[CQ] EMERGENCY ‐ AMATEUR RADIO NEEDS YOUR HELP NOW!

Wed Jun 26 03:49:04 UTC 2013

  EMERGENCY ‐ AMATEUR RADIO NEEDS YOUR HELP NOW!

Please forward this message to other hams. The most current version of 
this message is at http://hams.com/encryption/ Please use that version.

FCC is currently processing a request for rule-making, RM-11699 
<http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022424684>, that would allow 
the use of Amateur frequencies in the U.S. for private, 
digitally-encrypted messages.

Encryption is a potential disaster for us because it defeats the 
self-policing nature of ham radio. If hams can't decode messages, we 
can't identify if the communication is appropriate for ham radio or not. 
A potentially worse problem is that encryption destroys the /harmless 
nature/ of Amateur radio. For governments around the world to continue 
to allow Amateur Radio, /it must be percieved as harmless./ There's no 
reason for anyone to believe that encrypted communications are harmless. 
Foreign governments, and maybe even our own, will start to see hams as 
more of a threat. This is likely to have a chilling effect upon 
DXpeditions, which are already often viewed suspiciously by the host 
nations, and perhaps will even lead some countries to take Amateur Radio 
off of the air or limit our privileges in some way.

The last day for you to submit a comment opposing this is JULY 8, so 
it's important for you to act now! Please make a short comment in 
opposition to the proposal at this link 
<http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/begin?procName=RM-11699>, or use this 
link <http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/?procName=RM-11699> to upload 
longer documents.

We have no way of telling if the content of encrypted messages are 
appropriate for ham radio. While their senders will identify them as 
emergency communications drills, they could be used for crime, operating 
a business, downloading pornography, etc. WiFi-like cards are already 
available for Amateur frequencies, and while hams can build legitimate 
networks with them, none of their vendors check for a license before 
selling them to anyone. Legalizing encryption on the air will make abuse 
of Amateur frequencies provable only after difficult and potentially 
illegal code-breaking.

A small group has almost succeeded in sneaking this change past the 
entire ham community. As I write this, they are almost unopposed, with 
only one comment 
<http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment_search/execute?proceeding=RM-11699> 
against their proposal submitted to FCC. We only have less than two 
weeks to turn that around!

Unfortunately, ARRL isn't helping. On March 9, the ARRL board of 
directors moved to explore whether they should ask for rule-changes 
authorizing encryption, see their meeting minutes 
<http://www.arrl.org/files/file/About%20ARRL/Board%20Meetings/ecmin498.pdf> 
at paragraph 4.1.3. Before ARRL was scheduled to consider a report on 
the issue, an individual ham filed a request for rule-making with FCC. 
ARRL obviously tracks FCC rule-making and the notices of it in the 
Federal Register, and yet waited until two weeks before the end of the 
commenting period to announce on their web site that this was going on.

What could be a plausible excuse for using encryption on the Amateur 
bands? It's HIPAA <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIPAA>, a 1996 law that 
requires that doctors, hospitals and other medical services providers 
keep patient data secret. And thus, hospitals have become reluctant to 
use ham communications in emergencies. We effectively broadcast all of 
the information we communicate, and they're afraid that we'll get them 
sued by doing so.

Emergency communications are a critical component of the mission of 
Amateur Radio, and are one of only four purposes that FCC uses to 
justify the existence of the Amateur Service. It may be that encryption 
does become critical to support Amateur emergency services. But that 
time has not yet come. If we are to allow encryption on the air, that 
should come only after the entire ham community has discussed it 
throughly and explored all of the options. And yet, nobody's brought 
this issue before you, before attempting to change the rules behind your 
back.

The folks who support the encryption proposal are, as far as I can tell, 
well-meaning. Many of them are involved in emergency communications. But 
their methods are inappropriate. If they want this change, they must 
discuss the issue throughly at ham conferences and in our publications. 
They must allow hams to become educated about the alternatives before we 
decide as a community if a rule change is necessary.

What are the alternatives? One is changing HIPAA to remove liability 
from the doctors and hospitals for disclosure of information in an 
amateur emergency transmission. Changing laws is not impossible for 
Amateurs. Through lobbying congress, we have recently been able to cause 
changes in ITAR 121, a Department of Defense restriction that made it 
difficult for us to collaborate with other nations in building 
microsats. That's changing now as a result of lobbying by ham 
organizations. If hams can get that done, we can reform HIPAA as well.

Another alternative is to leave the rules as they are today. Many 
emergency organizations have been able to operate without encryption 
despite any reservations by the served organizations regarding HIPAA, 
which has existed since 1996. And many services other than Amateur 
Radio, including MARS, Land Mobile, and Part 15 can provide encryption 
without a rule-change, and might be more appropriate venues for this 
traffic.

If we end up deciding to have encryption on the Amateur bands, we must 
do so only after developing a system of controls that prevent its abuse. 
There is no anti-abuse method sugested in the current request for rule 
making, but I propose this one: Encryption would only be allowed in 
tests and drills that would be authorized and publicly announced by 
accredited ARES or RACES organizations. Logging of encrypted 
transmissions, /including the encryption key,/ would be mandatory. 
Stations would be required to disclose their keys to amateur volunteers 
who would check recorded transmissions for rule-violation, but those 
volunteers would be required to keep any HIPAA-protected patient data 
within the transmission private. Stations that repeatedly failed to 
cooperate in allowing their messages to be decrypted and checked by 
third parties would be subject to penalties.

But we haven't decided any of this yet. And we shouldn't without your 
participation. Thus, please comment now in opposition of the proposal.

Again, the last day for you to submit a comment opposing this is JULY 8, 
so it's important for you to act now! Please make a short comment in 
opposition to the proposal at this link 
<http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/begin?procName=RM-11699>, or use this 
link <http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/?procName=RM-11699> to upload 
longer documents.

About the Author: Bruce Perens K6BP is one of the founders of the Open 
Source movement in software. He is also the founder of No-Code 
International, the organization that successfully lobbied for the global 
elimination of code testing. More recently, Perens has been a pioneer of 
digital communications over Ham Radio. He started and evangelized the 
Codec2 (http://codec2.org/) project, which has developed a fully open 
and patent-free digital voice codec for Radio Amateurs. That codec is 
now in use in FreeDV (http://freedv.org/), which provides clear digital 
voice communications on HF in half the bandwidth of SSB. You can reach 
Bruce Perens K6BP at +1 510-4PERENS (US Pacific time), or email to bruce 
at perens dot com.

Please forward this message to other hams. The most current version is 
at http://hams.com/encryption/ Please use that version.

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