Handheld two-way radios for preppers and other curious folks
lcamtuf.coredump.cx
lcamtuf.coredump.cx
And some of those groups are pushing people to get their FCC Ham license and use VHF radios because they can be used over greater distances.
Unfortunately, almost none of those folks are actually practicing with their radios to become comfortable using them.
So when an emergency occurs, they have no idea of what to do on the air, and they will cause harmful interference because they are willfully ignorant of the local communication protocols already set up by generations of Ham operators.
They will be a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.
I put on a "Jump Bag" presentation every year in my small town, and I warn folks that if they get an FRS radio or Ham radio, that they need to practice with it and become comfortable using it, otherwise they will not be helpful during an emergency, and will cause problems with the coordinated Hams.
Aside from that, I also recommend against getting an FRS radio unless they are willing to make sure the batteries in them are replaced on a regular basis, otherwise when the emergency occurs, they will find a dead FRS radio with corroded battery contacts, basically a paperweight and nothing more.
73, KE6---
I've had many discussions with these type of folks, and for them it's almost like a merit badge to get a radio and talk it up, but they never learn how to use them because they don't feel they need to.
They just don't want to take the time to become familiar/proficient with that particular "tool".
It's quite similar to some gun owners who purchase a handgun and then never learn how to safely handle it, and never go to a range and practice with it.
It appears to me, to be a cultural/generational problem of over assessment of their own abilities.
But Not afraid, I've already seen it happen.
Thanks for clarifying.
Yes, those who have Ham radios and don't know the protocols will cause interference because they don't understand how emergency communications occur.
It's a strict protocol called a "Net", used to minimize Errors, which can be life threatening under emergency conditions.
I've seen it happen during minor earthquakes and tsunami alerts, they become a problem, and in no way are contributing to the solution.
Too much Noise, not enough Signal, interferes with emergency communications.
Ham radio isn't a panacea, it's not going to help you unless you know how to use the "tool" properly.
Sadly, the digital protocols for local use in the VHF/UHF bands available to new hams (2m / 70 cm) are generally boring 1980/90s-esque technology. Would be nice if a newer system came about for messaging and bulletin board type systems - voice doesn't scale.
Also there's some metro area WiFi mesh networks which operate in amateur spectrum. That's a good bit of fun.
>They will be a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.
is what is party behind it.
Are you saying cellphones for everyone are harmful because emergency lines are usually ddossed during an emergency? Yes there is a difference in channel access but cheap radios provide you with the very important capability of being able to listen and most people are not stupid, and abusing your radio will end up killing the battery anyway.
Ie. you are overestimating the issues caused and not taking into account all the positives they provide.
As rude as RTFM sounds, it's the only antidote.
Do I just keep talking into the void and waiting?
Also, I have cheap equipment, so scanning is really slow and I don't know if it even really works. I can make simplex connections on 70cm and 2m with friends when I prearrange, but that's it.
I don't have tons of time but if I felt like I could hop into a conversation and be welcome (and others would be patient) then I would sometimes.
Experiences vary a good bit based on location and ability to transmit. You'll be able to hit far more repeaters if you have a mobile setup or the ability to operate a decent bit of power from your home safely. I live in a pretty metropolitan area and can easily hit or at least listen to a dozen or so repeaters in the area on 25W on a mobile with a j-pole in my attic. When I had access to a multi-story parking garage I had somewhat similar access with just a handheld and a decent whip antenna. Getting altitude can make a good bit of difference in making waves.
I was surprised to find that during an emergency, FM broadcast reception alone can be an awesome solution for many, if not most. Some friends wandered over to my ham shack to ask if that was where the action was, but most of my information came from the local public/NPR station's hourly reports. (The ham repeaters were useful for hyper-local fire spotting, and generator/gear questions.)
BaoFeng units can transmit on a wide range of frequencies, and non-ham users with no clue as to what's permitted can blither all over a big chunk of spectrum. BaoFeng also added a button that transmits an electronic siren sound, allowing idiots to annoy people for miles around. Further if they hit a repeater. The things are very cheap; about $10 each in quantity 6.
