John Hays K7VE replied to my recent posting:
John:
I neither want to hijack this thread ...
or get too deep into this as there is most
certainly a lot of grey (or is it gray?!) area.
Probably a good discussion but one that will
in the immediate term probably never reach
a solid conclusion as so much is open to
interpretation.
In the end - it is certainly up to each licensee,
control operator, etc. to interpret what regulations
apply, enforce them and be held accountable.
I certainly didn't want to imply that D-STAR should
be limited to the universal lowest common denominator
for world-wide regulations!
Elaborating on this:
Things that are unacceptable:
- booking an airline reservation at a web site
How is this different than ordering a pizza over
an autopatch (which the FCC has specifically allowed)?
I don't know / have not heard about the FCC
specifically allowing ordering a pizza over
an auto patch or similar activities.
If that is the case (acceptable) ... OK ...
still - as a control op I would frown on it.
I would consider booking an airline ticket a
business transaction and something that shouldn't
be done over Amateur radio. (If the FCC regs
in the US actually allow then OK - I need to get
a cite so I can be up-to-date with the rules.)
But maybe more importantly - that airline reservation
over the Internet would probably make use of HTTPS
(SSL) encryption ... and my personal opinion would
be HTTPS traffic probably shouldn't be allowed
(as its encrypted).
What do you / others think on that one (SSL)?
- sending/receiving email from your company's servers
This is a touchy one, but you can call your office over
an autopatch to invite a co-worker to lunch, as long as
you don't facilitate your business in the process.
So reading email, of a non-business nature would probably
be OK, you certainly couldn't email your boss to report
on a project or a subordinate giving them tasks to perform.
Ayup. Agreed.
And then there is the question about even sending information
over the Internet (and D-STAR) in clear text. Let's say you
have a POP3 account (whether work or otherwise). And you
use the POP3 protocol which will send your username and password
to the POP3 server in clear text. Anyone listening
as the man in the middle now has your access info ...
FWIW - at the $dayjob the only way to access the mail
server externally is via SSL. (No IMAP or POP3, etc.)
- general Internet web browsing (because a lot of
it has commercial content)
Again, it all depends but I think most people are
more comfortable with only access to a limited number
of sites.
What I didn't include in my original reply ...
but I was thinking:
This problem: limited number of sites is much like the
issues libraries and other public places that provide
Internet access have. Many want to limit the reach of
what sites folks can access. (Here I am thinking of
blocking sites that would be considered socially unacceptable.)
In any event - we have a 23cm DV + DD on one of our
local D-STAR systems but the gateway is not yet
connected to the Internet. Once it is ... there
is less than a handful of people that have the
requisite rig to use D-STAR DD. I think for the
time being, in our area, the minimal interest and
high entry cost for the ID-1 radio really diminishes
any concerns I have about Internet access over D-STAR.
Bob W1QA
