[aprssig] Igateing a Non Amateur

[Steve Dimse]

On Oct 1, 2005, at 2:37 PM, VE7GDH wrote:

> He claims to be in Alaska, and gave Clay AA3JY the impression that  
> he was in Poland. He also claims to be QRV on 145.550 which in most  
> countries is an amateur frequency.

Except he is not transmitting on RF, the packets clearly indicate it  
is a direct RF connection.

> In spite of your insistence that "NITRUS" broke no laws, he will  
> find himself a lot more welcome if he becomes a ham.

No doubt.
>
> It probably wouldn't happen, but what would your opinion be on the  
> situation if there were thousands of "NITRUS's" connecting to the  
> APRS-IS?

I certainly am not encouraging this. What I am trying to point out is  
that the APRS IS is a completely open system. Though it requires a  
"validation", there is absolutely nothing the slightest bit secure  
about it.
> Or showing up on 144.390? Or your favourite HF frequency?

That is illegal, and is obviously not part of this discussion!

What I didn't know was that NITRUS until just now was a cracked  
password for WinAPRS, and obviously using it is illegal. I guess this  
is why the Sprouls are planning on issuing new passwords. Since this  
password is floating around, the perhaps Pete would consider  
filtering or denying connections from this call. I'm thinking about  
filtering at findU, but at least for now it may be useful to leave it  
in.

So, in this case the guy did do something wrong, not because his  
packets were IGated to RF, but because he entered a fake password  
into WinAPRS to circumvent WinAPRS' copyright protection.

Steve K4HG