of TLD’s, .us, .eu, .radio…and $50/year for hosting it on Fastmail. It’s fully within my control. But realistically, you can also register mycallsign@gmail.com and have an easy to use email for free.

150 points by notmysql_ 3y ago

Neat, but I wish there were more information. I'm an active ham but curious about how much space I get, are my emails encrypted or readable on the server, etc.

robcohen 3y ago
They are using Mailcow, so no, your emails are not encrypted. In general, unless you're using PGP, email is not reasonable to assume that it's encrypted ever. I use Protonmail, and I still don't trust it at all.
- nilespotter 3y ago
  Indeed they are encrypted [1], just not with user-supplied credentials. [1] https://docs.mailcow.email/manual-guides/Dovecot/u_e-dovecot-mail-crypt/ https://docs.mailcow.email/manual-guides/Dovecot/u_e-dovecot...
kq4gvp 3y ago
Storage is 1GB by default (you can ask for more when you reach that limit), and emails are sorta encrypted. I find it weird that emails are ‘encrypted’ with a key pair that are on the same email server. I’m going to attempt to find a way to make emails encrypted with your own key/pass combination.

giancarlostoro 3y ago

I'm not a ham operator, though I debated it a few years ago, I just don't even know where to start, and have zero equipment. I wonder if a better email would be to match your call sign, I assume you have to announce it when communicating with new people? Or am I making a bad assumption, even so, that would maybe make it much easier for someone to figure out how to get to you via email.

mal10c 3y ago
For ham operators, there's Winlink, which is an email system that uses ham frequencies to exchange messages. And yep, there are rules where you need to say your call sign periodically, and Winlink does that on your behalf.
robcohen 3y ago
Check out the ARRL website. They have a few ham radio Technician class (lowest class) books that you can study and take the test with. https://www.arrl.org/getting-your-technician-license https://www.arrl.org/getting-your-technician-license Once you pass, you can use some of the ham radio bands. Plenty of guides on reddit on how to start.
thcipriani 3y ago
If you're in the US, spend a weekend doing flashcards on https://hamstudy.org/ https://hamstudy.org/ then find an exam to get your ticket. Buy a cheapo handy-talky. Use radioreference to find your local repeaters. And get on the air! You are required to announce your call sign. And you can find anyone by their call sign in the FCC's Universal License System.
- crossroadsguy 3y ago
  Is there a primer somewhere that tells us someone, who is interested but knows pretty much nothing about all this yet, what all this means? As in what are the equipments one must have (as bare minimum), or should have, what are the daily uses (other than things like helping out during disaster etc)? What are the fun aspects of it - for someone who is setting into and not from an “old timer’s” pov? I am mostly curious about what it would be mean to use it actually. Will one need to have huge antennas and consoles etc? Or something handheld works and if it’s handheld then how short the range is? Whenever I try to read about it, almost everywhere it immediately becomes pedantic and jargon filled.
  - wiml 3y ago
    It's such a broad hobby that there isn't really a least common denominator. The easiest way to get into it is probably voice chat on VHF — a cheap Baofeng brand handheld radio and a license will get you on the air and you can decide if you want to spend a few hundred USD on a better radio. But these days, a lot of stuff can be done using cellular+internet that used to be the domain of hams. Voice comms can be fun (the local repeater nets kept me sane during pandemic isolation) but they're not exotic any more. The other corners of the hobby are kind of esoteric. It's hard to say what might interest you.

TimTheTinker 3y ago

I'm strongly inclined not to trust this without more info on who is behind it and how well secured their infrastructure is. As the center of online identity, email is incredibly vulnerable -- even more so than access to a person's phone number. Don't use email by anyone you can't trust to respect your privacy and especially to keep it safe from malicious, capable third party threat agents.

