[Elecraft] PACTOR iii

[Mike WA8BXN]

My philosophical negative feelings about Pactor III and other proprietary
systems is that they approach the use of codes and ciphers that are
prohibited in the amateur service. Amateur radio is in many ways self
policing. Proprietary coding impedes that. 
 
The other thing in particular about Pactor III is that it is used to some
extent to bypass commercial services available. We of course have to be
careful here. The accepted National Traffic System did/does a somewhat
similar thing. Details are different though in terms of automation and
purpose. NTS is good advertising for amateur radio. It does have negative
impact on some operations though. I do a lot of QRP fox hunting and various
NTS nets have clobbered a fox from time to time. 
 
Perhaps the proprietary systems should be required to make available free
software to receive their transmissions. This might be good advertising for
them to allow us to see what they do and decide if we want to pay the price
to transmit them. It would also allow easier enforcement of existing rules
if necessary or make it clear that they are not being violated. 
 
This thread will probably end soon. That's probably a good thing because the
discussion could go on for ever and is really not on topic. 
 
73 - Mike WA8BXN