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I think we've been conditioned from childhood to get a job, work for the corporate world and chase material goods. All of those further the interests of those in power.
You could even develop software on it, compile programs with GCC, write Perl scripts to do various things, e.g. automatically scan for and connect to open access points as you walked around town. I think that script even tested if the access point had Internet access or not, and blacklisted ones that didn't. Worked really well, there were so many open access points back in the day. Also had the "links" / "eLinks" web browser, that was text only.
And you could also overclock the bus to the Epson video chip, to allow for faster display updates. The video chip had 2D acceleration, I might have written an XFree86 driver for that, but cannot be sure about it.
I also wrote a flashing tool for the WiFi card, that let you alter the regulatory domain settings to enable full 100mW power output, and also change the MAC address stored in Flash. I think I have the source code to that somewhere...
It's just so amazing to see that the functionality of that enormous WiFi card has now been shrunk down to a tiny QFN28 chip, an ESP8266.
But we have to be really careful we don't really use a valid amateur's callsign there.... We don't want to spoof someone, which might be illegal. Again this all needs to be double checked that it's 100% in compliance with the law.
Anyway I'll take my ranting over to places like 4chan, rather than continue to spam this site.... And I'll continue to remain 100% within the law.
And we have the right to freedom of speech, to get emotional, angry, and even irrational when we see outrageous punishments being dished out by the government, for people being persistently rude on the radio. Especially so when we hear of other people supporting such draconian punishment. And even more so when large parts of the amateur radio community agree with these punishments.
And if I want to think it's like a sit in protest then it's my right to do so. Under human rights, freedom of conscience and freedom of thought. I might be wrong about thinking that way, but I have the right to be wrong, to be incorrect. As long as I don't break the law.
It's like sit in protesting climate change, or a particularly bad corporation who pollutes the environment, the blockades are going to cause a nuisance for other people not involved in it, but again these protests are legal. This is how change happens.
Many of these amateur radio stations might pose a health and safety hazard to other nearby residents. Having thousand watt power levels in residential neighborhoods, while legal, might not be safe for people. And the amateur community in general turns a blind eye to that. So yet another reason for protesting. Actually, in that case I feel lobbying to get that prohibited might have a better chance of success.
And if it does become prohibited, we don't need to fine them $24,000 for doing that, the FCC can get a warrant, and come in and seize their equipment instead.
Those threats incite disobedience and rebellion. Meanwhile hams complain about their 800 Watt linear amplifiers (11:14 into that video) interfering with insulin pumps, not giving a damn about the victim. And even blaming the victim.
And I will continue campaigning about such injustices in society, not only limited to amateur radio, using my legally protected right to freedom of speech, while fully staying within the law.
Even more: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-legal-penalties-for-trans...
" If on the other hand you thought you'd be a smart alec and jump on the bands to say hello or to wind up the Amateur community, then according to this link…
You can also be sent to jail — particularly if you cause harmful interference to services such as Fire, Police etc.
And for those who believe you won't get caught, bear in mind that the Amateur Radio community are quite capable of easily tracking down anyone who screws with the licensed bands, and passing that information on to the FCC along with evidence such as recordings or logs of transmissions. "
High power ham radio has also been found to interfere with medical equipment, such an insulin pumps, apparently a ham got shut down over this. Although it's really the fault of the manufacturer there. Another potential reason to prohibit it.
That there might be enough people out there, once they are aware of the very high power levels used by amateur radio operators, that might absolutely not want this going on, because they have children around, and they don't want these extreme power levels inside their homes.
These hams are so willing to police people potentially intruding on their bands, but that's there's a chance that their very high powered signals, which are intruding onto people's homes, are putting peoples' children at risk. I think we don't really know the full risk of it is right now, that the debate's out on it?
And it's worse than 5G microwave signals, because those are dramatically attenuated by the walls of the home. Which is not the case for amateur radio, which uses much lower frequencies, especially HF.
