Amateur Radio Fatalism
ke9v.net
ke9v.net
I have always been of the opinion that the FCC's licensing requirements clearly conflicted with the First Amendment. Fortunately technology outgrew government again, and rendered it irrelevant.
Now we have to prevent the growth of the new Government efforts to control information dissemination. "Misinformation" and "Think of the Children" flags are being waved by those who wish to regulate what can be said today.
Radio will continue to be a technology used for providing infrastructure where none exists (disaster areas, offgrid communications). And sometimes it takes the place of "last mile" ISPs to get people in rural access to the wider internet.
Plus, playing radio is fun.
On the First Amendment vs. licensing requirements: Most licensing requirements are aimed at curbing harmful interference. The only thing in Part 97 (I can remember offhand anyway) that limits what you can say is 97.113(a)(4)[0]—most of what it mentions is covered by other laws (obscenity and copyright). I think there's something about selling stuff, too. But hams are pretty much self-policing this, afaict.
Encrypted communication also prohibited (boo). But now we have meshtastic[1] on ISM bands for that!
[0]: <https:/ / www.ecfr.gov/ current/ title-47/ part-97#p-97.113(a)(4)> [1]: <https://meshtastic.org/>