Rebooting a Hobby: The Death and Rebirth of Amateur Radio.

[kraptv]

I gave a talk on the slow death and exciting rebirth of modern amateur radio.

I thought it might be enjoyable for some EEVblog enthusiasts to take a look as well - and while the 'old ways' are not completely dead, I cover some of the interesting complementary things we did to appeal to a modern young enthusiast.  I did quote Dave's recent comment about not having a great push to getting his license - it's quite relevant as amateur radio used to be the only game in town for electronics tinkering communities.

Video of the presentation at Electromagnetic Field conference:

https://media.ccc.de/v/emf2016-83-rebooting-a-hobby-how-modern-digital-comms-are-reviving-amateur-radio

A few key things in addition:

I forgot to point out the mass-licensing effort going on at the Las Vegas hacker conference DEFCON.  This is a huge thing because the attendees are some of the brightest technologically curious people in the world.  DEFCON is short is a yearly-held woodstock for Internet and computer security technologists.

“Ham for Hackers”  presentation (circa 2008) at Defcon 16: https://www.defcon.org/images/defcon-16/dc16-presentations/defcon-16-jonm.pdf

I think there are a lot of exciting changes happening to the world of technology - lots of really cool stuff coming to fruition which will make the radio enthusiast world really fun and interesting.

PS - I regret burping on stage, but hey, this ain't a TED talk. 

[magetoo]

I'm guessing this is the same talk?  (I just get SSL errors on the ccc.de site.)

[kraptv]

yep, you got it! Well spotted.

Also of note to your https-related error - the SSL signing authority is LetsEncrypt (https://letsencrypt.org/)  - a growing free SSL signing authority. Firefox 50 and the current version of Google Chrome already trust LetsEncrypt-certficate sites.

You may start to encounter these issues more regularly as people migrate to it. :-)

[magetoo]

The SSL error is most likely because I'm on an old browser and the server wants to use newer encryption that's not mutually supported.

Just watched the video and it sounds like good common sense ideas to get people interested.  I share the "unfascination" for amateur radio you mention I suppose, but RF is interesting.

[David Hess]

I think an unaddressed but serious problem is the proliferation of EMI emitting consumer gear including compact fluorescent and LED lamps which are making the HF bands unusable.  The only related good news is that they finally gave up on power line networking.

[G0HZU]

I've been licensed for over 30 years and I watched the whole video and I have a few comments.

I agree with the overall message that amateur radio needs a reboot to find itself again. So in this respect the video was good. But I think it was too long. To reach (and impress) the people you need to reach you need to make a short and punchy presentation.

[G0HZU]

If you do another one,you could try including a catchy phrase like 'get closer to the physics' because I do feel that modern society is becoming more and more insulated from the real world of physics and electronics.

There must be a lot of people out there who love what modern networking systems can offer them but they must also feel a sense of isolation from the technical (and theoretical) side of it all.

[hammy]

Amateur Radio had an unique feature in the past: communication around the world.
This was the unique selling point to everyone who just watched a ham - operating his station - for some minutes. And for a lot people this was the initial spark to learn the hobby and get a license. Even for people not mainly interested in technology.
And this is lost!
The number of hams will shrink. Based on serveral factors: commercialization of frequency ranges, a dwindling lobby, outdated technology - it is not part of the zeitgeist anymore.

Like sailing. Who owns a sailboat?

Cheers
hammy

[setq]

I'm quite up with the idea of maintaining 100% independent communication versus global networks. Most of my day is consumed with keeping the plates spinning on the latter and it's scary how thin a thread most things hang off.  There is still lots of value in amateur radio from this perspective. There is also still romance in the idea of jiggling some electrons around in a bit of wire with a few transistors and someone else a few hundred miles away being able to observe it.

I'm not a radio amateur but I've done enough in depth research and experimentation on the homebrew side of things to be put off it by a number of things.

Licensing - I understand the purpose of a license and agree it is needed but at least in the UK, the whole examination and licensing thing is a mess involving independent examiners, usually at clubs by the looks and Ofcom. There needs to be a wider audience for this i.e. you should be able to get independently examined at a bog standard pro-metric test center. The exam is easy and is optically marked so this is as complicated as it should be.

Disparate knowledge and literature. Knowledge on RF electronics comes in packets which are poorly joined together. I can build a stable varicap tuned buffered colpitts oscillator (I have done this!). I can build a diode ring mixer (I have done this) but I have no idea how to derive what dBm the mixer requires for the LO and antenna ports. I have read literally a pile of information that says X dBm for the LO, but I don't know why. There are very few theoretical resources on matters like this which cover end to end engineering. Experimental Methods in RF Design is as close as it gets and I really like it but putting down £40 for a book to make up for the deficiencies in two other £40 books (ARRL handbook and RSGB handbook) is the status quo for amateur radio literature. There needs to be a canonical well-edited non-affiliated source of information much as there are in other hobby spaces these days. Something that makes you go "ahhhh I understand". And a stab at ARRL, please lose the random inch ratio conversion factors in everything in the handbook.

Time - I can't afford the time to join a club (or hackspace) to fill the gaps in the disparate knowledge from the above and double-check my thinking. I have a family. A 45 minute commute to a club isn't an option for a lot of us and the canonical answer from the US is talk to an elmer or in the UK, join a club.

Antennas - To actually start building your own equipment, and get on the air, the best bands require big antennas which is a massive problem for us in London. There is no textbook "here's how to do this" type thing out there in this space either. There really needs to be building block tutorials on how it all works, how to think about it etc. It took me months to change my mindset to power levels and the frequency domain from the regular time domain of traditionally taught electronics for example.

Age and eliteness - I'm in my thirties and when I turn up at Kempton and Dunstable once a year to eviscerate the parts and surplus suppliers, I'm one of the younger people there. I'll occasionally bump into someone who asks what my call is and I explain I don't have one. I'm not specifically saying this is everyone but when someone finds out or observes you are younger than the status quo yet older than a "student" and doesn't have a license there's an awkward silence and a void of respect and communication. Perhaps a twilight zone, an awkward customer.

Anyway, I hope people see at least a single data point from a rank outsider here.

Please persuade me otherwise.

[EEVblog]

Amateur Radio had an unique feature in the past: communication around the world.
This was the unique selling point to everyone who just watched a ham - operating his station - for some minutes. And for a lot people this was the initial spark to learn the hobby and get a license. Even for people not mainly interested in technology.
And this is lost!

Yes, irretrievably lost, through no fault of it's own of course, it's just human communications progress.
Hobby electronics was headed into the doldrums (if it wasn't already there) until the hacker/maker movement sprang up and saved it.

How to revive interest in amateur radio? I'm afraid I don't really know 
I can imagine the new age "prepper" movements getting into radio as an independent source of communications.