In the UK they have already passed legislation regarding EMF safety for amateur radio stations.
I'm just hoping that there's a tiny chance that idea might spread. As one of the many ways of fighting back against these draconian measures, without breaking the law. And I'll continue to come up with more entirely legal ways of countering this.
While I don't personally think it's hazardous to health, some people do believe that having a multiple hundred watt transmitter in the neighborhood might have health effects, and it could be especially harmful to small children. Lots of people used to complain about smart meters, and those are only 1 Watt at most, which is tiny by comparison.
It's not hams being jerks that's the problem. It's that their threats have the backing of the law. They have many petty rules, which if you break you can find yourself in trouble. With fellow amateur radio operators being the ones notifying the authorities. That's what really riles me up. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20294483
This guy here is being fined $24,000 for what is essentially low level harassment, which is ridiculous.
I want to be involved with things where you can be more playful and carefree, where the threat of such punishment is not present. Where there's freedom for exploration and experimentation, like the ISM bands, which are what I use instead. Without authorities dictating to you every minor detail of what you're permitted to do or not, under threat of force by the state. And requiring you do identify yourself at all times, or be prosecuted. No thanks.
Also I've been personally threatened by a ham radio operator (in the UK), over me constructing a perfectly legal, non-interfering high voltage power supply. And hearing other people having the same experiences as well, as if hams consider parts of the radio spectrum their "territory". I know myself, and many other people do as well, that the amateur radio community has this authoritarian streak, which is so eager to call out those breaking minor rules. And back that up with threats of prosecution.
http://home.ptd.net/~n3cvj/hamvcb.htm
Yes, from personal experience, so many in the ham community are very rule oriented, which is counter to my personality and philosophy. That's another reason I want nothing to do with it.
And no wonder there's a lack of innovation in the field, it's all tied up with rules and the personalities that thrive in such environments.
MaxLinear have some nice ones, complete with datasheet, it also works in MIMO mode, not for just powerline but pretty much anywhere.
https://www.maxlinear.com/document/index?id=23257&languageid...
Update: I think solar inverters are causing big problems here already, so it's only a matter of time now. So we can kiss those amateur radio enthusiasts and their utterly draconian punishments goodbye in the long term.
https://hfdxarc.com/technical-pages/how-to-reduce-electromag... https://www.pa9x.com/how-the-replacement-of-solar-panel-micr...
Yes, I agree with you about the secondary users of the ham band, though. I forgot about that one.
In fact in that post, I was actually advocating for the hobby to be phased out, and replaced with some other unlicensed system, given that so much of it's community is in support of such draconian measures and punishments for those who trivially violate the rules.
As I said, it should be consigned to the "dustbin of history" because of the draconian laws surrounding it. The laws have to be changed, or it's got to go.
Yes, civil disobedience is how these draconian rules get changed, assuming everyone does it. Notice ham antennas down the road? Then get powerline Ethernet, ensure they are in fully regulatory approved for the country you are in. And that is perfectly legal civil disobedience too. And is likely to cause utter hell for that amateur operator.
While low power transmitters, 100mW or so, are generally not dangerous, and thus should be deregulated in the VHF/UHF ham bands, so that the general public can use spectrum it legitimately owns. The "listen before talk" principle should be enforced in the firmware. And even if misused and hacked to transmit on emergency frequencies, the harm a low power transmitter can cause is still limited.
In the end it comes down to if the industry and general public is a more powerful lobbyist than the amateur radio community, which is tiny by comparison. Who has more political power. And I think the general public might be the one with more political power here, and rightfully get to make the decision? A small minority should not be dictating the rules for the majority here?
Did he cause any quantifiable harm here? Did the harm he cause ever justify that degree of punishment? My stance is no in both cases.
What is concerning to me is that some ham had to make the complaint there, maybe fully knowing the FCC would hand out a very large fine, causing him severe disruption to his family and childrens' lives, that far exceeds the nuisance caused by playing music on the radio.
