Thread

HERMES radio enables voice and data communication over vast distances

189 points · 71 comments · SamuraiLion

mesh · 1790010932 · focus · HN ↗
This is a cool project, but fyi, in the US, this would require a license to broadcast (not receive), and I am pretty sure encryption, even with a license, is not legal (again, when broadcasting from US).
And then only on certain bands:
<a href="https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/Band%20Chart/Hambands4_Color_17x11.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/Band%20Chart/Hamb...
1. bityard · 1790014013 · focus · HN ↗
  Correct. Encryption (or more specifically, obscuring the meaning of a message) is generally not allowed for amateur radio stations except in very narrow circumstances. So any hams using this would have to turn the encryption off.
  However, it looks like this stack has encryption available as an option for stations who are transmitting sensitive data and are NOT operating under an amateur license. (Probably government-sanctioned communications or emergency humanitarian efforts.)
  1. nowittyusername · 1790016853 · focus · HN ↗
    what would happen if you were to break that law? like im talking enforcement here not whats on the books.. for example torrenting and uploding copyrighted files is illegal but most people dont give a shit as enforecement is almost non existant. i know radio is taken more seriously then torrenting but this must also be very low on priority for the government unless you are jamming people or somehow stand out enough for anyone to care or notice....
    asdff · 1790049260 · focus · HN ↗
    Effectively nothing. I dug into this and found this article (1) from earlier this month on the FCC targeting a couple pirate radio stations in and around NYC. It says they used field agents and FM directional finding equipment to locate the signals to specific property. Probably a big show of force operation on their part.
    However, the buck stops exactly there. It becomes the landlords issue, not the tenant who might be operating the radio, where the property owner is liable to be fined if they themselves don't shut the signal off after a certain amount of time. I would guess the FCC lacks the sensitivity to target the signal to a specific unit in a given building in order to issue the fine directly to the involved individual.
    I guess the lesson is you can do whatever you like as long as you have the actual radio mast on someone else's property as they will get the fire if the FCC bothers to show up.
    Makes me wonder about those old FM radio dongles we had for cars that lacked aux jacks or tape decks if those would technically be pirate radio. You'd have to set them to whatever open channel was locally available and they had actually pretty good range; I remember picking up my friends signal while I was driving behind them.
    1. <a href="https://www.insideradio.com/free/pirate-radio-crackdown-puts-new-york-property-owners-in-fcc-crosshairs/article_4afa04c2-d0b3-411d-b136-e0f5d3546ea8.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.insideradio.com/free/pirate-radio-crackdown-puts...
    mschuster91 · 1790082467 · focus · HN ↗
    > Makes me wonder about those old FM radio dongles we had for cars that lacked aux jacks or tape decks if those would technically be pirate radio.
    No. These generally are type-rated and carry a general license to transmit, their power is extremely low and unlikely to be a nuisance to others for that reason.
    jasonjayr · 1790091020 · focus · HN ↗
    They are a nuisance when you drive by a car using them while you're tuned to the local college stations, and suddenly you're hearing one side of someone's phone conversation, or some other music.

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