[ilyt]

> The excessive restrictions harm more boring usage like "I want to check my email from the woods on infrastructure that I built and maintain". The larpy usage doesn't care, because it's mostly fantasy and if there were some doomsday event no one is going to care what encryption you're using (or at least won't be able to do anything about it). :)

Amateur radio bands are not intended to work as ghetto ISP bands.

Whether there should be some lowers band available for that is another discussion.

[nullc]

That position is inconsistent with both the law and the history of amateur radio. There is no general field of use restrictions (outside of music and broadcast which themselves were originally allowed but eventually restricted to restrict competition for commercial broadcasters). Amateur radio is open to qualified persons of any age who are interested in radio technique solely with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.

[ilyt]

There was also never expectation of privacy of communication. You can send your emails thru amateur radio in plaintext just fine

[nullc]

You can't because (among other reasons) the responses may contain naughty words-- you can't even read HN or most amateur radio forums over amateur radio without violating the regulations. You also cannot use standard software over the radio due to the mandatory encryption (or inability to do authentication without encryption) which is ubiquitious in software designed for use on public networks.