[PPRAANet] Who completely mis-understands Amateur Radio?

[Phillip H. Blanton]

So there's a story going around about how a group of government insiders 
have collaborated to destroy the President. I noticed this in the article...

"A month after Hillary Clinton hired Fusion GPS (April 2016) to 
sub-contract retired British MI6 agent Christopher Steele to write the 
opposition research report "the Trump Russia Dossier", Fusion GPS 
employee Nellie Ohr applied for a *HAM radio license* (May 23rd 2016 
<http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/LicArchive/license.jsp?archive=Y&licKey=12382876>); 
/a communication tool that would allow Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele 
the ability to communicate outside the normal risk of communication 
intercepts/."
Read more:https://goo.gl/ifj6tA

Um... If you're using "Ham Radio" to gain the "ability to communicate 
outside the normal risk of communication intercepts"then you're doing it 
WRONG!

Nellie Ohr passed her tech exam, so she knew she couldn't trust amateur 
radio to provide her any sense of privacy! Regardless what you may think 
of the politics of the story, it's clear that Nellie Ohr didn't use 
amateur radio for spy stuff unless she did, which meant she was breaking 
the rules and the law in which case why did she even bother to apply for 
a license and take the test?

The fact that Nellie Ohr has a ham radio license has absolutely NOTHING 
TO DO WITH THE STORY. Some idiot reporter found out (probably via a 
Google search of Nellie Ohr) that she had recently acquired an amateur 
radio license and, knowing that the public at large is mostly ignorant 
of Amateur Radio, ran with it in an effort to lend a bit of a 
cloak-and-dagger cachet to the story.

Excuse me for the venting, but are we now to expect more scrutiny from 
the public simply because we are licensed amateurs? We clearly are 
attempting to skirt the surveillance state for some nefarious purposes. 
Otherwise, why would we even have that amateur radio license? If we have 
nothing to hide, why are we using these complex ham radios? Surely there 
can be no LEGITIMATE reason to use a ham radio!

In fact! Why does the FCC even ALLOW people to do ham radio?!?!? BAN HAM 
RADIO!!!

Of course I am taking it to an absurd level to prove a point. Whenever 
Amateur radio is maligned in the media, as it just has been, then we 
need to step up and demand a retraction and maybe even an article 
highlighting the public benefit of amateur radio.

I dunno. Am I over-reacting?

--
Phillip H. Blanton
NØTAN
phillip at n0tan.com