[EEVblog]

Time - I can't afford the time to join a club (or hackspace) to fill the gaps in the disparate knowledge from the above and double-check my thinking. I have a family. A 45 minute commute to a club isn't an option for a lot of us and the canonical answer from the US is talk to an elmer or in the UK, join a club.

Yep. I want to join my local hackerspace and go hang out (heck, I've had ideas about opening my own space), but I just have too many other commitments. I feel ashamed that I haven't even been to the local hack space, but have been to the Melbourne one twice, and meet up with them at the Maker Faires (this weekend in Sydney!)

[DimitriP]

but putting down £40 for a book to make up for the deficiencies in two other £40 books (ARRL handbook and RSGB handbook) is the status quo for amateur radio literature. There needs to be a canonical well-edited non-affiliated source of information much as there are in other hobby spaces these days.

On another planet, there are services that will open your head and fill it with all the available information and understanding you need to have, for free.
The name of the planet escapes me.

[David Hess]

Yes, irretrievably lost, through no fault of it's own of course, it's just human communications progress.
Hobby electronics was headed into the doldrums (if it wasn't already there) until the hacker/maker movement sprang up and saved it.

Has the hacker/maker movement saved it?  I had not noticed.  At least here in the US, I see a continuation of earlier technical projects taking advantage of new technology fueled by increasing integration.  I am not sure there are more of them; they may just be more visible on the internet which by itself has advantages; smaller projects can now receive support from a wider audience with less effort.

How to revive interest in amateur radio? I'm afraid I don't really know 
I can imagine the new age "prepper" movements getting into radio as an independent source of communications.

I have seen very little overlap with the prepper movement but I may not have been watching closely enough; it seems like most preppers are expecting cellular and internet communications to continue functioning.

In the past a big advantage of amateur radio was continuous use which maintained expertise for when it is really needed but now that cellular and internet communications provide functions which previous amateur radio handled well, people moved as well.

I have often considered whether smaller well documented open projects like the QRP kits of the past could provide dual use hardware to support digital emergency communications but there *has* to be a non-emergency use for wide support and current FCC regulations in the US make this difficult; mixing public internet with amateur radio is practical forbidden.

[GreyWoolfe]

Quote
How to revive interest in amateur radio? I'm afraid I don't really know 
I can imagine the new age "prepper" movements getting into radio as an independent source of communications.

I have seen very little overlap with the prepper movement but I may not have been watching closely enough; it seems like most preppers are expecting cellular and internet communications to continue functioning.


I am a Volunteer Examiner Liaison and I can say that I have had preppers come to testing sessions for their Tech license.  I don't think that they have caught on to the fact that if EMP takes out cellular and internet communications, then the uP in their Baofeng handi-talkies will probably suffer the same fate.  Flint, steel and a blanket, anyone?

[whalphen]

About 3 years ago I decided to obtain an amateur radio license upon a suggestion from a friend.  I wasn't sure why.  I'm not interested in having casual discussions with strangers around the world.  I just decided to explore the amateur radio world to see if there was anything interesting.  I have an electrical engineering degree, but have done very little electronics work.  After a few years doing electronic instrument design, I spent the large majority of my working career in administrative and managerial positions.  I retired about a year after getting licensed.  So now I have the time and freedom to explore.  Here's what I've found:

Amateur radio does provide opportunities to talk to others all over the continent and the world.  And it's not only via radio.  Amateur radio is almost like a club.  Introduce yourself and your callsign to another amateur radio licensee anywhere and you're immediately treated as a friend.  For example, just a few weeks ago I encountered an amateur using a portable rig on a mountaintop in Japan.  After introducing myself with my callsign, I was welcomed and had a long friendly chat.  Nearly every ham I meet is welcoming and eager to help me enjoy the hobby.

Amateur radio is a community service.  In the US, radio amateurs sit on the state emergency operations teams along with a wide variety of government and community representatives.  In the event of a disaster, radio amateurs may be called in to provide emergency communications channels.  When a child or other individual goes missing, the amateur radio community assists in communications and search and rescue.  If a marathon race or a Christmas parade is held, the amateur radio community is asked to provide point to point communications along the route to ensure problems and emergencies are communicated and addressed quickly.

Amateur radio offers entertainment in the form of challenges and contests.  For those who like to compete, there are innumerable contests and technical challenges.  Can you make contacts in 100 countries?  It's not easy.  Can you do it using 5 watts or less?  Tough, but possible.  I've been trying for two years.  There's nothing like the thrill of contacting a researcher at the South Pole using only 5 watts.  Or making a trans-Atlantic contact using only 250 milliwatts!  This was possible using a digital mode with intensive computer processing to extract the signal from the noise.  Or, how about making a contact via a repeater on the International Space Station as it zips by -- using only a portable radio and a handheld antenna?

Amateur radio is a learning opportunity.  Learning electronics or RF design from a stack of textbooks is very difficult and dull.  But, learning how to design an amplifier by building one is much more interesting and effective.  Amateur radio presents the opportunities that can give you the initiative to build and learn.  Recently I found a need to have a low power VHF amplifier for something I was exploring.  With a bit of internet research and reading I learned all about Class E amplifiers.  Using free PCB design software (KICAD) and an online PCB fab shop I was able to design and build one at very low cost.  Need an antenna?  Do some research.  Learn about it, and build one.  I have a long list of ideas and projects (learning opportunities) queued up as a result of exploration of amateur radio.  In two years of playing around with amateur radio designs, I've learned a huge amount about RF design, microcontroller design, and C programming.

Amateur radio is a teaching opportunity.  I now do volunteer work with the local middle and high schools, teaching students about electronics and radio communications.  Most of the students I work with have developed strong interest in engineering careers.  Electronics can be interesting and fun.  But, add in the ability to use radio communications to do remote sensing and remote control, and it opens up the world in ways that students cannot otherwise experience.  With electronics students can measure the room temperature and the wind speed.  They can measure the barometric pressure in the classroom.  And they can make robots move across the floor.  But add radio communications into the mix and it gives them the ability to explore the planet.  We can capture telemetry from satellites to monitor the conditions in space.  We can send high altitude balloons to the top of the atmosphere and recover the payloads after descent.  We can measure the abrupt temperature change that occurs as the balloon moves from the troposphere into the stratosphere.  We can put data collection buoys out on the Great Lakes.  We can monitor conditions on the bottom of the river through the deep freeze of Michigan winters.  We can use low power WSPR radio transmitters to investigate the effects of the sun on the ionosphere.  Radio communications allow students to look beyond their smart phone screens and beyond the walls of the classroom.  This opens their minds and gives them the skills and confidence to explore the far reaches of the planet with their own brains and hands.