Dalewyn 3y ago
I can and will assume whoever is behind this is most definitely not a ham operator nor someone in that community on account of the website not looking like something from 1995. If there's anything I found to be common of all the ham operators I've met or heard of, it's that they're all electrical engineers at heart with not a single fuck in the world available for form or aesthetics. Jank and old-fashioned are their pride and passion. Source: Father is ham operator, has the time of his life janking it up with his ham friends who likewise jank it up. P.S. Not supporting POP3 is asinine.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- reesericci 3y ago
  I know the person behind this personally and can attest that they are a licensed ham.
  - ryanisnan 3y ago
    I don't mean to be crass, but a ~2 year old HN account with no discernible attachment to a real-world identity, and 38 karma, means nothing.
    - esdf 3y ago
      You can google their username which looks like a pretty discernible attachment to a real-world identity to me.

jancsika 3y ago

Makes me wonder-- is there a simple forum or something where only Ham Radio operators can sign up and post stuff? It'd be neat if the 2nd step to signup was to get on and verbally ask one of the other operators to confirm your account. :)

zikduruqe 3y ago
https://www.qrz.com https://www.qrz.com I believe.

bitzun 3y ago

How is this better than the arrl.net forwarding service? http://www.arrl.org/member-support http://www.arrl.org/member-support

shizcakes 3y ago
ARRL membership is not free.
- LeoPanthera 3y ago
  Neither is an amateur radio license.
  - BenjiWiebe 3y ago
    One year of ARRL is more expensive than 10 years of a ham radio license.
kq4gvp 3y ago
I mean it's not really. I just find it cool to have a short domain which I use for QSL cards.

anonymousiam 3y ago

There's another way to do this. 30+ years ago I added an MX record for my callsign to the ampr.org DNS. Back then Brian Kantor was the admin out of UCSD. He passed several years ago and I'm not sure who's running it now. The DNS is intended to resolve ampr.org domains to IPs on AMPRNET (not Internet), but they are bridged so it doesn't matter. https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/11/24/0051236/brian-kantor-internet-and-amprnet-pioneer-wb6cyt-dies https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/11/24/0051236/brian-kanto... Anyway, my mail server still gets mail to (anything)@(my call).ampr.org. Of course it's mostly spam. https://www.ardc.net https://www.ardc.net

dawidpotocki 3y ago

It's weird for me to see IMAP with STARTTLS on 143 instead of IMAPS on 993. Not sure why anyone would do this.

Sophira 3y ago

Nice idea! However, I can't seem to access the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, which are required to be agreed to in order to sign up. (Yes, I am one of the ~12 people in the world who actually read those.) Are these available anywhere?

kq4gvp 3y ago
Hi, sorry! I forgot to upload the nunjucks template! I'm finally at school so I'll do that right now :) Edit: https://email.radio/terms https://email.radio/terms and https://email.radio/privacy https://email.radio/privacy

hkt 3y ago

I love this kind of thing and massively encourage the (seemingly very young!) operator to keep their desire to provide useful and interesting stuff for their community. People who do that carry on their crafts and interests to a new generation and are to be applauded. One thing I'd add that's slightly less positive is.. well, running email infrastructure is a huge PITA when it goes wrong. Be careful!

tedchs 3y ago

I tried signing up and got an error: Template render error: (/root/email.radio_admin/views/applied.njk) [Line 32, Column 54] Error: Unable to call `date["getFullYear"]`, which is undefined or falsey at Object._prettifyError (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/lib.js:32:11) at /root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:464:19 at Template.root [as rootRenderFunc] (eval at _compile (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:527:18), <anonymous>:21:3) at Template.render (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:454:10) at /root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:301:27 at createTemplate (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:254:9) at handle (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:265:11) at /root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/environment.js:276:9 at next (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/lib.js:258:7) at Object.asyncIter (/root/email.radio_admin/node_modules/nunjucks/src/lib.js:263:3)

kq4gvp 3y ago
Fixed! Also it no longer runs in the root directory (if someone points that out later).
- doublerabbit 3y ago
  That it was running from the root directory. Tell me you hadn't planned to keep it in /root/? If anyone uploaded a malicious file, they could potentially gain access to the whole system. Especially as this is an email client that allows attachments.
  - kq4gvp 3y ago
    I haven’t planned to keep it in /root. It ran as a separate user, but in that directory. Plus that thing only contains the homepage and the form, not emails, accounts, attachments, etc. That’s also ran as a separate user (as mailcow is dockerised)

jdpedrie 3y ago

I recently setup a new domain with a wildcard forwarder (e.g. *@newdomain -> my real email). I hand out specific names to companies that want emails, and if they bug me I just blackhole that address. It has worked well so far, though it might break down eventually if the domain gets spammed? Not sure. Anyways, the domain I used has a 5-character TLD, and some sites have rejected it for that reason. Just a word of warning that >3 char TLDs might not be universally useful. Those sites probably store passwords in plaintext too.