In my neighborhood as one example, FRS users purchase from one of the local or local chain stores, which carry Cobra, Midland, or Motorola radios.
Even if you purchase from Amazon, they changed their rules some time ago and require proper FCC certification on all radios. This means that you can't buy an FRS radio from Amazon which will let you do what you said. Even the Baofeng FRS units will come without the ability to go into ham bands.
And even then, if you managed to buy FRS radios without FCC certification, they come pre-programmed with FRS channels (so that they do what the label says they do) and would have to be programmed manually to use ham frequencies. I'm not sure which FRS users would or could realistically go through the trouble to do that, if any.
(It seems to me that the Baofeng danger-danger straw man gets larger by the day but it's still straw, and unfair given that licensing is done and specs are met.)
Frequency range:
[TX] 136 – 174MHz, 400 – 520MHz
[RX] 136 – 174MHz, 400 – 520MHz, 68-108MHz (FM Broadcast)
In fact it's extremely rare to find an FRS user with a radio like a UV-5R. Most of them are using Motorola Talkabouts, or Cobras, or Midland radios.
Another part of the reason for the lack of popularity is that people like to buy brand-name, popular radios that their friends recommend, and another part is that Baofeng does a better job advertising their FRS radios that are purpose-built for FRS. People shopping for an FRS radio like to buy something that says "FRS" on the box.
(The only person I ever met who used a Baofeng on FRS frequencies was a licensed GMRS user, and their use was 100% OK, of course)
This used to be true of a few models of ham radios, but A) the manufacturers have largely fixed that situation, B) those were mostly sold as ham radios and we're talking here about COTS FRS radios, which are easily testable and there are no complaints I could find online, and C) these are also 2W LOS radios which cannot legally be sold with a numeric keypad or be fitted with a new antenna. Not exactly a threat to local amateur operations... Oh and D) In years of operation I've never had a single problem from either others' spurious emissions affecting my operations or FRS users on the ham bands.
Some people feel like HAM has no practical use outside of emergencies but there are definitely places where the owners of the spectrum have failed to build the infrastructure needed to use it.
Depends on the location. The company I work for produces a mountain-top repeater[0] series. Hundreds of them are distributed throughout the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, providing an expansive coverage for handheld devices.
If you're curious about what an installation site looks like atop a mountain, check out pages 38-39 in an older product guide[1].
[0]: https://codancomms.com/products/mt-4e-series
[1]: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/38724760/land-mobile-...
:-)
Perhaps you should install UBlock origin.
* https://caraham.org/resources/Documents/Learning%20Conferenc... - page 37 in the PDF (29 in the document) shows various radio towers atop of mountains
* https://cdn.codancomms.com/general-downloads/Products/User-G... - overview of radio communications fundamentals
I keep reading about all of these very interesting protocols for texting over HAM radio ... and a lot of them seem very promising.
My next step is to survey the landscape of devices that could be used to actually send and receive these text messages ... and there are none.
Am I mistaken ? Does there exist a handheld radio that can be used to send and receive text messages over one of these HAM protocols ?
The last thing ham radio needs is corporations just taking our bands, or ham radio getting banned in unstable countries over espionage concerns.
If you want encryption, use a cellphone, LoRaWAN etc.
You're not entirely wrong, an undocumented plaintext protocol is functionally not much different from encryption.
However, those which are legitimate (ie, just undocumented, not intentionally encrypted/obfuscated) don't tend to cause problems as only one or few ham devs would be using them. They can only get widespread adoption by other hams if they are documented. So this regulates itself.
A corporation, on the other hand, is not like some ham dev coming up with their own protocol. They can design their own protocol, and then roll it out on thousands (or much more) of transmitters. So just one corporation can cause quite a big problem, with zero public documentation.
The laws as they are, together with direction finding skills, are the communities only (legal) tool to defend against that.
That does not mean hams don't see the value in encryption. I do! But it's a trade-off, and I think this is the only way it can work. The legal change I would like to see is explicitly allowing cryptographic signatures. Right now it's a grey area (likely legal, but not court tested)
> They can only get widespread adoption by other hams if they are documented.
