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France Says D-Star Ham Radio Mode Is Illegal
gyrogeerloose writes "Citing 'national security concerns,' the French Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et des Postes (ARCEP, France's equivalent of the US's FCC) has ruled that D-Star, an amateur radio digital signal mode used world-wide, is illegal because it could allow operators to connect to the Internet.The ARCEP also cites alleged concerns regarding cryptography and national security as well as the use of a proprietary codec. While it's true that the D-Star codec is proprietary, its owner has openly licensed it (for a fee, of course) to any manufacturer who wants to build it into their equipment. Any licensed amateur radio operator who lives within the EU can sign an online petition protesting this decision."
As a ham in the U.S., I can tell you that here, there is a severe restriction on communication in that no commercial messages may be relayed. It took years for the FCC to grant an exemption to allow hams to autopatch to order pizza.
As far as I know, there's no exemption for ads (adsense or otherwise), which would severely restrict what traffic you could have over the session. IRC MOTDs that advertise the hosting service? AdSense web ads? Nope, nope.
France takes their mobile phones communications very seriously - you have to provide a photocopy of your ID just to get a Mobicarte (Pay-As-You-Go) SIM card. Even then it will be deactivated if you don't use it after three months.
I get the impression they really want to know the identity of anyone who surfs the web.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
And why is connecting amateur radio equipment to the internet illegal?
Amateur radio operators have been using the internet as a transport and control link for many years. An example of this is Echolink: http://www.echolink.org/
Amateur radio connectivity to the internet is not illegal in most if not all of the remaining world. I don't know why France would be any different.
Sorry, that's Part 97.113(a)(4).
Things forbidden over ham radio in the US:
1) Encryption (Spread spectrum is a bit of a grey area here, some consider it "encryption", also some radio systems use scrambling codes for "whitening" data patterns. In general, "whitening" scramblers were OK as long as they were fully documented, spread spectrum is a pain in the !*@#)!*$#@! regulation-wise)
2) Broadcast is forbidden with a few exceptions. (Repeater IDs, for example. APRS is also kosher. Broadcasting anything like a "radio show" is not. In the digital age it's a bit grey, but in general sustained transmissions are not kosher, but brief bursts (IDing, position reports) are OK.
3) Commercial usage is forbidden. It used to be that if there was ANYTHING commercial about a transmission it was illegal, however a decade or two ago the US changed rules so that it was OK as long as none of the radio operators involved were benefiting financially. The main effect of this difference is that it used to be illegal to order pizza through an autopatcher (Allows a ham to make phone calls from their radio via a gateway, usually located at a repeater site), now it is legal. I think it was primarily done so that hams supporting emergency/even communications could order food for emergency/volunteer event workers. In France they may still use the old-style rules.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
1. Internet, the ARCEP warn the HAM operator about the legislation. If you want to run a public telecommunication service you must conform to the pretty heavy legislation about it and it nearly impossible in the HAM environment. Plus HAM frequency aren't supposed to be connect to an open network for non HAM operator use.
2. Cryptografic & National Security, In fact most french HAM operator i know are pretty free software enthusiast and most of them are again proprietary codec and close standard. We have a large number of guys developing mixed HAM/VOIP service with ASTERISK or other kind of crazy stuff. The ARCEP simply said that in the current state of the D-Star standard, It not possible to the ARCEP and other HAM operator to monitor what's going on the frequency.
3. Patents, The standard is cover by many patent and that could be a problem for equal access and monitoring of the frequencies. In short, the ARCEP is again brand specific frequencies and standards for the HAM.
If you can read the ARCEP response letter, the situation is pretty simple. A guy from the DR@F Digital HAM group asked for a authorization for experimental use of the D-Star frequences bands. The ARCEP gave the authorization for 6 months, they asked for up to 10 members authorization they get it and 6 more months. Then they ask for a France wide general authorization for all registered HAM operator. Then the ARCEP politely explain that clearly out of the experimentation range and that clearly another story. For the ARCEP amateur radio group are suppose to be amateur and can't start negotiation for a national wide deployment in place of the manufacturer or consortium behind the standard or the equipment.
D-Star equipment manufacturer need to get in contact with the ARCEP to clarify some issue, like the patent and the possibility of interconnection with an open network ( internet, phone, etc. ). HAM frequence are suppose to be used only by and for registered HAM operator. You couldn't start your own nation wide pager network using HAM frequency.
This seem pretty reasonable to me.
I am on a D-STAR discussion list. Apparently the issue is that D-STAR has not previously been an allowed digital mode in France, and there is an old time neanderthal HF ham radio guy in their radio regulatory department (the type of guy who believes ham radio died the moment there was no longer a requirement to build your own HF morse code transceiver in order to get a ham license) who does not believe that *any* digital modes should be allowed who is now in a position to block the adoption of new digital modes. Check out this list of a large number of digital modes that are banned in France (note that this page is in French, but if you are American you should be able to read the huge number of disallowed modes, and the much smaller number of allowed modes at the end). In any event, the whole "can be routed over the Internet" thingy is a base canard being used by this old-school guy to disallow digital modes, rather than the real reason, so ... (shrug).
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