That’s very good information. I’m a radio idiot, but I don’t want to be. Is there a satisfactory interoperable radio platform that has good range and supports encryption—but isn’t $500?
I'm not really sure these days, haven't really been active in the radio hobby for quite a while. Ham regs prohibit crypto so it's pretty much never found on radios intended for ham use. I wouldn't be too surprised if there's some Chinese "ham" set that does, but this is just speculation and I haven't ever seen such a thing.
If you want an interoperable crypto-capable radio you're pretty much looking at something that supports "APCO-25" (aka P25) and intended for professional/LE/military use, with the whole can of "professional radio" worms that entails (need a whole tool chain to program it, and probably more stuff to actually load crypto keys in it).
This is just educated guesses, it's surprisingly difficult to find context and history of (granted, fairly obscure to begin with) regulations and why they are what they are and when they were implemented.
Ham requires you to identify your transmissions with your call sign periodically, if that's encrypted it's more or less impossible for anyone but those who have the key to decode.
Ham is a "public interest" kinda service, so the ability for the public to listen to transmissions is a big part of the spirit of why the ham spectra was carved out rather than sold for private use. For example, a business could use encrypted ham to conduct business (also prohibited) and no one monitoring would be the wiser, even if the protocol included plain-text station identifiers in the data stream to be compliant with the station ID requirement.
More speculative, cold war era paranoia about subversive groups using encrypted protocols on ham bands to coordinate terror attacks, relay espionage information, and such was probably a factor.
That’s very good information. I’m a radio idiot, but I don’t want to be. Is there a satisfactory interoperable radio platform that has good range and supports encryption—but isn’t $500?
I'm not really sure these days, haven't really been active in the radio hobby for quite a while. Ham regs prohibit crypto so it's pretty much never found on radios intended for ham use. I wouldn't be too surprised if there's some Chinese "ham" set that does, but this is just speculation and I haven't ever seen such a thing.
If you want an interoperable crypto-capable radio you're pretty much looking at something that supports "APCO-25" (aka P25) and intended for professional/LE/military use, with the whole can of "professional radio" worms that entails (need a whole tool chain to program it, and probably more stuff to actually load crypto keys in it).
I appreciate all you info. I’m sure I can look it up, but if you feel like answering off the top of your head: why do ham radio regs prohibit crypto?
This is just educated guesses, it's surprisingly difficult to find context and history of (granted, fairly obscure to begin with) regulations and why they are what they are and when they were implemented.
Ham requires you to identify your transmissions with your call sign periodically, if that's encrypted it's more or less impossible for anyone but those who have the key to decode.
Ham is a "public interest" kinda service, so the ability for the public to listen to transmissions is a big part of the spirit of why the ham spectra was carved out rather than sold for private use. For example, a business could use encrypted ham to conduct business (also prohibited) and no one monitoring would be the wiser, even if the protocol included plain-text station identifiers in the data stream to be compliant with the station ID requirement.
More speculative, cold war era paranoia about subversive groups using encrypted protocols on ham bands to coordinate terror attacks, relay espionage information, and such was probably a factor.