[Spooks] Re Ham Radio, moans, Stuff.

[EI0DB]

Hi All, A few comments on the discussion on interception (monitoring) of 
signals and ham radiohereafter almost 70 years at this game.

a) Ham radio is what you make of it, and need not be a mega-buck, 
kilowatt affair.
I hear grumbles about hams being unhelpful. there is always a concern 
that a little knowledge could be misapplied to cause problems not just 
to hams but other service.
And since hams are a cross-section of humanity, you get that and have to 
forget it. I have met a lot of pains-in-the-butt who are not hams, and 
try to avoid them, ignore them or tune them out.   They are just 
reflecting the general trend toward selfishness that is abroad today. So 
it is not good to tar all hams by the actions of the few. What my dad 
would have called "A few LIDs"The Amateur's Code is in the frompage of 
every copy of the ARRL Handbook, as applicable now as when it was 
written back in 1928 if we as a community try to follow it "the lids" 
will be shown up for what they are.


b) The main difference between, hobbyist/ ham and other professional   
HF (or Short Wave)  radios are such things as sensitivity, accuracy of 
calibration, resetting accuracy, ability to interface to a computer or 
address ability over fast Ethernet for remote programmed monitoring, and 
spectrum or waterfall display.  You can bet you get what you pay for and 
the price tag reflects this. My experience has been that good used 
ex-military set represent good value for money , providing you have the 
knowledge to match your requirement to what is on offer in the market. 
The key being to acquire that knowledge first, then buy your kit. And to 
acquire that knowledge I would point you to the ARRL handbook, an older 
second hand copy is sufficient to start. My first receiver may an HRO 
belonging to my dad, the first set I bought was an R1155 from a WWII 
Lancaster Bomber, still  perfectly good for listening to CW from both 
Hams or the Israeli and Russian Navies hi!.


c) Regardless of were in the world you are,the ITU regulationsrelating 
to the privacy of communicationsstill apply to you. Although in this age 
of internet connected SDRs exactly who is supposed to enforce it , may 
be a grey area. All professional operators will have signed an 
undertaking not to divulge "correspondence" they see or overhear in the 
course of their job. In one case a SWL who dumped in his refuse bin 
discarded teletype printout was considered to have breached this rule; 
the printout was of maritime weather broadcasts for shipping, sent 
proceeded by a CQon well known and published frequencies. So take 
carethepowers that have teeth if they wish to use them.  And if you have 
a transmitter without a license to Tx, in general it need to be 
"disabled", another can of worms!



That's my understanding and two bits guys, best 73s, Dave. :-)