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Are HF digital modes a national security risk?

Posted: 18 Dec 2018 12:18 PM PST
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu...m_medium=email



According to an article on the website Mission Critical Communications, a
noted amateur radio operator and electrical engineering professor, Theodore
Rappaport, N9NB, thinks that the FCC is putting national security at risk
by not enforcing amateur radio rules. In a filing on the Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking (NPRM) 16-239, which would remove baud rate limits for digital
modes on the HF bands, Rappaport says that the FCC should first address
ongoing amateur radio rule violations, specifically, the use of obscured,
private messaging, as they create national security concerns.





N9NB writes, “If allowed, NPRM 16-239 would perpetuate the current
violations and would authorize obscured transmissions of unlimited
bandwidth over the global airwaves, further increasing the danger to our
national security, since these transmissions cannot be intercepted or
eavesdropped by other amateur radio operators or the FCC.�




The article also notes:




The filing said public records clearly show how the evolution of
undocumented, proprietary transmission technologies such as PACTOR and
Winlink, ARDOP, Winmor, STANAG and other HF transmission schemes that use
controlling software have created a national security problem in the
amateur radio service. Third parties, including other ham radio operators
or the FCC listening stations, cannot intercept and decode over-the-air
transmissions when used in the popular automated repeat request (ARQ) mode.






Theres a heated debate about this over on Hackaday, but there the debate
seems to be centered on the proprietary (or not) nature of PACTOR. Theres
also been some discussion of this issue on the CWOps mailing list. There,
the discussion seems to be centered on the possibility of all these
unattended, automatic, wide-bandwidth digital stations being unleashed on
and taking over the CW portion of the bands. And for what purpose? So, some
boaters can send email.




I think that some of these concerns have some merit. If these transmission
really cant be monitored, then they could be put to nefarious use. But, if
there was any evidence of that happening, Im sure that the FCC and other
agencies could quickly obtain that capability.




Im also not too keen on unattended digital stations taking over the CW
bands. Call me naive, but I dont really see that happening. Much of the
band is going unused, and certainly there s room for more digital
communications. And, if it does prove to be a problem. we could petition
for the rules to be changed again.





Having said that, there is some merit in allowing wider bandwidth digital
communications. Much of the emergency communications provided by amateur
radio operators in the wake of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year was
conducted using WinLink.




What do you think? Should I be up in arms about this? Is this actually
going to kill ham radio, or is it much ado about nothing?








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