Hams try to re-carve the amateur radio spectrum in fight over open or encoded broadcasts


Some people have been using ham radio frequencies for communication that's encrypted or difficult to decipher and others argue that's a threat to national security and a violation of the spirit and rules of amateur radio. … In a letter [PDF] submitted earlier this week to the US Federal Communications Commission, NYU professor Theodore Rappaport, who runs the NYU Wireless research center at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, voiced support for RM-11831 [PDF], a proposed radio rule revision that, among other things, would require radio transmissions be open to public scrutiny. … RM-1183, argues Rappaport, "assures national security by providing transparency and self-monitoring by the public of all amateur radio transmissions in the HF spectrum that routinely cross international borders."

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