Realistically the FCC has __very__ little enforcement capability/interest right now. The views you see on the internet are from a very vocal group that is worried about maintaining the status quo and not losing access to any bands because corporate interests decide they need the spectrum.

If you want to go off and be a pirate you can probably get away with it, given that the top selling walkie talkie on amazon is an incorrectly marketed ham handheld that can also broadcast on public safety/police frequencies, with or without being set to them. I wouldn't advise it though because if you do get caught they tend to make an example of you, and if you know enough to not get caught, you can easily pass the tech test and beyond so just get licensed for the cost of a happy meal and enjoy.

Personally, I actually support having encrypted sub bands like we have for everything else, with the exception that station ident should be in the clear and I would like to see the tech test be easier.

The ban on encryption has always seemed odd to me. I mean, WiFi is spread-spectrum radio, and it's encrypted. And it's not necessarily short-range. I've done well over several km with Ubiquiti radios driving parabolic dishes.

What I'd want would basically be tinc or another P2P VPN via radio. Like WiFi meshnet, but not limited to line of sight.

One option I've been looking at is the LoRa transceivers that have come out. A couple have bluetooth 5.0 baked in so you could realistically make a really low part count bridge for your phone to let you send encrypted mesh networked texts to other people running similar hardware. There's at least one person working on this I know of but they're not super forthcoming about source.

As for wifi, it's worth noting that while you can get a ton of gain, you do so by making the signal directional so long story short you always cover very roughly the same volume, be it a long super skinny wedge, medium donut or a small sphere.

Huh. Anything with GPS freaks me out. Even WiFi, now that Google etc have mapped so many damn APs. Or cellular, of course.

But then, here I am on a wired uplink. I guess it's just that I trust my understanding of nested VPN chains in Linux. And that I trust the hardware and software enough.

Android and iOS, though, I don't understand or trust.

You make a good point about WiFi. Not going transcontinental with that. Except adjacent continents, maybe.

If you don't like using your phone, theoretically anything with bluetooth would work with the bridge, or you could just add a microcontroller and a little keyboard and display to have something self contained. Something like the toy messenger everyone is hacking to open garage doors.

OK, thanks.