Thus the ham that made the complaint is perhaps morally culpable in the excessive punishment. He acted, in conjunction with the state, to ruin this guy's (and his family's) life there. It doesn't matter if it's legal to do so, it is still morally wrong.
Fining the guy obviously causes him extreme stress, which he might end up taking out on his spouse or children afterwards, which far, far exceeds the harm from playing music on amateur radio bands. So the disproportionate punishment has knock on effects in society.
And these draconian measure are what so many hams find acceptable? I'm sure the general public doesn't though.
These hams are behaving like animals, with a dominance hierarchy as well. With "newbs" and status in that hierarchy based on license class / callsign. And reacting aggressively, completely out of proportion, to outsiders who intrude on their territory. Akin to a dog with behavioral issues.
It didn't cause any harm to emergency services, or disrupt anything other than a hobby. Fining him such a large amount for disrupting a hobby is ridiculous. And it makes me want nothing to do with amateur radio, and stick to unlicensed bands only.
Draconian penalties may only encourage miscreants to disrespect amateur radio, in an act of rebellion? And those miscreants might be able to get away with jamming it legally, by using powerline Ethernet adaptors, which will typically disrupt the service for the whole neighborhood. There's no law saying you can't have a really long piece of electrical wiring in your home, with absolutely nothing connected to it at the end? http://gm4fvm.blogspot.com/2018/06/power-line-adapter-noise-...
Maybe we non-amateurs should lobby the government to open up the VHF/UHF amateur bands for unlicensed operation at low power, just like 2.4GHz, and consign this hobby to the dustbin of history? How about getting industry involved in the lobbying as well? Can we find any good commercial use cases for those bands? In Europe we can already use a large part of the 70cm band (433MHz) at low power levels.
Update, I found some more info here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1002227
There was literally a register bit in the cable modem MAC to enable promiscuous mode, and you could just set it: https://pastebin.com/18702Ziq
Sadly the Broadcom modem hardware I used to experiment with then seemed to lack the ability to get at the raw MPEG-TS packets, so I didn't manage to repurpose it as a TV receiver. The idea was to tune to a TV channel and stream it over multicast RTP on the LAN.
As used modems were very cheap, I wanted to have a whole bank of them, to demodulate every carrier on the CATV system. All fed into a giant, noisy 24 port 100Mb Ethernet switch that had IGMP snooping support. That was back in the 2000s...
Modem photo: https://www.usbjtag.com/jtagnt/ambit120.jpg
I'm not surprised at all. The UK's been a police state for the last 23 years or so.
Especially with the introduction of the RIP Act in 2000, which compels those with encrypted data to divulge the keys, under penalty of imprisonment. From that, I could tell something had gone very wrong with our government, even back then.
Being able to receive over 200 gigabytes of news every day, when we still were on dialup was absolutely incredible. The satellite transponder was almost 1000 times faster (45Mb/s) than dialup, which was just completely mind blowing at the time.
I also remember configuring the INN news server as well, but sorely lacked storage space to carry any binaries.
The whole thing involved writing a FreeBSD kernel device driver for the satellite card, together with a user-space daemon to extract the IP packets from the raw MPEG-2 transport stream, yes it used the same modulation as for TV (DVB-S). All done from my bedroom, when I was 18, with a small portable satellite dish in the window.
Back then the sheer amount of unencrypted IP data out there in the clear on satellite transponders was absolutely incredible to see.
I still have the source code to the FreeBSD kernel driver for the satellite card, and have uploaded it at https://pastebin.com/QegFzVWy
The dish: https://img.kleinanzeigen.de/api/v1/prod-ads/images/43/43ffa...
The receiver card (one on the left): https://www.linux-community.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Ab...
Yes, radical feminists behind this, they have even taken over academia, and it's taboo to speak out against it, if you do, you will find yourself up against a mob.