Amateur radio is not old technology.  Like everything else, radio technology is evolving and migrating into the digital realm.  As we've seen audio, video, computers, and telephony merge into modern digital devices like smartphones, much of what was done in analog radio designs in the past is now done with computer processing.  Much of radio technology is also merging into digital devices.  You don't need to learn all about analog RF electronics.  There are digital integrated circuit chips that can connect directly to a microprocessor to send and receive radio.  I recently completed a design of a transceiver for a high altitude balloon which uses a PIC microcontroller interfaced to a $4 ISM transceiver chip to send and receive data over VHF or UHF channels.  This is the same kind of chip that's in your automobile key fob or your utility meter.  It helps to know a bit about the analog filters -- but what you don't want to learn, or don't have time to learn, you can get from data sheets or online design tools.

Amateur radio can be expensive, but it can also be inexpensive.  Nearly every capability you can't afford to buy you can build at much lower cost.  And, with low cost Chinese radios, test instruments, and parts, a person can get started with a minimal investment and move up to more expensive and better quality equipment once they learn which field of radio electronics they enjoy.  My first radio was a $30 Chinese handheld.  I'm building my own spectrum analyzer using plans from the internet.  I've built two RF power amplifiers, a transverter, and a WSPR transmitter.  After learning that surface mount technology is not difficult to work with, I built my own reflow oven.  My main HF antenna and my VHF antenna were built using parts from the local hardware store.  Used equipment is readily available.  And I can always find another ham willing to loan me any test equipment I need to use.

Since I started exploring amateur radio I've learned that it's much more than the stereotypical image of a bunch of old guys sitting around with headsets and microphones chatting about old vacuum tubes and such.  Yes, you can do that.  But, amateur radio also offers many more dimensions and opportunities to contribute to the community, to have fun, to learn, and to teach.  If you enjoy electronics, consider adding radio technology into your skill set.  And, if you have interest in using radio technology in your electronics designs, consider getting licensed.  It will open up lots of opportunities for new ideas and explorations, as well as a huge community of other radio amateurs eager to help.

[EEVblog]

I have seen very little overlap with the prepper movement but I may not have been watching closely enough; it seems like most preppers are expecting cellular and internet communications to continue functioning.

Then they are very uneducated prepper!
There could actually be a big potential market there in the US for preppers to join the community.

I am a Volunteer Examiner Liaison and I can say that I have had preppers come to testing sessions for their Tech license.  I don't think that they have caught on to the fact that if EMP takes out cellular and internet communications, then the uP in their Baofeng handi-talkies will probably suffer the same fate.  Flint, steel and a blanket, anyone?

The most plausible prepper "crisis" actually involve natural disasters, solar flares taking out grid and hence all mobile and internet comms etc. Nothing that would usually take out independent radio gear.

[EEVblog]

I have seen very little overlap with the prepper movement but I may not have been watching closely enough; it seems like most preppers are expecting cellular and internet communications to continue functioning.

Then they are very uneducated prepper!
There could actually be a big potential market there in the US for preppers to join the community.
Several million at least:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/03/23/u-s-preppers-3-million-and-counting-when-modern-society-collapses-unto-itself/

I am a Volunteer Examiner Liaison and I can say that I have had preppers come to testing sessions for their Tech license.  I don't think that they have caught on to the fact that if EMP takes out cellular and internet communications, then the uP in their Baofeng handi-talkies will probably suffer the same fate.  Flint, steel and a blanket, anyone?

The most plausible prepper "crisis" actually involve natural disasters, solar flares taking out grid and hence all mobile and internet comms etc. Nothing that would usually take out independent radio gear.

If I was a prepper I'd probably have a shot a Yotuube channel devoted to amateur radio and comms for preppers, got to be a big niche there.

[VK5RC]

I'm not sure a lot of 'preppers'  would put the effort in to get an amateur licence for just one component of 'preparedness'.  I am left with the impression some hams have gone the 'prepper'  way.  Others have a interest in emergency comms and have greatly helped some disaster recovery efforts.

[setq]

I knew a few peppers a few years ago (they exist in the UK too but are slightly less nuts than the US variety) and they have unlicensed CB and VHF walkie talkies in their vehicles and houses and that is as far as comms seem to go. This is the same kit local farmers use as their mobile phones don't work in the remote parts of their farms. They are aware that cellular and internet communications are fragile, sometimes from very personal experiences. I don't think amateur radio gives them much over this.

Recent events in Turkey, I.e. the military coup, the various European wars from the 1990s, the whole Russia vs Ukraine thing and the numerous natural disasters is where amateur radio stands out as a unique tool. The first thing any opposing force does is secure public communications and the first thing at risk from a disaster is public communications.

The problem is that these events are rare and you can usually see them coming.

[borjam]

It's complicated and a multi factor problem, in silly consultancy-speak

I am 46 and I finally did the paperwork for my license two years ago, although I had actually passed the exam back in 1989! I had been in and out of the hobby since then, never transmitting, just experimenting with SWL, receivers, etc. Even my professional life has been linked to radio (my first real job was to develop some control software for an AOR3000 in order to monitor outages in some UHF relays, and there wasn't so many people with some radio knowledge and software development experience). And some radio knowledge has helped me a lot. When WiFi networks begun to get affordable, some basic notions on radio communications and antennas made you look like genius compared to the typical "computer guys" trying to set up wireless networks.

So, finally, after I was asked to give a talk about SDR over Echolink, I did the paperwork and now I am active after all those years! Of course I joined URE.  What I found was a community in which I am one of the youngsters, at 46!.

There are many reasons why amateur radio is slowly dying. First, how many hams were attracted to it by the ability to speak to people from other countries? Back in the Cold War era you could even talk to hams from the Eastern Block, even if they weren't allowed to tell you what the temperature was (a usual joke of the day). Today the Internet makes it cheaper and easier. And social networks take such a large part of most people's attention, it's difficult for most youngsters to take some interest on this.

People's attention span is decreasing alarmingly. I've heard with horror that TEDish talks are "the future of education". I understand that a short talk by a really gifted speaker, of which there are just a handful in the whole world, can be really inspiring. But how many Sagans, Attenboroughs, Feynmans, etc can you name? Still, science topics are often hard to really grasp, you need to put a lot of energy on it. Of course, there is that plague of recent engineers who don't bother to know what they are doing and just do a Google search, copy and paste a solution of sorts.

Getting into radio as a kid must be much more disappointing now. When I had my first (crappy) shortwave radio back in 1983 or so, you would be amazed at the sheer quantity of stations from different countries you could listen to. Later I was given a more serious receiver (A Sony ICF-5900W with SSB!) and it was rather easy to receive a lot of amateur transmissions, even using a simple indoor dipole in my room. Today there is a lot of awful noise. I remember I hated TV sets back in those old days, but now it's much worse!

