So… I found out a way to send encrypted messages using amateur radio.
There is an app called Rattlegram that lets you convert a string of text into soundwaves that plays though your phone’s speaker. If I just use an app like Secure Space Encryptor (SSE) to encrypt a text, then copy-paste it to the Rattlegram app, then transmit that over radio, then using the same app to record the sound and reverse the process on the other end. Voila! Encrypted long(ish) range communications without a centralized server!
But I looked it up and apparantly its illegal to encrypt communications over the amateur radio bands. What are the odds of actually getting in trouble? 🤔
(To the FCC agents reading this: this is just a hypothetical, a thought experiment, I’m totally not gonna do this 😉)
Wait so if u send encrypted messages over Meshtastic is that illegal?
I don’t know if it’s illegal, but Meshtastic takes place outside the amateur radio bands (using LoRa IIRC) and thus isn’t bound by amateur radio licensing requirements, so the law prohibiting encryption on the ham bands doesn’t apply. Some other law might.
If your Meshtastic device is transmitting in the ham bands (some do) encryption is illegal. Most people use Meshtastic outside the ham bands though.