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Comment They've reinvented CB radio! (Score 4, Insightful) 153

Once there was private peer-to-peer radio. It was called "Ham Radio". But the companies couldn't charge for it, so they made the radios always work through their base stations and called it "Cellular Radio". And of course they removed the peer-to-peer function.

But wait, now it's back! (in a way that can be monetised of course).

Comment Re:Scrap all the rules (Score -1) 104

BTW, encryption is already permitted (in the ham bands) in many countries. The only catch is that the encryption must be via a publicly disclosed method.
There are many encrypted ham standards, PSK31 WSPR, WSJT, MAP65, Hellscriber, etc, etc.

The main reason (for public methods) is to prevent commercial organisations taking advantage of the generous Amateur Radio provisions.

Comment Re:Scrap all the rules (Score 5, Informative) 104

You can now. Just stick to the allocated ISM bands (eg WiFi).

What you can't do now is build your own transmitter without a ham license. This obviously is to prevent interference to other services.

The philosophy is simple. License the Radio or License the Operator. The Amateur Operator has passed sufficient technical barrier to ensure that they won't do stupid things and cause interference.

There is one catch however. The Amateur License excluded commercial operations. To do that you need a commercial license.

The amateur license is primarily for self education.

Comment I want a simpler KIndle (Score 1) 321

My problem with the Kindle Touch that changing pages frequently invokes some unwanted function. It is infuriating to change page and get the Change Font, or Annotate, or Save Clipping dialogs. I understand that some users like these functions. I don't, I hate them. I wish I could switch them off.

Comment Re:And on many bands.. (Score 1) 180

I doubt that the FCC has been ignoring it, it is more likely that they have investigated and found that the fault is with the crappy domestic equipment.

I worked as a government Inspector for many years. I can tell you that the fault is almost never with the transmitter.

But once people decide that the problem is a "1000W CB booster", there is nothing you can do to convince them.

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