Now, imagine that kid (myself when I was 13) playing with dad's radio to see what is that "SW" thing, only to find noise. Lots of it. A different question would be, of course, the language barrier. Back in the 80's there were broadcasts in every language you could imagine and it was so funny to listen to Radio Moscow or Peace and Progress boasting the spontaneous demonstrations of joy of the miners at the Red Square...

The generational gap is dramatic as well, and most hams have become "obsolete" in so many ways. For example: Imagine that a real catastrophe strikes. Could a network of phone or even CW based communications cope with the information flow? Not at all. It could be a marginal help in certain tasks, but nothing else. In order to be an effective force to be of real help in a serious emergency and make a difference, you need both people with "traditional" radio skills and people able to set up complex digital networks. Fortunately, the availability of cheap digital radio equipment, especially DMR, is making some people get acquaintanced with these topics.

Maybe the IoT thing can help spark some interest. After all, wireless communications are fundamental. But there is something I don't like at al in the whole maker community, and it's again the shallow approach we see everywhere. People copies, pastes, hits with a hammer if needed, and stuff kinda works.

But often the maker in question doesn't really understand what s/he's doing and, worse, is utterly unable to communicate it to a peer. So you see so many forum posts in which someone asks a question, not bothering to give any details of course, receives some more or less helpful answers and, finally, posts a "hey, I fixed it" without bothering to explain how.

When I was a kid, a pair of HTs was a terrific present. How many kids have you presented with HTs in the last ten years? If you did, how were the HTs received?

[Kilrah]

How to revive interest in amateur radio? I'm afraid I don't really know 

Me either, but more importantly I don't see why it would be "necessary". Things come and go, amateur radio is like film photography, both were enourmous things back in the day, but both simply became obsolete through the appearance of things that do everything much better without really any drawback. Both have a few oldies who want to continue do do things the way they always did, a few youngsters will be interested an try/play a bit as a curiosity, but there's no way either will become "mainstream" again because neither really satisfies a need nor solves a problem anymore.

Interestingly there's just been a thread on an RC forum I follow where a bunch of guys mentioned they had sold their "expensive and increasingly uninteresting" amateur radio gear to start R/C flying instead. There's RF involved too if they're really into that, plus a lot of more relevant knowledge and entertainment to be gained.

I can imagine the new age "prepper" movements getting into radio as an independent source of communications.

Yep having an independent, open communications network would be a nice thing, but even for that common voice radio is totally obsolete, if something were to be done it would use what modern systems allow for. It's impractical to make something like that in "normal" times due to regulations, licensing etc, but don't worry that should hell break loose you'd see people create their own independent long range, encrypted digital communications network based on off the shelf radio modules or repurposed mobile phone hardware in a matter of days once nobody gives a shit about the government and/or regulatory entities anymore. Wouldn't be justified to go through legal difficulties to create something you can sell in preparation, but the day it's really needed it will "just happen", and no regulatory authority that might still have any jurisdiction would be able to ask for radio amateur licenses, sell bands usage rights for billions or stop the proliferation of hundreds of thousands of devices.

[VK5RC]

I am not sure I believe the line "amateur radio is dying".

It may be in the conventional sense of the numbers of guys stuck behind a simple analogue HF rig trying to communicate with another similar Ham BUT  the TOTAL activities of hams and I think actual numbers of hams is increasing.

In the last 10 years a new club has formed in my city Adelaide, several new repeaters have been installed and the existing clubs are not running short of members. Our club's presentations are expanding into areas that weren't even considered 10 years ago. An Australian has communicated over 3000km using 10GHz RF. Enrolments for Gippstech (Aust VHF+ Ham conference) gets bigger each year. Homebrew gear using semi-digital construction and low power is gaining interest esp with SI5351 type chips.
You have to look at the explosion of Hams and their websites, offering small club or other related projects for sale or offering experience of what they did and how they did it.  My Earth Moon Earth transceiver ( in construction) uses module from kits from Australian, USA and UK hams.
The increasing age of Hams I think just reflects the time pressure on younger people today however we have a large number of recent retirees in our club.
The hackers, makers and CBers may move into Amateur radio just as some Hams move out into others e.g. RC or plain electronics.

I think there has never been a better time to be a Ham, such amazing stuff, so easily found (internet) , so much useful information and so much great gear at bargain prices.

http://www.arrl.org/news/us-amateur-radio-numbers-reach-an-all-time-high
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_operator

[whalphen]

I think VK5RC makes a valid point about the increasing age of people entering the hobby.  In our local high school club we have many more students interested in joining but can't due to competing distractions.  Their schedules are full of sports, music, and other activities.  However, those who develop interest in electronics or engineering careers seem to prioritize their participation in the club over other things.  At the middle school level we have higher number of participants (about 3 to 4 times as many) because they don't yet have as many competing activities.

[PaulS]

I have seen very little overlap with the prepper movement but I may not have been watching closely enough; it seems like most preppers are expecting cellular and internet communications to continue functioning.

Then they are very uneducated prepper!
There could actually be a big potential market there in the US for preppers to join the community.
Several million at least:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/03/23/u-s-preppers-3-million-and-counting-when-modern-society-collapses-unto-itself/

I am a Volunteer Examiner Liaison and I can say that I have had preppers come to testing sessions for their Tech license.  I don't think that they have caught on to the fact that if EMP takes out cellular and internet communications, then the uP in their Baofeng handi-talkies will probably suffer the same fate.  Flint, steel and a blanket, anyone?

The most plausible prepper "crisis" actually involve natural disasters, solar flares taking out grid and hence all mobile and internet comms etc. Nothing that would usually take out independent radio gear.

If I was a prepper I'd probably have a shot a Yotuube channel devoted to amateur radio and comms for preppers, got to be a big niche there.

This must be a local thing, in my old city they had a net (people get on the state repeater network to talk) about prepping every week, and I listened in a few times. It always seemed quite busy.

[TheSteve]

I've just always liked radio, that won't change even with the internet. I still think it is a total blast to bounce a signal off the moon or use a handheld directional antenna to make contact with someone thousands of kilometers away using a satellite smaller then a beach ball in low earth orbit. I also love fox hunts(finding hidden transmitters in a park etc). Nothing like running around a park with an antenna made out of some plastic pipe with cut up pieces of a tape measure as the antenna elements.
Amateur radio is certainly growing in Canada, but it has evolved in that for most it isn't about big antennas mounted on a tower anymore. We are also seeing more support from cities and governments as they are providing resources and locations to setup stations that can be used during emergencies.

