Ham Radio is a pursuit for those who dabble in
technical matters. Knowing how things work and
modifying and creating is what it is all about.

Can it be, though, that such aficionados would be
seen as a threat to national security ("Last week
I visited a farmyard and the national security came
up to one's knees?) because of their ability to get round
technical naziism?

Consider the whole basis of copying DVD's, for example -
it is a trivial matter for the technical aficionado
to throw together a few lines of code to do a low-level
block-to-block copy. Yet in the USA, there is the DMCA
to make such things illegal.

How long before attempts are made to make it illegal
to sell a computer without an operating system, and to
make it illegal to use a computer other than with the
operating system with which it is sold?

When the Axis Of Evil introduces ID cards, it will
be a trivial exercise for us to produce a reader that
will be able to excite the ID cards and read it.
The Axis Of Evil won't like anybody to have the knowledge
to do that!

No wonder that the govenments of the world are taking steps
to deskill Ham Radio and to make it indistinguishable from
CB Radio. Already licences are being issued that forbid
the design and manufacture of your own rigs. The thin
end of the wedge. I understand that in Tex-arse it is
illegal to own chemistry sets (test-tubes and the like)
without a licence.

Time to resurrect _REAL_ Ham radio and to boycott
these CB-like licences (The M3 in Britland)?