[throwaway7767]

Sure, rules on maximum transmit power and such make sense, to ensure emissions do not interfere with other users. But why should a licensed amateur not be able to transmit on the bands using encryption, provided the transmission is clearly marked with the callsign of the operator?

As it is right now, it makes packet radio pretty much useless, because you can't use it for internet access, since you'd most likely end up accessing TLS services.

[jff]

I'm on the same page here with you--I agree that packet radio is pretty useless for internet access. It's pretty useless for anything except talking to other amateur radio operators, and all they want to talk about is radio and, sometimes, Obama.

But that's what the amateur service is, it's people playing with radios because they think radios are cool. Because it's mostly real-time conversations, the bands aren't insanely congested; if I tried to fetch my email over an encrypted signal on the 40m band, I'm going to tie up a big chunk of the available frequencies for possibly hours on end (cough yacht owners running WINLINK cough).

You'd have to eliminate the "no commercial business" rule too, because fetching your mining operation's email looks pretty similar to browsing ham forums when everything is encrypted.