[GreyWoolfe]

"The generational gap is dramatic as well, and most hams have become "obsolete" in so many ways. For example: Imagine that a real catastrophe strikes. Could a network of phone or even CW based communications cope with the information flow? Not at all. It could be a marginal help in certain tasks, but nothing else. In order to be an effective force to be of real help in a serious emergency and make a difference, you need both people with "traditional" radio skills and people able to set up complex digital networks. Fortunately, the availability of cheap digital radio equipment, especially DMR, is making some people get acquaintanced with these topics. "

Here in the US, there is a different story.  There is the national traffic system.  It is made up of local, state and regional traffic nets both on phone and CW.  The hams involved are very serious about emergency communications and have off the grid power capabilities to keep their stations up and running.  There are also digital email nets using computers and radios to send email traffic on the HF bands.  There was a major FEMA exercise that included hams using the above digital email system that has FEMA very excited to be working with the ham radio community as part of an integrated communications solution.

[VK5RC]

The emergency Comms in the state of South Australia has been well designed (by a Ham no less) and is a trunking type system . It has been so well designed that it has worked well with 8 or 10 major bush fires with major infrastructure destruction and it has still operated well. Rapid deployable mobile back up base stations that will cover both the emergency network and also some limited mobile phone networking into crisis areas. Our emergency guys have offered to be back up comms officers in the event of prolonged crises but the system is quite complex and requires serious training beforehand but some of our serious guys have done that. They have even offered relief for prolonged emergencies interstate (again usually bush fires).
There are SO many areas that Hams can get involved.

[kraptv]

All,

Thanks so much for your constructive criticisms of the hobby and whether it is attractive for the modern tinkerer. It is completely valid in this modern era that people don't need an amateur radio license to explore electronics and even some kinds of radio experimentation.  It may be a the equivalent nerd hobby of horseback riding and yachting in the future - elements of what we used to deem as essential and are now just for fun.

The civic-minded to the paranoid-minded spectrum of the prepper movement is definitely unique, but I tend to think of them as a fringe element of the hobby and not the center.

One of the things that is unique to the UK licenCe is that it actually has some hands-on work for the intermediate level - I think this might be good for those that haven't soldered or made circuits beforehand (bold is relevant to hands-on learning of electronics, italics is it's complementary, and the strikethrough at the end might just be a little too much into the ham radio hobby - but perhaps tolerable in the grand scheme of things:

10d.1 Measure the resistance of a number of different resistors and confirm their values using the colour code
10d.2 Demonstrate the ability to make good soldered joints.
10d.3 Construct a simple circuit containing a battery, resistor, LED, lamp, and switch.
10d.4 Measure voltages and currents in a simple circuit.
10d.5 Demonstrate that a diode will only conduct in one direction in a simple DC circuit.
10d.6 Demonstrate that a transitor can be used as a switch in a simple DC circuit.
10d.7 Fit a suitable RF connector (PL259, BNC, or N-type) to a piece of coaxial cable
10d.8 Fit a 13 amp plug to a piece of 3-core mains cable
10e.1 Construct a simple amateur radio related project (e.g. direct conversion receiver, crystal calibrator, 'grid' dip meter, ATU&SWR meter, Morse oscillator, audio amplifier) either from a pre-prepared kit or from a published or personal design. Construction may be carried out either within a course or elsewhere but the assessor must be satisfied that the bulk of the work is that of the candidate.
10e.2 Calibrate a variable frequency oscillator (VFO) employing an adjustable LC circuit. Calibration to show the relevant amateur band edges. The VFO may form part of the project to satisfy 10e.1 or be part of a previously constructed project or provided by the assessor.

So what would happen if someone actually structured some learnings around these practicals and then as a bonus, people took a test and got a callsign? The idea is that some people thrive around structure and goals, so perhaps this would be sufficient to push towards this.

[Kilrah]

All of those things in bold would be the reason why I would NOT bother with a license, don't want to lose my time showing someone that I can do what's been my job for more than a decade.

The practical side is good but should be left to the person to do if they feel like with some documentation, either within whatever club they'd join with the help of the guys if that's how they like to learn or alone if they prefer, but not within the license context.

To me the learning and the license should always be very separate. Could be becasue I always hated the "standard" ways of teaching. Hate licenses too, but that's another story.

[joeqsmith]

Been going to respond to this for a while.   Watched the video.  I had a license when I was very young and learned a lot about electronics by joining a club where the majority of members were designing their own equipment from VHF to slow scan.  Plus my own home experiments, it really set the tone for the next 40 years.   

[janoc]

I am licensed myself (OM2ATC for the curious, didn't bother with the French callsign yet) and I would say that ham radio isn't really dying, just changing - as everything.

The archetypal "dude with an HF rig" making contacts is these days mostly the domain of retirees in their late 60s. Some of these folks are not even interested in the DIY aspect of the things, simply running an off-the-shelf commercial radio (no prob. with that!) or maintaining an old tube rig.

Then you have people who enjoy building stuff and not so much the chit-chat on air (my case) - what brought me to it was mostly the interest in the analog electronics, RF stuff tends to follow at some point. Then having an actual license is an advantage even if you are never actually active on air - some countries restrict even the mere ownership of gear not meant to operate in broadcast bands if you aren't licensed to operate it. (Slovakia used to have a rule like that when I was starting).

Where I see the new, younger folks coming into the hobby is the various digital stuff - DMR, SDR radios, Arduinos (hugely popular for controlling all sorts of gear), all sorts of networking projects, etc. I don't follow this part closely, but there is a ton going on.

I think the biggest risk and put-off for newcomers to the hobby are inflexible administrations, rigid building codes (try to install an antenna if you are living in a flat, for example!) and "stone age" rules in some countries. US hams can do things most in Europe can only dream about - and usually the further to the East you go, the worse it gets. UK, Germany and France have relatively "modern" rules, but e.g. my Slovakia is still fairly terrible. Morse code requirements for HF were abandoned after a lot of kicking and screaming only about 10 years ago (when their hand was finally forced by the EU rule harmonization) - but then in a way, that yeah, you don't need to pass morse exam, but we won't let you operate on any of the phone HF bands neither if you didn't, only CW bands for you. And even there not all of them, have fun on 160, 80, 15 and 10m! (i.e. bands mostly unusable in cities or due to conditions and no 40 or 20m, where most of the HF activity actually is).

In Denmark, where I had OZ2ATC for a while, I have just shown my Novice class ticket and got immediately the Danish equivalent, with all bands and all modes, 100W, no questions asked. In France it is similar, so it is not the EU/ITU rules mandating such extra restrictions.

There is a lot of ass-backwards things like that in the regs, effectively banning things which are perfectly legit only a few kilometers to the west - like the various digital data modes (it the mode isn't listed in the regs, it isn't legal - and you can guess how long time ago that list has been updated last time ...).

It really feels like being done in spite by the old beards (who are running the government telecommunications office) - "We had to pass this and that and you don't? Naw, we can't have that, screw you!" When people see this attitude, they just can't be bothered with the exams and actually getting licensed.