> So this regulates itself
Until the first project gets traction that allows you to easily drop in public/private key encryption of payload.
There are already protocols that are widely used in ham radio that support encryption. For example, DMR supports encryption (because DMR can also operate in commercial bands, under different laws), it's just not used for ham radio and I've never seen a ham turn it on. Wifi supports encryption, and ham radio operators using it in ham radio bands (with more power) actually turn encryption on but document the PSK publicly (in an attempt to keep the non hams out, but make the encryption more an encoding that anyone could decode).
In my experience, ham radio operators generally roughly follow the rules.
You could incorporate cryptographic signatures, diffie-helmann key exchanges, all kinds of fun stuff, and so long as you periodically transmit the decryption key, you're not hiding anything. I'm not sure what the legality of this is.
Yes, encryption would make some enforcement actions slightly harder, but we tolerate it in plenty of other settings where you have a constrained, shared resource. Wifi comes to mind. Nobody gets upset that you can't examine your neighbors' packets to make sure they're following the law or not using the spectrum for a purpose other than "bona fide" home wifi. Even though the wifi spectrum in urban areas is far more crowded than ham frequencies.
For much of the hobby's history, the government was deeply distrustful of amateur radio. They flat out banned all operations during WWI and WWII. And a lot of ham radio folks reminisce about the good old times when the government had listening stations and amateur radio enforcement operations throughout the country, and would knock on the doors of any amateurs who did anything wrong. Well, they funded that not because they shared your passion, but because they wanted to keep Soviet spies at bay.
The ban on encryption was supposed to serve the government's interests, nothing more. If you worry about corporations misusing the spectrum, it's sufficient to require identification in plain text; if somebody is using amateur callsigns but sending 9-to-5 chatter on a fixed frequency every day, and you pinpoint it to a local warehouse, that's more enough for enforcement action, right? Except... there is almost no enforcement these days, because the Cold War is over and the government lost all interest.
Ham radio getting "banned in unstable countries" seems like a whimsical concern, too. First, many other countries do not restrict encryption the way US does. Secondly, in the era of the Internet, mesh networking, ubiquitous smartphones, etc, ham radio hardly registers on the radar for most governments. Maybe in North Korea... so let's ban encryption domestically, including in the short-distance VHF/UHF band, to stay on Kim's good side?
Right now at night we turn on the radios and check the local repeaters for activity and whatnot. Hear some interesting QSOs. If everyone is chatting encrypted this won't work.
It also would enable people to use it as a free alternative for a commercial license - after all when it's encrypted we can't check that it's not used for such a purpose anymore. Using locations as you suggest isn't enough as it will need really targeted surveillance. Also, for a warehouse any of the free radio modes are more than sufficient in range.
The ban on encryption isn't really much to do with espionage. Spies don't need a license.
As you note, there are something like 700,000 licensed people in the US, but if you tune in to your local repeater and listen for a month, you will hear the same 2-8 people, typically in their 70s - and that's about it. They're there due to force of habit, and when they die, they're not going to be replaced. The same demographics can be observed for most ham clubs, maybe outside the SF Bay Area (where the median age is closer to 50).
So what are we really protecting here - a "community" representing and speaking on behalf of maybe 0.1% of all licensed individuals? Is this something to treasure, or should we bite the bullet and instead encourage a larger group of people to build something new?
And I hate to say this, but I think this situation is of their own doing. The old-timers wanted all the newcomers to follow in their footsteps and get excited in exactly the same things. As evidenced in the community-developed ham exam, which deals with such exciting and timely topics as tuning vacuum tube amplifiers, receiving analog slow-scan TV signals, memorizing Morse code shorthands, and DX contests that lost most of their "oomph" when the Internet showed up.
Meanwhile, VFH / UHF handheld-to-handheld messaging is still an elusive technology, and many old-timers don't consider anything above HF to be "real ham".
That's a lot of text to just tell everyone you made up a bunch of shit. None of that shit is on licensing exams. What is on the exams are things demonstrating you've got enough knowledge to not electrocute yourself, not get RF burns, not turn your radio into a jamming device, and understand the etiquette for sharing very limited bandwidth available to amateurs.
