The meaning of any messages sent over amateur radio needs to be clear to an outside observer. The specific rule is 47 CFR 97.113(a)(4): "No amateur station shall transmit: [...] messages encoded for the purpose of obscuring their meaning, except as otherwise provided herein."
So no, high-entropy random noise of substantial length wouldn't be allowed because the meaning of the message would be unclear and unknowable.
You also can't broadcast one-way messages per 97.113(b), and you're probably not having a two-way conversation with somebody via high-entrypy random noise. So there's also that.
What if you say it is to transmit high entropy random data generated at geographically remote locations, for peer to peer verification, for a well-announced long-running experiment to see if geolocation leads to biases in random number generation.
Let's have Princeton PEAR sponsor it. Call it NCC20 for NotChaCha20.
You could say that. If you're in a position to use it as a defense to being investigated, then you're already being investigated. Hope it's true, because making false statements to federal investigators can be a crime.
It is largely unenforced by the FCC directly, but ham operators can (and do) use directional antennas to find you in many cases. Once reported the FCC does take violations seriously.
No because that’s also not really something that’s permitted.
It’s true that there’s no [practical] enforcement of it, in much the same way there’s no enforcement of the OTH Radars from various militaries that take out large chunks of the HF amateur bands every now and then.
Ham radio people are Lawful Good types. Your Chaotic Good idea isn't well recieved by them. No way there is any ability to enforce that law in a disaster zone, they have enough trouble with looting and the like.
There is also a surprising number of stereotypical american self-identified “constitutionalist” types on there, which results in funny conversations when I speak to them (without a license, natch) about the 10th amendment and the FCC/access to spectrum.
Electromagnetic waves transit state lines pretty much constantly. Hardware which creates/receives radio waves pretty much constantly transits state lines as well, I don't know too many radio manufacturers which restrict sale to only the state they operate in. You should probably read the constitution first about things which are interstate and who has permissions to regulate it.
It’s still against the law in the US to transmit on many bands without a license even if you build your own radio from scratch at home. Talking at a distance has nothing inherently to do with commerce.
We basically punted on the 10th amendment with things like the FCC and DOE (education, not energy).
> It’s still against the law in the US to transmit on many bands without a license even if you build your own radio from scratch at home
Electromagnetic waves transit state lines pretty much constantly. Even though I'm in Texas I'll get radio waves from Oklahoma, Louisiana, and even Illinois from time to time.
> Talking at a distance has nothing inherently to do with commerce.
Talking at a distance does affect commerce when that talking at a distance interferes with other people trying to talk and conduct interstate commerce. Guess I'll have to state it again, electromagnetic waves transit state lines pretty much constantly.
And it would absolutely affect interstate commerce if every state decided on different frequencies for commercial FM radio, different frequencies for cell phones, different frequencies for TV signals, different encodings for those things, etc. imagine needing to buy a different radio for NY as TX or IL or CA. Or if you needed different cell phones as you traveled state lines.
> We basically punted on the 10th amendment with things like the FCC and DOE
People being illiterate definitely affects interstate commerce. People not being able to count definitely affects interstate commerce.
> People being illiterate definitely affects interstate commerce. People not being able to count definitely affects interstate commerce.
Fetuses that get aborted might have grown up to be residents of another state who would've bought products there.
Marijuana sold to medical patients in one state may end up in another, reducing alcohol sales.
Socialized medicine programs offered by state governments might lessen the profits of insurance and pharmaceutical firms that are headquartered out of state.
California's labeling laws result in labels that end up on products sold in other states increasing the costs of those products.
State level environmental regulations may impact publicly traded companies and thus the stock market generally, and thereby people in other states. (This one could be used to justify basically anything)
A higher minimum wage in one state may attract workers from out of state.
Educating children about sex might reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and thus accelerate demographic collapse, harming the economy more generally.
A gay pride parade might result in social media posts shown in other states with ads next to it.
The passage or enforcement of any law might result in news stories in other states on for profit media outlets. Similarly the lack of such a law may result less work for journalists as they can't write about a law that doesn't exist.
What was even the point of the 10th amendment if it was intended to be interpreted as it is today? It seems to do nothing.
You're correct that most people who get ham licenses are good people, but, the venn diagram of licensed ham operators and people who bought a baofeng off amazon does not have a lot of intersection.
> the venn diagram of licensed ham operators and people who bought a baofeng off amazon does not have a lot of intersection.
There's quite the few young hams going for cheap-ass equipment from Amazon. Not everyone can afford an ICOM station from the get-go, you start with small cheap stuff and work your way up.
