Leading Edge or Trailing.....do you want to be relevant?
I read through the posts with interest. Great insight to what amateur radio currently is. Some only looking backward while others forward. When I was a working photographer I resisted auto exposure and then later autofocus. By the time digital came around I finally learned from my mistakes and jumped right in. Now, I still very seldom use auto exposure but would never remove the function from my cameras. Autofocus I use because of aging eyes but miss the instant selection of where to focus when going old school. Film has qualities that are great but still I do not reject "digital". Remember the great debate over CW test for general? Century old format, still great if you are surrounded by Nazis’ and only have a bayonet and spark gap. I am a technology adopter at this point and would like to be closer to the leading edge than the trailing. I want to use spread spectrum and new digital formats with improved compression. For a while only governments could afford such activity but the paradigm is shifting and advances in technology have lowered the cost to play.
As to encryption, it is but a tool and a technology that should not be confused with the policy on when and how to use it. When I'm in a 35mph zone I don't go 140mph because my car has the capability--It's policy (law) and reason that restrain me. If my car only does 35mph then its utility is small. Some would argue that there is never a situation where going 140mph is necessary or useful which is inaccurate instead of arguing it would be rare which is truer. Encryption policy is no different that frequency policy, and most of us have the ability to use unauthorized frequencies. We can all buy commercial radios. So, why is encryption the one thing that is beyond governance by policy? Now, at this point of the FCC consideration I see no reason that all aspects must be determined in advance and every conceivable issue addressed. Did Henry Ford have to allow for GPS, satellite radio, or even superhighways before building the model A? Will requirements for privacy of medical information stay static? Will other issues arise requiring encryption? If the argument is that amateurs are untrustworthy then why do they have licenses and radios--or cars? The how to deploy encryption is being mastered by PS and the lessons they learn are not secret (key management and so on). CommL’s will still evaluate strengths and weaknesses of equipment, personnel and procedure. If encryption is not called for or unreliable or equipment insufficient then it will not be used.
This is conjecture, but what is the commercial value of amateur spectrum? More and more wireless devices every second for security, convenience, entertainment, commerce and so on will lead to increased demand on spectrum. I cannot guess the current value of just our line of sight spectrum but surely in the tens of billions if not a hundred billion plus. Do you really think it will be left if there is no seriously important public service aspect?
Personal experience:
-Because of involvement with local EM, County fire and Red Cross, we are given repeater sites on county towers and buildings as well as donated equipment. Even private businesses give us access to sites because of public involvement. If we were only a hobby we would not have any of these things.
--We do encourage and facilitate PS personnel getting ham licenses, having good success especially with fire personnel. They in turn have cross-trained us on satellite telephones-data and their trunked radio systems as well as webeo and other software. Our ham group is ICS trained and drilled. ARES and similar groups (SAR) are on the EM flow chart of serving agencies and yes, they don't all know what to do with us-yet.
--We read over the hot wash from 9/11 NYC and discovered that the overstretched hams working ground zero had to improvise slang and code speak to handle some of the Red Cross traffic to conceal from media. Every newsroom worth its salt has banks of scanners and people who understand them and their use. So, there have been and will be a need for encryption--how much I don't know.
In my county we have been invited to the party. Those of us trained try to organize and use "untrained" amateurs during events in a way that helps without putting them underfoot or in the way. Right now the number one thing that our served agencies are crying out for is data transfer: files, documents, photos and so on. Winmail is were we started but it is inadequate. We are working on new ideas as are some other hams around the country that are building mesh networks, linked digital repeaters and other technologies. If we can meet this challenge we will be relevant. We still have some old hams (one about to turn 100) that can dazzle with their traffic handling skills and are disciplined. We now need younger ones who are all about computers, algorithms, and leading edge technologies. We are trying to train for the next event instead of the last one.
Say yes to encryption and all new technologies that advance the art and utility of amateur radio and us as individuals (amateur is misleading in this context-we are skilled). Post 911 we may have to deal with things never before imagined, and the professionals will be overwhelmed completely and it will fall to the people to help themselves and others. I put life and property above hobby. Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.