Vacuum tube amplifier tuning: E7B09, https://hamstudy.org/browse/E4_2016/E7B
Analog slow scan television signal components: E2B10, https://hamstudy.org/browse/E4_2020/E2B
Morse code shorthands: G2C02, https://hamstudy.org/browse/E3_2015/G2C
Some morse shorthand is useful. CQ for instance. QRM, QSO and many more are all used for voice as well.
However, I will not defend the old guard too far. I get tired of the right-wing boomer conversations pretty quickly. Everything was better in the past....blah blah
I continue to be amazed at what I consider to be a very unexpected cultural intersection:
Technical, do it yourself, nearly exclusively male, out-hacking one another with radio bits ... but simultaneously vehemently defensive of, and slavishly adherent to, arbitrary government regulations that strictly limit what they can do with their hobby.
The deference to arbitrary authority in the HAM community is really jarring ...
Everyone with some sort of radio license from commercial broadcasters to amateurs have some sort of legal limits on their operation. Radio is a shared medium and being an asshole can ruin the medium for other uses over a huge area.
When it comes to encryption, good encryption is little different from noise. I also have no idea what you're doing on the band. Do you just have a mistuned radio? Are you overdriving your transmitter? What I do know is you're raising the noise floor on whatever band you're on and keeping me from using it.
Your WiFi being encrypted is a much different situation. Best case propagation is hundreds of feet and the PEP is so low that beyond a relatively short distance your transmissions literally blend into background noise for me. So your WiFi doesn't affect me too badly unless we're in adjacent apartments and you've got your output power maxed out.
Your encrypted transmissions on the rarified space available for hams ruins it for a lot of users over a wide area. That is why hams are fine with no encryption for amateur operation.
Instead, try DMR. Does voice, text and also digital APRS. Motorola and Hytera are probably the leading manufacturers of radios. Works direct and via DMR repeaters. If you have a repeater close by, you get worldwide radio to radio / talkgroup calling.
Unfortunately both modes have many, many annoying quirks/constraints.
OK, but how do I physically key in the text message from the handheld device ? Is it the old-fashioned pre-qwerty method of pressing a number once or twice or thrice to get the desired alpha character ?
Perhaps my initial question was not clear: In the most primitive of ways, how do I actually key in a text message on the handheld device ?
For analog APRS, which as I said has questionable reliability (for many reasons), you can use a smartphone app (like APRSDroid) and either an audio cable to the radio (the smartphone acts as a software TNC that will generate the signal, the radio modulates it on the carrier), or a separate hardware TNC which connects to the radio via audio, but to your phone in another way such as bluetooth low energy (like Mobilinkd TNC3). Then you can type on your phone. (In that case, the protocol is still done by the phone, the TNC only generates the signal, the radio modulates it. Which is annoying due to power consumption.) (Analog APRS support which is built in to radios is usually position report only, not messaging.)
I'd love it to have three radio decks: One ham transceiver, so I can use direct APRS-or-whatever with other nearby nodes or digipeaters, though I know the antenna will suck. One Bluetooth, so it can act as the QWERTY UI for a more powerful radio that lacks a decent keyboard (or as a generic peripheral for other projects). And one Part-15, perhaps LoRa or something, so it can also operate in an unlicensed mode with Meshtastic or something as the protocol over longer range than Bluetooth.
I'm pretty sure I could design the hardware, both the electronics and the enclosure, but I can't code my way out of a wet paper bag, so that's sort of a non-starter.
The bigger question question is, why doesn't this exist yet? Are there HTs with native Bluetooth so the texting UI could be implemented as a phone app? I know there are some with Bluetooth for other functions but I'm not clear on whether they can act as a KISS TNC over SPP.
If so, that would be a great interface to standardize on, implement the phone app for testing, then turn it into a physical gizmo to enjoy longer battery life and cheaper/rugged hardware. Then as a next step, bring the Part-97 hardware into the gizmo.
Mobilink tncs are really nice but you're still limited by APRS.
