Seriously...
Yes I'm afraid it's true...The FCC can and from time to time does indeed "enact" rules and other actions of the sort that does apply to radio. I'm NOT BSing here. They have done this for many years now. LOL
Merry Christmas
...
Sorry I couldn't resist.
Seriously however, the FCC is attempting to put in place some "standards" regarding encryption for Homeland Security combined with Public Safety inter agency operations. Specifically OTAR and common standards for TRS systems nationwide so that multi agency combined groups/taskforces can operate cohesively when in areas or regions during both, on & off hours and still have the knowledge to gain operability of the TRS system they are near or within range of without having to "wake anyone up" so to speak. With 16 million possibilities of any certain algorythym / key, you can begin to understand the need. Plus with thousands of police agencies who are talked into or unknowingly buy more radio system than they need by aggressive Motorola (and others too
but primarily Moto) salesmen and women, local police agency commands tend to think that they have to use EVERY option built into their systems even if encrypting the transmissions of the local dog catcher and garbage collector who often operate on the same TRS system in many locales sounds a bit costly to the tax payer or, the scannist. And it will be costly when or if any type of standard is developed because then the fedgov will impose it's will upon agencys to go along with it, then you'll have higher taxes so that the average Joe can pay for all of this expensive Moto equipment. What the government would like to see is all police agencies using encryption. This has been expressed many times by gov reps because then, and only then would you actually have actual inter-agency w/government agencies communications across the nation because of the government's obsession with secrecy in communications. Thats thanks to the NSA but thats another issue altogether.
At the D.O.E. we use digital AES (256 bit keying) on our Liberty handhelds yet other D.O.E. sites use varying multiple keysets combined with different makes of radios which makes operating or training together sometimes sketchy at best. The encryption "order" will attempt to set some form of common keying solution to address this plus address some amateur radio P25 issues as the digital bug has struck there as well. Amateurs cannot by law or, Part 97 encrypt any transmission or data they send except to one place and if your an amateur then you know where that is. With that said the issue of using P25 (and even d-star) by HAMS has been a concern of some law enforcement groups like CALEA, APCO among others. Why they have a concern is beyond me but I would speculate that they have some out of place fear of someone "getting into" their system as some have said but these types who speculate on these issues usually know nothing about amateur radio and typcially lump us HAMS together with the unregulated CB crowd. Again due to myth-understandings about amateur radio.
A little off topic but in the same arena....
The FCC (
from my understanding listening to people I know well and trust ) has recieved some requests from the amateur community to allow encryption, why? no one really has gone far enough to answer intelligently other than the typcial, "because it would be fun" answer. And the notion of HAMS authorized to use encryption of the many manufactuers like Motorola, Harris, Thales makes them cringe because
in their viewpoint, no one needs to have access to encryption keys, equipment and proceadures because these particular manufactuers have always viewed encryption as a sort of thing that only the military, intelligence agencys and law enforcement should have access to. With that said, that includes the equipment to load, maintain and rekey proprietary radios and other equipment made by the forementioned manufactuers. Should the FCC rule that the amateur community can dwelve into and use encryption then by law of ruling of such an R&O then manufactuers of encryption "stuff" stand the chance of being sued for refusing to sell to any amateur wanting to purchase that type of equipment. True, no company has to sell anything to anyone however, if a federal entity has passed a law, in this case that amateurs can use encryption, then refusing to sell to them (amateur operaters) opens them (encryption equipment manufactuers) up for litigation for refusing to sell their goods when federal law (which is what an R&O is) says that a particular group can use those goods or like equipment. It amounts to discrimination and we all know that word shuts lots of folks up in a hurry even if they are not of the sort.
So, thats the short of it. Check the FCC website as I'm sure they will post something regarding it or do as i have done before, call them directly and request information on a particular topic. They are actually service friendly unlike other gov agencys.
Mike
