I Received the following email yesterday and it expresses some concerns.....
Dear Colleagues
Please consider this
Subject: ARSFI/Winlink illegal use update
Dear all
I hope your views are heard regarding the proper use of amateur radio. Please tell others, as Winlink/ARSFI is aggressively spreading rumors to give a sense that "there is nothing there to see."
Please consider these facts, be vocal, tell others. It's our hobby and spectrum, for now. Always ask for evidence.
It is vital that you write your elected officials in congress about the improper use and danger of encrypted messages in the ham radio spectrum. Congress instructs the FCC. It only takes a moment on your congressman's website.
Urge congress to tell the FCC to reject NPRM 16-239, reject RM-11708, and immediately rectify the problem of obscured, effectively encrypted, messaging in amateur radio being perpetuated by ARSFI and Winlink, by considering this simple proposal by Ron Kolarik that would require open source HF data traffic :
https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/100918881206/PETITION%20FOR%20RULEMAKING.pdf
UPDATE: It turns out that in May 1995, ARRL quietly asked the FCC to allow PacToR into the Ham bands, but the "ask" was for the original "open source" PacTOR 1, that is used today by Winlink only for overhead call sign synchronization. Later versions
of Pactor 2,3,or 4 are proprietary, as admitted by SCS to the FCC in Sept. 2018, as they effectively encrypt the message payload, so that no one else, including other Winlink or Pactor users, can understand or intercept the messages for meaning. ARSFI told the FCC last month that "3rd party intercept.. is not needed and irrelevant."
ARRL represented to the FCC in 1995 that PacToR was open source and fully documented, and this was true for Pactor 1, but is not true for Pactor 2,3,4. The FCC allowed PacTOR 1 based on the ARRL's representation that the Pactor protocol was open source, publicly documented, and available to all radio amateurs.
Here is where it all started, very quietly, outside of the public eye and not known to ARRL members:
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-95-2106A1.pdf
Pactor 2,3, 4 are not publicly documented, are not open source, and do not provide clear meaning over the air as required in the 1995 FCC ruling. Hence, the Winlink traffic is illegal on the Ham bands. ARSFI and Winlink have many other "private" modulations using ARQ that also obscure the messsges, so that no one else can listen in. ARRL has refused to address this illegal traffic in the past, and instead has fostered its
proliferation.
After you have written congress, please write ARRL board members, and urge them to pull NPRM 16-239 and RM-11708 from consideration at the FCC, and immediately fix this illegal use of amateur spectrum that cannot be intercepted for meaning by other 3rd parties, by adopting and supporting this proposal for open source HF data by Ron Kolarik: https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/100918881206/PETITION%20FOR%20RULEMAKING.pdf
Thanks for your service and dedication to amateur radio!
73 ted n9nb
Various public source evidence--
Always ask for evidence!:
1. A ham recently admitted to the FCC the fact that Winlink/ARSFI- supported transmissions cannot be intercepted by other hams, even with sophisticated equipment and decoders:
" True, I don't know what is being said unless it was directed to me, but I do not need to know."
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filing/1222718116209
Others in government and ham radio and even the FCC have admitted to N9NB privately that the Winlink transmissions supported and developed by ARSFI are cyphered and not readable in ARQ mode over the Shortwave bands by them. This encryption is a desired feature for commercial Sailmail and Airmail systems (also run by ARSFI/Winlink associates/donors/partners) but illegal for amateur radio, since the FCC only allows such unspecified, undocumented codes above 50 MHz. The Winlink/ARSFI user community is clearly double dipping by running a non profit boating email security system on marine frequencies, while illegally using the amateur radio bands for its constituency of users.
https://sailmail.com/using-airmail-with-both-sailmail-and-winlink/
https://www.winlink.org/tags/sailmail
https://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?topic=101304.5;wap2
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f13/sailmail-vs-winlink-191874.html
https://www.winlink.org/SystemTraffic
https://www.cruisingworld.com/staying-connected-at-sea
https://www.rrmediagroup.com/News/NewsDetails/NewsID/17804
2. ARRL and Winlink admit Winlink transmissions are nearly impossible to intercept and boast about HIPPA suitability, even though this is clearly illegal as deemed by the FCC in DA 13-1918:https://ema.arrl.org/ares/winlink-2000/ (2nd para--nearly impossible to intercept")
and
http://www.arrl-mdc.net/Winlink/MDCWL2KOVwAM.htm
(3rd para. "Enhanced privacy")
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-13-1918A1_Rcd.pdf see footnotes 15-20.
Yet, despite the FCC's clear requirement that all ham radio communications be open, unobscured, such that HIPA does not apply for ham radio, Winlink's sysop and past president Steve Waterman continues to push for legalization of encryption in ham radio, as well as seeking 100 paralllel Winlink data servers on HF (see p.4-5)--perhaps seeking to "legalize" culpability in the Winlink encrypted traffic:https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/10123298305905/%2017-344.pdf .....ARRL supports and turns a blind eye towards all this.
3. Winlink's own admission of obscured gibberish in the ham bands, which N9NB showed the FCC in 2016:
https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/10925839109476/Winlink%20compilation%20pt1.pdf
And see Winlink' own documentation Q.260:
https://downloads.winlink.org/User%20Programs/WL2K_FAQ.pdf
4. See page 20 - 21 and onward at QRZ.com "Wideband Digital Danger" where the open source code "sourcer " is shown to produce gibberish- it cannot decode Pactor 2, 3,4. Much truth is coming out at this lengthy Qrz.com topic:
https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/wide-bandwidth-digital-danger.639948/page-20
Other filings of interest:
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filing/12300483528083
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filing/12161836317602
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filing/121668558275
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filing/121694680414
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filing/12212160916228
https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/121353186912/SSCA's%20Letter%20to%20FCC.pdf
https://sailmail.com/using-airmail-with-both-sailmail-and-winlink/
https://winlink.org/tags/sailmail
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/filings?proceedings_name=16-239&sort=date_disseminated,DESC
