Comment by teeray | Hacker News Reader

Comment by teeray | Hacker News Reader

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How would you feel about a group preventing the public from entering Yellowstone so that they could do whatever they wanted with the park? Should they be fined for that or should we just take away the trucks they blocked the roads with?

Amateur spectrum is public property, just like a national park. The rules are in place so that it remains available for the public’s enjoyment.

> lobby the government… open up the bands… commercial use cases

This same sentiment would lend support to the building of a Walmart and condos around Old Faithful.

> The radio spectrum is supposed to belong to all of us? Not just a privileged few who possess a license.

It’s like $50 (and I’m pretty sure there’s financial hardship waivers) to get your tech license and it’s easy material. There’s a wealth of free resources to learn it. The roads all belong to us too, but we make people get drivers licenses so we can ensure they know how to properly use that public resource.

Yes, and those drivers licenses are obviously because cars are dangerous machines that can cause severe harm to someone if they are driven improperly. And the legal system surrounding it has penalties which are usually proportionate to the harm caused.

While low power transmitters, 100mW or so, are generally not dangerous, and thus should be deregulated in the VHF/UHF ham bands, so that the general public can use spectrum it legitimately owns. The "listen before talk" principle should be required by the regulations, and thus implemented in firmware. And even if misused and hacked to transmit on emergency frequencies, the harm a low power transmitter can cause is still limited.

In the end it comes down to if the industry and general public is a more powerful lobbyist than the amateur radio community, which is tiny by comparison. Who has more political power. And I think the general public might be the one with more political power here, and rightfully get to make the decision?

The radio spectrum is a shared space. In a democratic country, a small minority should not be dictating the rules for the majority here?

“Should be enforced in firmware” - part of the point of the amateur radio rules is allowing for people to experiment with with homemade equipment.

> because cars are dangerous machines that can cause severe harm to someone if they are driven improperly

Okay, pick another example of licensure to protect natural resources, since we probably won’t be able to get away from the “cars are dangerous” distraction.

Take fishing licenses, for example. Catching undersized lobster can net someone thousands in fines and possible jail time. Is this okay? If we seize their boat and traps, is that enough to guarantee they won’t do it again and discourage copycats?

> so that the general public can use spectrum it legitimately owns

One of the things covered in the license material you seem to feel is unnecessary is that amateur operators are secondary users on many bands and do not have an exclusive right to use those frequencies. Both the 33cm ISM band (900 MHz) and the 13cm band (2.4 GHz) are shared with unlicensed applications in a similar way to what you describe. If you want to use VHF, grab a MURS radio. UHF? Pick up an FRS radio. While those services do not overlap with amateur frequencies, it’s the same experience. What exactly are unlicensed users missing out on?

Lobster fishing is usually a large scale operation run by a business. Yes the fines are appropriate for a business, they wouldn't be for an individual though.

If an individual was to be fined excessively over a handful of lobsters, then again it's another example of overcriminalization and it's likely environmental pressure groups behind these laws, and it's completely wrong.

Yes, I agree with you about the secondary users of the ham band, though. I forgot about that one.

In fact in that post, I was actually advocating for the hobby to be phased out, and replaced with some other unlicensed system, given that so much of it's community is in support of such draconian measures and punishments for those who trivially violate the rules.

As I said, it should be consigned to the "dustbin of history" because of the draconian laws surrounding it. The laws have to be changed, or it's got to go.

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