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Ham radio is very cool. I am always surprised Bitcoiners are not more into it.

It would be very cool if Bitcoiners started joining & taking over ham radio clubs and started teaching old school hams about Bitcoin.

A great gateway would be making a club project of setting up a blockstream satellite node using the ham radio skills to get the signal from the satellite. So much crossover appeal. Bitcoin satellite nodes would also get young people excited to get into ham.

This would also make a great topic for someone who speaks at public Bitcoin events.

deafboy 2y ago

HAM radio and bitcoin seems to be an ideal match. Untill you realize the barriers.

1) You need to get licensed. In person visit of a HAM club, or testing event is required

2) No commecrial activity on the HAM spectrum allowed

3) No encryption allowed. (How the digital modes work around that rule is a mystery to me)

3) You need to dox yourself with every transmission.

4) Although the infrastructure IS THERE (repeaters, igates...), it's usually provided by pretty conservative crowd that addhered to all the written and unwritten rules their entire life.

It's a shame though. We could learn a lot from them. They master the physical layer. It looks like magic to people primarily working with software.

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Discussion

An Ice King 2y ago

I agree, Radio has the feel of magic to it. I will never forget the first time I sent an email over HF radio band. I makes me smile just thinking about it now. I also like the work I’ve seen from folks sending BTC over radio.

The average age of ham radio operators is very high. An influx of Bitcoin Standard minded people would be able to rapidly change the culture and direction of the hobby over the next few years.

Those good at writing open source software would be able to choose the direction that ham radio goes in its current trend towards advanced in digital transmissions.

I know that this next part will make many uncomfortable, the ham radio already has a lobby infrastructure to defend transmission spectrum rights. Young bright innovators could also easily take that over and update outdated thinking and laws on encrypted transmission. It could be one more front to promote and defend Bitcoin in the public sphere. We could use reason to get the FCC to adopt the Bitcoin Standard. Once again, this approach will make many uncomfortable, but it is nonetheless worth pursuing.

The whole purpose of ham radio is to advance the radio arts, we could advance them in a direction favorable to our goals.

If not us, someone else will take it in the direction they want. Most likely the spectrum reserved for the people will be sold off to the big tech companies for surveillance and drone operations .