[signaturefish]

The thing is, there ARE chunks of spectrum dedicated to digital comms within the amateur radio bands.

Here's a link to the VHF band plan we use here in the UK - obviously I can't speak for other countries: [https://rsgb.services/public/bandplans/19/ ]. It's _littered_ with SSTV, beacon and digital mode allocations (and for clarity, that's a good thing). The digital mode allocations are full of people chatting in text using FT-8 or JS8Call (more in HF than VHF, those, but the principle holds). On the next page, there's an entire 1MHz allocation dedicated to wideband digital data modes.

If you're a licensee, there's plenty of innovation and digital experimentation space available. Sure, a chunk of the traditionalist ham community aren't excited about it, but there's plenty of us who are. And, as ever, you don't need a license to receive...

[DropInIn]

I'm in Canada.... Telecoms own all spectrum (hyperbolic but not by far with how beholden govs are to corps like Telus and Bell)...

Kinds sucks being the birthplace of telecoms...