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Comment by moreentropy | Hacker News Reader

Private messages, relaying for 3rd parties and encryption are prohibited in Ham Radio, so thinking about (international) transactions over ham radio is just plain bullshit. This is the first thing every licensed Ham learns.

What you're looking at here are licensed commercial radio services.

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> relaying for 3rd parties

That's not against the rules. The Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) gets it's name for doing this. It's illegal to hide these messages or to use them for a commercial purpose. Original HAMs used to do radio telegrams (radiograms) for the public [0].

[0] - http://www.ncarrl.org/nets/mes_form.html

> Original HAMs used to do radio telegrams (radiograms) for the public

HAMs still do this. Messages from people isolated in Puerto Rico by hurricane Maria were relayed to the US mainland via HAM radio operators on the island. For some time that was the only thing available.

Bitcoin transaction is basically a broadcast, which you can analyze freely. No decryption, just encoding and signing.

Broadcasts are prohibited in ham radio.

For the US, see https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=1a361a6eb3d1594e6a...

> (b) An amateur station shall not engage in any form of broadcasting, nor may an amateur station transmit one-way communications except as specifically provided in these rules;

>>>Private messages (...) are prohibited in Ham Radio

> Broadcasts are also prohibited in ham radio.

Wait what? Isn't any message either broadcast or private?

No, it's either one-way or two-way. One-way is usually prohibited except in a few case, two-way is usually fine unless it violates one of the prohibitions like encryption. Your two-way communications using ham radio are public, not private.

"Broadcast" is defined as "transmissions for the consumption by the general public", at least in the US. Not one-way vs two-way.

It seems broadcasting is prohibited, but broadcasting is defined as:

> (10) Broadcasting. Transmissions intended for reception by the general public, either direct or relayed.

Edit: quote is take from "Definitions" section of sciurus link.

A two-way conversation that involves short periods of what's technically "broadcasting" is very different from "tune in at 10pm to hear me talk for an hour".

Also a lot of messages in the bitcoin blockchain are encrypted

Edit: https://github.com/barisser/bitcrypt

Must be others too

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