There is conversation online about using AX.25 protocol, which is a packet radio mode used to send packet radio across any of the bands that are available to HAM radio operators, however there must be a discussion regarding how Reticulum works, by nature, prior to committing a setup for an AX.25 station.
Assuming you understand that AX.25 is simply a protocol, it utilizes several different software and hardware configurations that are available to us. We won’t discuss that at this point, but there will be a tutorial soon as to how to set up an AX.25 station for packet radio transmissions.
What I’d like to introduce is the fact that every US based HAM radio operators are made aware of the fact that encrypted transmissions are specifically not allowed over the licensed bands. Why is this important? Because if you commit to an AX.25 station, you must realize that the very nature of Reticulum’s communication system is based on encryption.
I am all for utilizing every method one can in communicating, especially those that are difficult to control from the standpoint of shutting communications down in the event of an ‘event’ that would make it difficult to communicate via traditional methods.
Any instruction, discussion, or other information that you find on The Zoo 2 website regarding the transmission of encrypted data over HAM bands is strictly for discussion purposes only, and not advised to implement due to the ramifications of fines, arrest, or other enforcement actions that the FCC could ultimately take for breaking the rules of HAM radio. The Zoo 2 does not condone operation outside of the required limits of the HAM bands. If you’re licensed, you shouldn’t either.
With that said, there are plenty of fools on the YouTubes who have decided it’s alright to go ahead and use the HAM bands for the purposes of sending encrypted data, and their videos are widely available of them proving me right. Just know that if you do what they are doing, you stand the chance of receiving a nice letter in the mail asking you to send a letter back stating the justification for you to have gone outside of the licensed operational activities on the HAM bands should you be tied to your call sign while doing so. Which, can happen quickly with the OB’s out here these days.
So with all that said, let’s set up an AX.25 unit! (Honestly, I’m joking, but it is nice to know HOW to do it for the days that the government isn’t involved… for whatever that means.)
While we’re on the subject, I’m a ‘prepper,’ somewhat, just without the 40k pounds of freeze dried food in a closet for 25 years, the 50k rounds of ammo for every wireless hole punch I own, and $400k worth of gold packed away. I’m more of the kind of prepper that prepares my mind and maybe some basic equipment for the what if moments. I do own some rappelling ropes and know how to use them, I own a truck and can fix it, I own some basic radios and know how to use them, and I own the tools to get the rest of anything else I’d need. I know how to build a fire without matches or external fire to transfer, I know how to hunt, all that. What I don’t know, I know how to acquire the knowledge of without harming another. So why wouldn’t we at least have the knowledge of how to do things that could possibly be needed?
Well, with that part said, I also know that should the worst occur, there is no technology used by HAM radio operators that are immune to interference and jamming. So, how ‘prepper’ is it that there are folks who continue to buy into the notion that the $25-35 Baofeng radios are going to be their doomsday saviors? Chinese marketing… American purchasing power…
So I’m not 100% on board with spending $20k on radios that are going to be jammed to begin with. If we have some that go outside of the ‘known’ bands it would probably behoove us, but the use of those would lead to spankage in real life unless and until a ‘doomsday’ event actually happened, so… It is what it are.
Thoughts?
WF4RT