I think it is the heritage of the former communist regime and the administration is always trying to be more catholic than the pope - e.g. Slovakia, together with the Czech Republic, is likely the only country in Europe that requires a medikit in the car. It must be a special model with precisely specified content that changes often. It is a hugely popular item with the police because it is almost a guaranteed opportunity to write a ticket - either the content is wrong (oops, the law changed ..), expired (as if scissors or bandages went bad after few years ...), wrong color (yep, that has changed too) or the car simply doesn't have it in the first place (e.g. foreigner ...). Only few years ago the law also  required things like a towing rope, kit of lightbulbs (one of every kind used in the car - good luck if you had xenons or LEDs = pretty much guaranteed ticket because of no way to fulfill the requirement), kit of fuses (idem), jack, tire wrench, spare tire, triangle, and a few other things. Compare with other countries that mostly require only a triangle and recently a yellow safety vest (the rest is obviously good to have, but not legally required). I think this is pretty symptomatic of the administration.

[N2IXK]

The problem with promoting amateur radio among a lot of the "prepper" community is the fact that it involves a government issued license. Many would see this as simply providing the government a list of citizens with electronics knowledge and access to comms gear, who would be next into the FEMA concentration camps (after the gun owners, of course) when the NWO/ZOG/UN/whatever decides to crack down. 

Hell, there is a segment of that community that won't accept the requirement for a driver's license....

[donmr]

I'm not sure a lot of 'preppers'  would put the effort in to get an amateur licence for just one component of 'preparedness'.  I am left with the impression some hams have gone the 'prepper'  way.  Others have a interest in emergency comms and have greatly helped some disaster recovery efforts.

As the leader of a local amateur group, I have had preppers ask me for advice.  One wanted to know what radio he should buy.  He didn't want to use it he wanted to put it into a metal can and wait for the EMP event. 

[EEVblog]

The problem with promoting amateur radio among a lot of the "prepper" community is the fact that it involves a government issued license. Many would see this as simply providing the government a list of citizens with electronics knowledge and access to comms gear, who would be next into the FEMA concentration camps (after the gun owners, of course) when the NWO/ZOG/UN/whatever decides to crack down. 

Unfortunately that's probably true.

[janoc]

The problem with promoting amateur radio among a lot of the "prepper" community is the fact that it involves a government issued license. Many would see this as simply providing the government a list of citizens with electronics knowledge and access to comms gear, who would be next into the FEMA concentration camps (after the gun owners, of course) when the NWO/ZOG/UN/whatever decides to crack down. 

Hell, there is a segment of that community that won't accept the requirement for a driver's license....

Risking to sound elitist and snobbish, I think the last thing the HAM radio community needs is a bunch of nutcases barricading themselves at home waiting for the end of the world (or zombie apocalypse or whatever they are "prepping" for ...).

[stj]

Recent events in Turkey, I.e. the military coup, the various European wars from the 1990s, the whole Russia vs Ukraine thing

The first thing any opposing force does is secure public communications

and that's why if you own long range radio gear, you DONT want your name or address on any government list / database.

you dont want armed forces commandeering your house as a comm's base,
and you *really* dont want the opposing side firing long range artillary at it for the same reason!!

***this has happened!

[stj]

btw,
the whole EMP thing is a bullshit scare tactic.

the u.s. government detonated more nuclear weapons above the u.s. than russia ever will, and nobody in nevada lost any electronic gear.

the only stuff hardened against EMP are military aircraft that may have to fly over / near a detonation.

[hammy]

you dont want armed forces commandeering your house as a comm's base,
and you *really* dont want the opposing side firing long range artillary at it for the same reason!!

***this has happened!

Where? When? Any reference for this?

[stj]

bosnia for a start.

[hammy]

bosnia for a start.

I heard stories about amateur radio stations who established contact to the outside.
With some googling nothing showed up ...  ...ok, it wouldn't surprise me if large antenna installations are a target in war.  I would dismount the stuff and operate with temporary or stealth antennas.
But I don't think they had a list and targeted them intentionally one after another. 

Cheers
hammy

[stj]

if i remember right, they werent targeting them, they where commandeering them because they feared they may be used by spy's to relay information about military movements.
this was before the availability of cheap / home-made drones & such.

it was the other side that fired at atleast one of them.


to be fair, if i was a military commander in a warzone, i wouldnt want any long rage comm's to be not under my control either!

something else i can tell you from eastern europe warzones,
you do NOT want to get caught with a handheld on you, not unless you want to be shot as a suspected enemy.
even having a phone with a camera on it can be dangerous!

[hammy]

... they feared they may be used by spy's to relay information about military movements.
[...] to be fair, if i was a military commander in a warzone, i wouldnt want any long rage comm's to be not under my control either!

Exactly.  Large antenna installations are a target in war. Thats not surprising. To sit in a big shack, next to a tower,  near the war zone and tuning the bands is not really clever. 

you do NOT want to get caught with a handheld on you, not unless you want to be shot as a suspected enemy.
even having a phone with a camera on it can be dangerous!

Yes, I agree, common sense should tell you that.

PS: cloth lines are often antennas in war zones ....

[bitslice]

The problem with promoting amateur radio among a lot of the "prepper" community is the fact that it involves a government issued license.

Would it be so bad if that was changed?
As donmr pointed out, they only want a baofeng uv-5r transceiver they can bung in a garbage can in case of Zombies, none of them have the time to learn about antennas or making their own kit.
Maybe if all they want is a fancier CB, then adequate training is more important than keeping track of names, it's not like you can spark up a badly made transmitter and expect to stay hidden from pee'd off Hams.

There are lots of areas where qualified people can cause all sorts of havoc, and nobody has a list of their names.

Risking to sound elitist and snobbish, I think the last thing the HAM radio community needs is a bunch of nutcases barricading themselves at home waiting for the end of the world (or zombie apocalypse or whatever they are "prepping" for ...).

I don't think they care about what happens, just as long as all the anti-gun Liberals stave to death first

[djacobow]

The EOTWAWKI preppers do not need licenses, as nobody will be checking for them at that point. Since they don't seem to "practice" either, I don't see any problem with them buying Baofeng's by the bucket. It's good volume that helps keep the radio manufacturers in business.

Anyway, I'm new to the hobby, only got my license at the end of last year. I have done very little SSB because I'm just not interested in learning about some oldster's latest medical problems, which seems to be topic #1. However, I've really had a blast experimenting with the digital modes and also learning the theory and physics. For me, the excitement of amateur radio is that it's a rather "raw" encounter with the physical world, and rather esoteric parts of it: EMF waves, ionosphere, space weather. You are not using any infrastructure at all.  That's cool stuff!