When I discovered Meshtastic, I already had some of the Heltec modules around, which are reputed to have the worst RF performance. I tried anyway, and indeed, I had to equip some truly silly antennas to get even a mile of range. (18dBi yagi in my living room, pointed at a parking structure downtown, was able to talk to another node on top of the structure with a 6dBi omni. Just barely.)
I've been pursuing other projects since then, but a quick skim of the meshtastic forum suggests that there are some much better-performing RF modules now. I'll play with those soon enough...
And anyway, there are encodings other than the patent-encumbered LoRa worth considering, too. (The LoRa folks just did a stellar job capturing mindshare lately.) Really, a feature-set identical to the original IM-ME, but with an option to use ham radios to extend the range, is what I want.
By now we have very efficient modulation like FT8 and LDPC error-correcting codes, so I think it should be possible to do much better, even within Part 15 limitations.
But during emergency nets some of us use Fldigi (short for Fast light digital), a free and open-source program which allows an ordinary computer's sound card to be used as a simple two-way data modem.
The software is mostly used by amateur radio operators who connect the microphone and headphone connections of an amateur radio SSB transceiver or an FM two way radio to the computer's headphone and microphone connections, respectively.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fldigi
It can be difficult for some to get set up and properly configured, but once it's working, it will transmit text messages without major errors under the noise floor, i.e. can barely hear it because of all the white noise.
It does cause complaint's when used on voice simplex frequencies and repeaters.
It sounds worse than packet radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio which I kind of like hearing.
I travel long distances on my motorbike as often as I can, I go naked, no phone, no eletronics except my 2M transeiver and point and shoot camera.
Company local to me makes these. I haven't tried one but it looks interesting.
I did some rework on a couple of their prototype boards.
edit: TLDR; it is a morse code transceiver
If you want to buy radio that you're never going to use, or probably won't take the time to learn, get the Baofeng and save your money. Don't wait for "perfect". Good enough is better than nothing when the SHTF.
At some point, I'll need to deal with getting a radio license for doing some GA flights into Canada. Any chance this would pick up the 100 MHz bands (possibly using the term wrong) to pick up aviation ATIS?
A lengthier explanation is that, put somewhat simply and as a result somewhat incorrectly, in the amateur radio service the certification belongs to the operator, while in most other services the certification belongs to the radio. This means that any radio may be used in the amateur service if it is operated by a licensed individual, which is useful since amateur radio operators will often make use of hand-built radios or radios manufactured for other services and modified. From this perspective, it is legal for a licensed amateur operator to use any arbitrary radio. However, it is generally not legal to sell any radio which is not certified under some part of the FCC regulations. Most Baofeng models have never been certified under any part of the FCC regulations and cannot be for various reasons (e.g. face programmability which is prohibited for most land mobile services). This results in a bit of a "fruit of a poison tree" situation: while it is not necessarily illegal for a licensed amateur operator to use a UV-5R, that UV-5R was mostly likely sold in violation of the regulations. FCC enforcement on this issue has been very lax, but the action taken recently against Rugged Radios (a reseller of Baofengs) suggests to some that the FCC may be intending to clamp down. There is some practical implication as some independent labs and amateurs have concluded that Baofeng models do not meet FCC regulations with regards to spurious emissions and harmonics and therefore may interfere with licensed use of bands.
Aviation radio is wideband AM for historic reasons, most cheap handhelds like Baofeng models are FM only. Fortunately dedicated aviation handhelds are fairly inexpensive and can be found with useful features like aviation dual plugs for your headset and even VOR display.
So, not a computer, not a smartphone - a plain old motorola-esque handheld radio with physical buttons and a simple screen - but underneath, it's an extensible SDR platform.
Why doesn't this exist ?
I am suggesting a nicely made, high quality, plastic case - with buttons and screen - that has slots and mounting screws inside to insert a raspi zero and a USB dongle inside.
I quite like the standard handheld radio form factor - like this:
https://www.motorolasolutions.com/en_us/products/two-way-rad...
... I just want a linux computer and an RTL-SDR inside ...
Our ham radios are generally only semi-rugged: Waterproof and can take a bit of a fall but nothing like what the military have. Of course those come with a weight penalty too.
