Right. But if I use ham frequencies, I still have problem #1 that I mentioned, which is that I can't freely communicate with anyone other than a local ham who has also installed the same custom stuff. And that population is very, VERY small. See: Part 97.109(e) Part 97.115 Part 97.219 So that rules out pretty much all inbound traffic over amateur frequencies from all 3rd parties and, to the usual extent, outbound traffic to some 3rd parties -- those in countries where we don't have the right agreements in place. So, what applications can I run over ham frequencies? Can I create an email gateway that automatically forwards inbound email from the Internet over ham frequencies? No. (That's why WL2K has the limitations is has.) Can I put up a web server that forwards inbound traffic from the Internet over ham frequencies? No. ..., etc., etc.
So, bottom line, I spend the time, money and effort to make mods to OTS stuff so I can use more power and get a better S/N. Great. Now what? I can talk to maybe one or two other guys in the area.
Hams are notorious for thinking of the frequencies and boxes and technology first. But if you think about what you can do with it first, you find that there's not much we're allowed to do with it except talk to ourselves.
It's like my bicycle example: Everyone else gets to ride a 10-speed bike anywhere they want. If we earn our license, we get to use a 20-speed bike with a jet engine strapped on the back. But we can only use it in our driveway. It's cool but not useful. To accomplish anything useful, I still need the 10-speed bike.
Sorry to be a kill-joy, but I'm honestly looking for real, useful, deployable applications that would drive more amateur usage, particularly for amprnet. But I haven't seen one yet.
Michael N6MEF
-----Original Message----- From: 44net-bounces+n6mef=mefox.org@hamradio.ucsd.edu [mailto:44net-bounces+n6mef=mefox.org@hamradio.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Lin Holcomb Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 10:47 AM To: AMPRNet working group Subject: Re: [44net] Use of higher bands
(Please trim inclusions from previous messages) _______________________________________________ Michael, Why use the ham freq two words low noise floor. Ok three words watts!
on Ch 0, -1 and i think -2 of 2.4 are in the ham band the noise floor is very low I mean dead low. As for 5ghz I dont have the freq in front of me but there are several other ham only areas that can be covered. and most important power can over come noise floor any day of the week. Wick up that power to 10watts input to a 18dbd pannel and a simmilar setup on the other end and you are "cooking with gas" ok maybe radio waves if the stray bird chooses to sit infront of the dish on the other end. Of course you can go to 100watts input with power control. As far as crypto goes my understanding is that the FCC is allows hams to use a published key for example the one the ARRL can issue for their log software. (as discussed here).
BTW the old firmware of the ubiquity stuff would let you do compliance mode aka 4-6ghz.
Lin
On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 3:57 AM, Michael E. Fox - N6MEF n6mef@mefox.org wrote:
(Please trim inclusions from previous messages) _______________________________________________ Eric,
I applaud your intent. But, as far as I can tell, there are several major issues with what you're saying:
- The FCC rules push me to NOT use amateur bands for data. Any
application that is actually useful is going to be something that communicate with non-hams, too. Look at the popularity of WL2K. But Part 97 prohibits traffic from being automatically forwarded if it was originated by a 3rd party. So I can send an email to my grandmother. But she can't send me a message if delivering it would require automatic forwarding (such as between JNOS BBSs) over an amateur frequency to reach me. So that means I need a non-amateur network path to every machine. So we're working on that, including using 5.8G consumer stuff. But, gee whiz, once that's done, and I've got a few Mbps between each system, (and it's encrypted to boot!) why use the
amateur frequencies at all? [clipped]