I left a 300mW WSPR beacon running last night and it was heard in Antarctica. Even my 8 year old gets that that is cool.

To me, amateur radio is like the backpacking or sailing of technology: there's no "point" in it, but it's satisfying to interact directly with the world, and not be dependent on someone or some infrastructure, at least for a time.

Anyway, random thoughts. I agree with the vid, a lot of the old culture has to go, but the I think "using radio to do stuff" is worth keeping, especially when the "stuff" becomes "whatever you can imagine that doesn't violate physics."

[janoc]

Would it be so bad if that was changed?
As donmr pointed out, they only want a baofeng uv-5r transceiver they can bung in a garbage can in case of Zombies, none of them have the time to learn about antennas or making their own kit.
Maybe if all they want is a fancier CB, then adequate training is more important than keeping track of names, it's not like you can spark up a badly made transmitter and expect to stay hidden from pee'd off Hams.

That would be bad. HAM bands are full of interference already, that little Baofeng in hands of fools who don't know how to operate it properly could disrupt communication in a large area. Furthermore, some of these radios can tune in and transmit also outside of the HAM bands - such as in the air or marine bands that are often adjacent. Not a problem for a licensed HAM who knows the rules but good luck with someone who probably wouldn't even read the manual and treats it as a walkie-talkie ...

Furthermore, the licensing is also internationally mandated (ITU), it is not only only a national thing. Airwaves don't stop at the national borders, you know.

Honestly, I don't see why would a "prepper" want or need a HAM band capable radio with all the legal and technical baggage attached. There are plenty of alternatives - there are PMR radios, there is CB, there is DMR (which actually needs a permit, but no need to pass an exam), most don't need any licensing nor registration and are widely and cheaply available. CB with a proper antenna (1/2 or 5/8 lambda) even permits a fairly long range communication if that is desired.

[bitslice]

that little Baofeng in hands of fools who don't know how to operate it properly could disrupt communication in a large area.

That's only a reason for proper training, I'm just questioning why it needs a name and address attached?
Especially when incorrect use gets you triangulated to the nearest metre.
America doesn't require a gun to have name attached or require that someone knows which way to point it.

[Bicurico]

Hi,

I have an amateur radio license which I got some 10 years ago. The reason is kind of odd. My passion is satellite TV and i was designing a totally different dish, based on the fresnel lens concept. Whenever I discussed a few things with license radio amateurs, they looked at me as if i was a noob.

So I decided to get a license myself, to be at the same position than everyone else I wanted to discuss antennas with.

The exam was pretty easy as I already knew most of the subjects.  Just had to basically learn about legislation.
 
I never had the intention of getting a proper TX radio, but I do own several scanners (Uniden, Icom, etc.) and two Baofeng radios. I did scan the ether for some while and tried a few communications.
The truth is that amateur radio is pretty useless in times of internet.  You can talk to anyone in the world in real-time over internet and even as video call. Most of the amateur radio conversations I listened too were not even following protocol and had dubious contents.

Additionally, the real amateur radio fun is a frequencies that require HUGE antennas. Even I, owning a house with 8 satellite dishes cannot actually fit such an antenna!

Transmission is limited, too, as the law prevents encrypted data to be sent and transmissions should follow a protocol which is kind of outdated.

All this makes it more attractive to just play with free 433MHz applications or using WLAN: it is the development of devices and applications, rather than RX/TX technology.

For reception you take an 8 Euro RTL receiver and SDR# and you can do almost the same as with and expensive radio scanner.

This doesn't mean that there is no hacking and building going on. Proper just don't need to me licensed amateur radio enthusiast anymore. It has been replaced by the Arduino and Rasperry Pi generation.

Look at Autodesk 123 an be surprised. They offer free online electronics development software with microcontroller emulator and automatic PCB rooting, CAD to draw the enclosure, even free CAM for subsequent manufacture. Add rapid prototyping and hobbyist today have unimagined power nowadays.

Communications are done as protocols over the internet.  Free and no problems with legislation.

So it is sad that the classical amateur radio applications are kind of fading away, but a new generation of electronics wizards is rising.

And the required knowledge is available for free on the internet.

I still occasionally use my two Baofeng radios, but only to produce test emissions to induce errors in TV cable distributions,  when I am testing TV field meter...

Regards,
Vitor

PS: Edited to remove typos and wrong words - thanks for phone's autocorrection...

[janoc]

That's only a reason for proper training, I'm just questioning why it needs a name and address attached?
Especially when incorrect use gets you triangulated to the nearest metre.
America doesn't require a gun to have name attached or require that someone knows which way to point it.

Well, because the proper training tends to come with the paperwork attached. It is the same as why you need a to have a name and address attached to your driving license (or aircraft pilot license, for ex). There are international regulations which mandate it.

Radio transmitters and to a lesser degree receivers used to be more controlled than guns - you have to realize that not long time ago radio was one of the few means how to communicate some idea to a large group of people at once and at long distances. A single gun can kill only so many, but a single transmitter could trigger a revolt or topple a government (happened in the past). There are good reasons why in any invasion or a coup the radio and TV transmitters (and today also the internet) are among the first targets to be seized/controlled. Who controls the media controls the population. The recent Turkish coup has been a stellar example of it. Another example are media in Putin's Russia.

The governments obviously wanted to keep taps on who can do that - both for propaganda reasons but also national security (communication with foreign nationals for ex.), etc. That's why the regulation and licensing requirements. It won't prevent illicit transmissions from being done but it gives the government an enormous stick to punish the perpetrators, discouraging the others. Later on, as traffic increased, other concerns appeared - such as spectrum usage and interference.

So the reasons are both historic and political. From a purely technical point of view it sounds like pointless bureaucracy but things are rarely done only for technical reasons.

America doesn't require a gun to have a name attached, but it does require that you have a gun permit with your name on it if you want to carry it (let's ignore stuff like shotguns or states allowing open carry for simplicity). Radios don't need to have your name attached neither, but you do need to be licensed (have a permit in your name) to operate them.

[David Hess]

America doesn't require a gun to have a name attached, but it does require that you have a gun permit with your name on it if you want to carry it (let's ignore stuff like shotguns or states allowing open carry for simplicity).

There is no need to make an exception for states which allow unlicensed open or concealed carry.  Federal law effectively outlaws *all* unlicensed carry in every state through the Gun Free School Zones Act.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun-Free_School_Zones_Act_of_1990#Carrying

[Bicurico]

I am not into discussion of gun laws, but I do agree with laws requiring a propper license for amateur radio transmission.

Maintaining a finite frequency range, so that all different services can coexist without problems is not an easy task.

In order to transmit radio, people need to understand what they are doing and essentially if they are causing interruption or disturbance of adjacent services.

