I suspect (knowing how government agencies work) that the FCC figures if a "mode" is being used in the public domain and if there is hardware needed to "read" the mode, and they can openly purchase the hardware to "read" them mode, then they aren't concerned with a complete published specification.
Walt/K5YFW -----Original Message----- From: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of KV9U Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 8:34 AM To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com Subject: [digitalradio] Technical descriptions of amateur radio data emissions Bob's point is well taken. The FCC regulation on technical descriptions, ยง 97.309(a)(4), reads: (4) An amateur station transmitting a RTTY or data emission using a digital code specified in this paragraph may use any technique whose technical characteristics have been documented publicly, such as CLOVER, G-TOR, or PacTOR, for the purpose of facilitating communications. ARRL further states: "Documentation should be adequate to (a) recognize the technique or protocol when observed on the air, (b) determine call signs of stations in communication and read the content of the transmissions." Clearly, Pactor 2 and 3 and probably Clover II, do not completely fulfill these requirements. Since they have been used for many years now, it is probably too late to do much about it and I doubt that the ARRL Directors would take any action. However, one could mention it to their director and see what response they get. In the last year the Winlink 2000 spokesperson made a big deal how "secure" Winlink 2000 was since it was not very practical to read the messages even if they had one of the SCS modems that could monitor the frequency because all they would see is scrambled data. They were challenged by another ham who wrote a program that can decode their format and they had to back down somewhat. This is not due to the SCS product as much as it is due to a compression technique that Winlink 2000 uses. Unlike anything else in amateur radio, I have never seen as much closed and proprietary techniques that we have seen from Winlink 2000 and I think this is a big factor for the animosity so many hams have to such operations that are completely opposite the whole spirit of amateur radio. There are those of us who try to promote interoperation of any messaging systems on amateur radio and while there is not much interest in this, we do have a forum on the winlink2000 yahoogroup that permits all points of view. For those of you who do have an SCS modem, can you provide us with your experiences in your success in monitoring the traffic content on the amateur radio bands with these modes? 73, Rick, KV9U Robert McGwier wrote: >Dave: > >The technical specification is incomplete. You may not take their >documents and implement a compatible system (been there, done that, got >the tire tracks on my back). They have not made these specifications >public to my knowledge anywhere, including the F.C.C. As such, I do >not see why it is not an illegal scrambler in the U.S. > > >Bob >N4HY > > > > Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Something is new at Yahoo! Groups. Check out the enhanced email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/SISQkA/gOaOAA/yQLSAA/ELTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ DigiPol: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digipol (band plan policy discussion) Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
