That is an idea! It would be fun to run SSH over packet radio while no one is around to enforce Part 97!
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Off topic, but what's the reasoning behind the rule against encrypted traffic on amateur bands?
I actually researched this long ago - 2004 - when I was a student at Tech and gave a presentation to the Atlanta Radio Club about cryptographically secure authentication that would be Part 97 friendly. Nothing came of it, but I did later post the write up to my blog it 2009:
http://blog.rietta.com/blog/2009/08/17/authentication-withou...
My opinion at the time was: " What Does Part 97 Say?
Section 97.113 (4) '…messages in codes or ciphers intended to obscure the meaning thereof, except as otherwise provided herein…' (emphasis added).
Based on the above quote, we can use any method at our disposal to provide for secure authentication which does not obscure the meaning of communications. As we start using more computing environments and bring the Internet to ham radio, we have to make sure that service is not provided to non-licensed users. In voice space, it is generally easy to spot a non-ham, but when everyone is using the same software there is not a similarly intuitive way to distinguish between the licensed user and the unlicensed user. "
Where I'm from Tech means Virginia Tech. We beat Georgia Tech in football this year too ;)
Just joking... thanks for that write-up. I'd rather keep the Internet away from Radio (it's too centralized). I much prefer station to station communication over the air rather than packets over some government/corporate controlled network.
I have no experience with amateur radio, but from a quick google search, it looks like the relevent regulation is:
(a) No amateur station shall transmit: ... (4)...messages encoded for the purpose of obscuring their meaning, except as otherwise provided herein
If you read through the rest of the restrictions, it looks like they are trying to setup a fairly specific environment on amateur radio, and encrypted traffic is inconsistent with that environment.
Presumably to keep people from using the frequency for commercial purposes.
Also paramilitary purposes