I found this for the keypad and screen: https://wiki.dfrobot.com/I_O_Expansion_HAT_for_Pi_zero_V1_0_...
There are separate options for keypad and screen, e.g eink and a number pad, but for a first pass this might be enough.
An rtl-sdr won't plug directly into a pi zero w, so we'll need an internal adapter. I know that HATs stack, so if there isn't a hard requirement for an rtl-sdr, we could find an sdr hat to put between the pi and the keypad.
The case doesn't need to be special for a first pass. We just need enough of a fucking owl to decide what to do next.
https://i.imgur.com/KmaZLNy.jpg
Edit: my plan was to find a configuration of hardware that does what we want to do first. Next would be trying the new platform from a desk and, if that goes well, designing a case for the parts we selected. You can't really make a custom case without knowing what's going inside :)
One day in 2017, power went out in my neighborhood in San Francisco. My building's fiber (Webpass) stopped working. Shockingly, my mobile phone service (Verizon) stopped working completely. It showed 4 bars but no data would get through, not even SMS. I realized that the mobile providers are happy to provide zero disaster resilience. I expected that a local cell would refuse connections when it loses its uplinks, then handsets could connect to nearby cells or other company's networks. But no, the local Verizon cell captured my handset and provided no service.
Is there any way to blacklist a GSM cell on iOS?
i doubt that very much but would be happy to be proven wrong.
even on custom-rom android i dont recall such capability.
A radio you can carry on a bag and an antenna you can carry in another bag can work similar stations 50 miles away on VHF if you're willing to go up a tall hill on each side and elevate the antennas with telescoping poles.
Similarly for (unreliable) worldwide communication on HF (with the antenna being a roll of wire).
A luggable or car mounted radio is orders of magnitude better than anything you could handhold.
If someone really wants to have communications ability beyond land lines and cell phones, which often Fail under emergency conditions, then for some people I recommend spending the time and effort in getting an Amateur (Ham) Radio License.
FRS radios are for local, close-by communications like inside theme parks, County Fairs and such, and have limited practicality in an emergency situation for several reasons.
But, Ham Radio, specifically the 2 Meter band, is a network with established emergency communications protocols that save lives every year all over the world, and it's all run and maintained by Volunteers!
It can also be used for non commercial, personal communications, but it's not like a cell phone which is mostly private, so anyone with a similar radio or radio scanner can listen in to your Ham radio conversations.
It's akin to talking to a friend in public or a restaurant.
Once one learns the Ham radio communication protocols, it's an amazing radio service to belong to, and if one is intellectually curious, you can follow multiple paths of interest within it, far beyond mere personal or emergency communications.
But, one has to learn and be comfortable with the Tool, because your Radio won't save you if you don't know how to use it.
For instance, changing the transmit and receive frequency during a stressful emergency, or actually knowing how long you can use it before the battery is depleted, and do you have spares, and are they kept charged?
If Not, you are back to being a part of the problem instead of the solution.
One can't be "the Hero" without planning and practicing beforehand, so learn the tool of the trade, so to speak, spend several months using and getting to know your radio.
Spend a lot of time on the air talking to other Hams, learn their call signs and the language of Ham Radio, and once you are "there" you'll be able to back off your on air activities some, but will be able to react instantly, without pressure, to any emergency you find yourself in.
Practice makes perfect, truly applies to Ham radio under stressful emergency conditions.
So my long winded advice is... Don't get your Ham license unless you are willing to put in the time to learn how to use it without referring to the manual.
It also does seem odd that this requires licensing. Why is that? And if you were not licensed how would they even identify you or track you down?
Direction finding/fox hunting is a way to get caught. In reality, if you’re not causing trouble, you’re never going to get looked for, of course.
The radio might be handheld or vehicle-mounted or a fixed installation occupying hundreds of feet on a side. (Conversely just because something is handheld doesn't make it amateur: your cell phone is a commercial radio service; walkie-talkies and FRS and wifi are unlicensed services; etc. Type-approval is different from licensing.)
A: Ham radio uses a frequency band plan that everyone agrees to adhere to, so if someone shows up on those frequencies who doesn't belong, we will notice.
