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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."
I've got nothing good to say about D-Star until the voice CODEC is free-to-use. That's not amateur radio. As it stand now, D-STAR simply means "made by ICOM"...even the Kenwood-badged D-STAR radios are in fact manufactured by ICOM.
de K3XS
-=Maggie Leber=-
He doesn't understand the issue, so he asked a question. Sorry that offends your sensibilities.
I didn't think of those. I just thought of the issue of SSL across the radio.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Be thankful it is how it is. If commercial interests got access to the amateur bands, they'd push individual "amateurs" out. Just imagine if the bands were crowded with business traffic, with powerful stations paid for by commercial interests. The regular Joe would never be able to get through the din.
Historically, that's the reason the word "amateur" is in "amateur radio" -- to differentiate the service from "commercial radio", which is nearly everything else.
I wonder if they're going to ban carrier pidgeons as well since they also allow connections to the net.
http://www.blug.linux.no/rfc1149/
They seem to be claiming that it would allow somone to set up an unofficial ISP.
By that kind of logic just about anything at all could be used to connect to the internet.
If I was a big electronics geek I could theoretically set up a pair of toy laser pointers + some light sensors to allow me to relay internet traffic by line of sight (with crappy bandwidth) but that wouldn't be that much more complex than what they seem to be talking about.
Hell you could set up a piece of string with some motors and sensors to relay ip data IPOP (IP Over Pullies)
But this unsecured link is legal everywhere but France, so the French could not shut down a link in Belgium, Spain, the UK, or anywhere else nearby that wants to host one.
Follow the money. Anybody in power in France have a financial interest in not allowing this mode of communication?
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
The French have basically outlawed something because of interoperability. The D-Star stuff can be networked. They could have simply said "Don't connect it to the Internet" instead of making it illegal to use.
Amateur radio should only use open standards, codecs, and protocols; anything else should not be allowed on the air and people using anything else should lose their license.
There really is no reason to use anything proprietary anyway: the necessary technologies and protocols have been known for a while.
Good for the French! D-star is just another way to exclude everyone who doesn't want to plop down a kilobuck for their radio...much like "private" repeater organizations in the states. Amateur radio should be free and open to everyone, and D-star clearly doesn't fall into this category! 73, KD5SFK
As an amateur radio operator I've questioned how D-Star could be legal. In a nutshell, D-Star implements a method of encoding radio communications in a way that can also be interpreted as encrypted (ie WEP/wifi on steroids). Since the FCC and the ITU (international telecommunications union) dictate that "no encryption or other privacy techniques may be used".
... except D-Star.
Since there is a proprietary chip made by a single manufacturer and a fee must be paid for the use then this would seem to violate the above rule. Every other digital and analog mode of communication is defined to the extent that an amateur radio operator could construct hardware to send, receive, encode, and decode the information
However, the French couldn't see the big oak in front of them, they had to decide that their big brother authority is threatened.