It is common sense, that you are not allowed to transmit on aviation frequencies, but if you are not educated, you don't even know which frequency bands are used by aviation!

I find it kind of worrying how easily one can buy a Baofeng (or similar) radio with up to 8W (!) without any proof of amateur licensing. Just head on to eBay, Amazon, etc. and for 50 Euro (often less) you get a radio which can potentialyl harm other transmissions.

Naturally state agencies can track and locate people misusing those radios, but at the rate and quantities they are being sold, I wonder if there is enough manpower to do so.

To sum it up, yes, I think one should need a license to be able to make amateur radio transmissions.

What should be changed is the limitation of only being allowed to send messages in clear. This prevents *any* Internet communication over amateur radio frequencies, as most Internet services are now encrypted. In the remaining amateur radio bands, people should be able to send whatever kind of data they are working on, even ecrypted one, as digital data is per se a form of encryption.

This alone could make amateur radio more interesting again.

But mainly, I think the Internet replaced the traditional amateur radio goals of talking with people around the world. And for electronics, hacking and hobby development, there are so many new interesting fields, that radio TX/RX has simply been diluted in people's interests.

Regards,
Vitor

[janoc]

America doesn't require a gun to have a name attached, but it does require that you have a gun permit with your name on it if you want to carry it (let's ignore stuff like shotguns or states allowing open carry for simplicity).

There is no need to make an exception for states which allow unlicensed open or concealed carry.  Federal law effectively outlaws *all* unlicensed carry in every state through the Gun Free School Zones Act.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun-Free_School_Zones_Act_of_1990#Carrying

I didn't want to go into the minutiae of gun licensing as that is really beside the point. Furthermore, the US gun laws are pretty much an outlier in the rest of the civilized world, with other countries requiring a permit/license to purchase or posses a gun already, not only to carry it.

[janoc]

It is common sense, that you are not allowed to transmit on aviation frequencies, but if you are not educated, you don't even know which frequency bands are used by aviation!

I find it kind of worrying how easily one can buy a Baofeng (or similar) radio with up to 8W (!) without any proof of amateur licensing. Just head on to eBay, Amazon, etc. and for 50 Euro (often less) you get a radio which can potentialyl harm other transmissions.

Naturally state agencies can track and locate people misusing those radios, but at the rate and quantities they are being sold, I wonder if there is enough manpower to do so.

Well, just look at the situation with the "drone laws". If people weren't doing stupid things with them, there wouldn't now be laws banning the use of drones in a lot of places, requiring registration, banning cameras, etc.

The same with laser pointers vs airplanes/helis. People know that it is both illegal and dangerous to shine lasers at planes, but they still do it - the chance of getting caught is minimal unless  you are so stupid as to shine it at a police helicopter ...

Regarding illegal transmissions in HAM bands - in fact, most of the fines and prosecutions for illegal interference or pirate transmissions are triggered by other HAMs triangulating the source and reporting it, not government agencies. They simply don't have neither time nor resources to proactively police HAM bands (or any bands - the interference vans go out only when someone reports a problem).

For example, in Slovakia it used to be often truckers using illegal CB radios capable of SSB modulation (only FM and 4W was allowed back then) and often equipped with amplifiers where 1kW output was nothing uncommon. You can imagine what that was doing in the 28MHz HAM band ...

So while the licensing is not a silver bullet, it at least keeps the worst excesses in check.

[zl2wrw]

[SNIP]
What should be changed is the limitation of only being allowed to send messages in clear. This prevents *any* Internet communication over amateur radio frequencies, as most Internet services are now encrypted. In the remaining amateur radio bands, people should be able to send whatever kind of data they are working on, even ecrypted one, as digital data is per se a form of encryption.
[SNIP]

Quoting from my amateur radio licence here in New Zealand "Communications must not be encoded for the purpose of obscuring their meaning...".
My take on this is that digital data encoding (RTTY, AX.25, PSK31, ARDOP, etc) is just fine, provided that you are not hiding the meaning of your message (anyone with the right know-how can listen in) - however, using TLS or AES etc to encrypt your message so that only a select few who have the encryption key can decode it is definitely not ok (so no HTTPS over packet radio). If you are developing a brand new digital protocol, merely publishing a protocol description on your web site and or writing a descriptive article to a ham radio magazine (NZART Break-In, ARRL QST, RSGB Radcomm, etc) is probably sufficient to satisfy "not encoded for the purpose of obscuring the meaning".

Please note that this does not preclude the use of authentication (signed messages), were the message is sent "in the clear" with an attached hash (eg HMAC) where anyone can read the message, and can use your public key to verify that the message was signed with your private key, but only the holder of the private key (you) can generate the hash (signature).

My understanding is that the ban on encryption comes about from some countries concerns about spies masquerading as hams. If hams were permitted to send encrypted messages, then spies could pose as hams and exchange encrypted messages with HQ - this would probably result in some countries simply banning amateur radio, or banning their hams from communicating with other countries.

[janoc]

My understanding is that the ban on encryption comes about from some countries concerns about spies masquerading as hams. If hams were permitted to send encrypted messages, then spies could pose as hams and exchange encrypted messages with HQ - this would probably result in some countries simply banning amateur radio, or banning their hams from communicating with other countries.

That and there are also other concerns.

The definition of amateur radio service explicitly disallows commercial traffic (connection to Internet would certainly qualify as "commercial") and also requires that anyone operating a transmitter must be licensed. Which is almost certainly not satisfied if an arbitrary remote Internet server is triggering data transmissions over the air. (see: http://life.itu.int/radioclub/rr/art25.htm )

How tightly is this enforced varies from country to country, e.g. in Slovakia this has been a huge no-no (and also partially thanks to that the HAMs were stuck with 1200Bd/9600Bd AX25 packet radio) while in Slovenia they were/are running high speed network with public internet gateways where you could do things like download e-mail or even browse websites.

Basically, if you need encryption or Internet, you are not doing amateur radio and should use commercial services instead. HAM radio is explicitly defined as not being a replacement or competitor  for them. In fact, this is one very important reason why the amateurs managed to keep the spectrum allocations they have, in the congested HF bands - the moment commercial traffic on the bands was allowed, there would be a huge pressure to reallocate them fully to commercial services (broadcasting, military, etc.) and there would be no more amateur radio. The commercial users are very heavily pushing on this, because the HF bands have worldwide reach and the 40 and 20m bands are very attractive from this point of view.

So the ban on encryption on HAM bands is the least of your problems, really.

On the other hand, there is nothing that prevents HAMs from building computer networks over HAM bands, even using TCP/IP, as long as the above is respected, e.g.: http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/ or the European HAMNET: https://www.tapr.org/pdf/DCC2014-TheEuropeanHAMNET-DG8NGN.pdf