Hams are also required to broadcast their FCC allocated "call sign" about every 10 minutes, or when starting and ending a transmission, if you're not doing that, then licensed Hams will notice.
If you think you're being "clever" and make up a fake call-sign, we will notice, we know who the regulars on the Ham frequencies are in our geographic areas.
If you're producing "harmful interference", i.e. illegally broadcasting on a licensed Amateur Radio Band, then some of "us" Hams will get together and Track your signal, via triangulation, and eventually we Will find your transmitting location.
Then we notify the FCC, and eventually... they will contact you, and you Will stop, or face legal consequences.
A lot of Hams enjoy tracking down hidden transmitters, we even set up "games" to practice doing just that, we call it a "Hare & Hound" practice.
I'm quite good at tracking down harmful interference on the VHF Ham bands.
Ham radio has a lot of places to explore, but do avoid the H/F bands, it's full of "rag chewers", and you'll want to poke out your eardrums if you listen to them.
73, KE6---
Since we reside in a rural and coastal/mountainous County, what usually happens is Hams will set up QSO's on "open" frequencies and chat there to keep the repeaters clear for emergency use.
So they either call on 146.520 simplex or jump on a repeater and connect, then go to their other frequency to chat.
Aside from not have many privileges on HF, I avoid it, too much Noise as far as I'm concerned, and I mean the Hams.
Hams really seem to enjoy being snitches!
I'll keep playing with my Baofangs and their aftermarket antennas! Also I'll wait until HAM dies out as a old white men hobby, and the frequency band are repurposed to a better use that allows anonymity and encryption - or I'll stay on public solutions like WIFI/LoraWAN!
It comes off as callow and childish.
> I've been looking for a guide that can explain the math and physics behind it along with the electronics.
Interesting. I expect that if the physics in one of their books about, for example, antennas is not oriented towards math and physics enough for your liking, you’ll at least get some direction as to what part of a real physics textbook you need to study.
This is really all you need to get started. I was 14 when I first got my license - I used an earlier iteration of this book to self study. It’s really straightforward. Feel free to email with any questions! Always glad to help people get started in ham radio.
What would be the specific crime & punishment for this?
Enjoy ;)
My brother is a HAM, but it is so boring. People making contact, but no content. Its basically metadata only. "Can you hear me now? Good".
It's one thing if you have another hobby it enables, like off-roading or back-country stuff. But radio for the sake of radio I do not understand.
TL;DR - I'm a huge nerd but I just can't get into amateur radio because it bores me terribly.
It seems the only ones you can find are limited to 48 bit key or so.
You can't use much transmit power on a free license. And hams are not allowed to use encryption as a licensing condition. The idea behind this is that you're a community. It's not really meant for private communication.
Some business radios offer excellent encryption but can only be used with an expensive commercial license.
The Family radio service ones are more for like walky talky use on the go where encryption isn't so important, and they have more limited range.
But are they allowed to use steganography...? Same difference, really.
And it's not the same, because anyone can "read" the digital message with the same codec, encription can't be, unless one has the key.
Really the communication we can have is quite restricted. The same reason we're not allowed to broadcast 'radio programs' as such (with the exception of the weekly news reading etc). Some countries also prohibit political or religious discussion. The license is meant to stimulate research and technical exploration. If you're looking for ways around it, you should consider whether this is really the hobby for you, as you probably want it for something it's not intended for. It's not a "production" communication service. It's a chance to build and explore technology.
There are some exceptions though like authentication and control systems for things like amateur satellites and repeaters. The same in emergencies: Encrypted emergency comms is allowed, such as passing personal messages from disaster-stricken areas. Of course things like personal details of survivors are not passed in the clear. But during normal ham operation these things are not allowed and for good reason.
For some reason strong encryption is only allowed for gov use (emergency services, ...)
Since they do have weak encryption, there does seem to be some demand for that.
https://shop.motorolasolutions.com/rmm2050-two-way-radio-for...
No idea what your application is but since you said "strong encryption" the idea of using a MURS radio modem kind of sprang to mind. Some examples:
A couple years ago I developed an open source one: