On: The rich history of ham radio culture

[tkuraku]

Anyone can use ham radio. Encryption is illegal on those bands though.

[bitfilped → tkuraku]

Anyone can listen on a ham radio, you need a license to broadcast. FRS, CB and MURS are the unlicensed options in the US to my knowledge.

[kragen → bitfilped]

broadcasting is not permitted on ham bands in the us. i suspect you might have meant that you need a license to transmit

[vitaflo → kragen]

Can always spot a non-ham by use of the word "broadcast". It's a dead giveaway.

[bitfilped → vitaflo]

Or some people just don't care about minor language semantics, radios are never truthfully point to point. Anyone in range can hear them.

[kragen → vitaflo]

i'm a non-ham actually, but i'm also a shibboleth specialist

[bitfilped → kragen]

Lock me up and take away my license...

[tkuraku → bitfilped]

That's true, but anyone can get a license.

[kayfox → tkuraku]

> Encryption is illegal on those bands though.

Depends on the band, for VHF, UHF and higher bands a country may make different decisions on what is not permitted. Canada has allowed encryption with published keys to be used for repeater access control in the past.