charlesb wrote:
"Robert Casey" wrote in message
...


No surprise there Mike. No calls, no decency, no license. Access

available

to anyone that can lie their way in. Yep....what a system.



And someone can obtain a ham radio rig and go on the air with a bootleg
call.
Same difference.



Hmmmm... Let's put on our thinking caps for a moment, and consider whether
there is generally more access to ham rigs, or to Internet capable
computers. Which one is easiest and cheapest for potential bootleggers to
obtain access to?

Same difference? I don't think so. Echolink is the best thing to happen
to bootleggers - ever.

If I were to go where freebander types hang out and leave an informative
article about EchoLink, that would be an irresponsible act... It would be
irresponsible for me to point out that vulnerability within the hobby, but
not nearly so irresponsible as the programmer who created that vulnerability
in the first place.

In this day and age, amateurs are more, not less conscious of security
issues. EchoLink is a big hole in our security, and most especially should
never be utilized for anything even remotely related to emergency
communications. As hams, what we have to bring to the table here is
independent radio communications. The department of homeland security did
not affiliate with the ARRL because of our ability to use the Internet.

One basic of emergency communications is not to develop a dependence on the
network that you are there to back up. Using the Internet as a central part
of a Ham Radio network (of any type) is like having a plan to use the
telephone to report outages in telephone service. The emergency plan works
great - until there is an emergency.

Add that to the hundreds, perhaps thousands of hams who instantly gave up on
learning more about ham radio in order to upgrade upon discovering EchoLink,
and you begin to understand whether EchoLink has had a positive or negative
influence upon the hobby.

Sure, lots of hams have enjoyed EchoLink... Lots of drivers would enjoy free
six-packs of beer at highway tool-booths too, but that doesn't mean it is a
responsible or intelligent thing to do.

And even though I have tried to look into Echolink with an open mind,
in the end, I just don't think of it as a ham type sport - except for
those that just want to talk. And I'm more into the hobby to build
things, contest, and try to stretch my radio legs - not just talk.

- Mike KB3EIA -