Rudism 3y ago
In my experience trying to send email from any address with something other than .com, .net, .org, and most 2-character country TLDs automatically counts against it by spam blockers to the point where users have to whitelist the address to see any emails (and even then they sometimes don't get them). Even newer three-character TLDs like .xyz are practically useless for sending emails.
- jdpedrie 3y ago
  I've seen similar. In this case though, I'm only receiving so it's not a concern.
- packetlost 3y ago
  I haven't had issues with my .dev domains, but I'll keep an eye out.
chris72205 3y ago
I did this as well and have liked it for the most part, but would also recommend using an older, established TLD. I went with `.email` because... it just seemed fitting at the time and it's been depressing how many sites won't allow it because it's "not a valid domain". Or worse, I've been able to register an account successfully only to be blocked by the login form which uses a different validation configuration (looking at you, REI).
KomoD 3y ago
> some sites have rejected it for that reason. Very rarely in my experience with a 4-char TLD

ravenstine 3y ago

Too bad this only seems to be a service for ham. If the creator is reading this, is there any reason not to also allow GMRS call signs?

klinquist 3y ago

Neat, I guess - but I just registered "my call sign.com" and pointed the MX record to my primary domain (my last name). I'm working on another ham-related software project. Do you have an automated way of verifying licenses? I was thinking of making someone add a string to the end of their qrz profile, but I'd like something a little more elegant. -W1ADV

jonesetc 3y ago
The database of licenses is public through the the ULS [0], and ae7q [1] has a bunch of archives and information about how to use that and provides tools itself that I used when finding a vanity. -K5ETC [0] https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/universal-licensing-system https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/universal-licensing-system [1] https://www.ae7q.com/query/stat/DataBase.php?SCHEMA=Lic https://www.ae7q.com/query/stat/DataBase.php?SCHEMA=Lic
pcunning 3y ago
Verifying lisences is a messy process. Most processes I have experenced ask for an uploaded (official copy) pdf from the FCC ULS. LOTW sends a postcard to the registered address. LOTW certs can be used to “prove” your identity but it’s more complicated than most will endure.
kq4gvp 3y ago
For email.radio, I tend to just match the IP location to the address listed on the license. I also thought about using the navigator.geolocation location API to automatically verify users, but that could easily be spoofed. I do know that some use postcards and make you upload your official license. EchoLink has an option to charge your card $1 to match your billing address to your callsign address automatically. https://www.echolink.org/validation/validation_ccauth.jsp https://www.echolink.org/validation/validation_ccauth.jsp
- klinquist 3y ago
  Heh, I use privacy.com credit cards for all online purchases, and they approve any billing address.

ztetranz 3y ago

I don't want to discourage your enthusiasm but please think carefully about this. It might be a fun project now but let me say a few things. What's going to happen in a year or two when you lose interest or get too busy with other things? I'm sure you give no guarantees so you have no real obligation but nobody likes to disappoint people. What's going to happen when something stops working while you're away for a long weekend and someone foolish enough to use this as their primary email address is waiting for something important? I've done vaguely similar things on a small scale for friends but I will never host mailboxes again. They are a PITA. They tend to grow. Some IMAP implementations can be heavy on resources. Migration can be a pain if you want to move to another server. I'll happily to do email forwarding for friends at a hobby level but not be responsible for storing mail. It's just not worth the trouble. Free is not sustainable if it gets popular. With that out the way, welcome to ham radio. I've been a ham since I was 14 and that was over 50 years ago :) My interest and activity level have fluctuated over the years but I still do some digital modes on HF and like to listen around with an SDR.

kq4gvp 3y ago
You’re totally right. Maintaining this service will be a toll and in a few years, I may not be interested in this. My current plan is if I ever do have to shut down email.radio, I’ll have the servers up for at least an extra year, then allow people to fetch their data for a couple of extra years. Currently, I’m trying to get email.radio into a ‘low-maintenance’ stage. Meaning, I won’t need to login to the host server practically ever, only to update the mailcow instance. I have plans to keep this sustained for quite a while, as I would like someone to place on my resume, lol.

ShakataGaNai 3y ago

I can register mycallsign.tld for any number of TLD’s, .us, .eu, .radio…and $50/year for hosting it on Fastmail. It’s fully within my control. But realistically, you can also register mycallsign@gmail.com and have an easy to use email for free.