[aprssig] Igate traffic flow query

[Steve Dimse]

This is something you need to discuss with someone familiar with UK radio law. In the US, amateur radio transmission are placed in the public domain, essentially allowing anyone to do anything with them, including sending them to an internet aggregator.

If the UK really regulates the receive side it must be with a law outside the amateur radio laws, because anyone with a scanner and a computer can IGate RF to INet. In the US, the FCC only regulates transmission on amateur frequencies, not reception. It seems like over-reaching to regulate reception that way, but I'm not familiar with your radio law and maybe it is completely in character. 

If you really do have a law that makes you responsible for what happens to the data after you put it on the internet, then there is not going to be a safe way to put the data on internet. To IGate traffic other than your own callsign you must provide a validation number, and packets from a validation number can be transmitted on RF.

Steve K4HG

On May 28, 2014, at 5:57 PM, Nick G4IRX <g4irx9 at nowindows.net> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Is it likely that traffic gated from RF to APRS-IS can be gated back out to RF at some point? I'm thinking particularly of messages.
> 
> The reason that I ask is beacause in the UK we are prohibited from passing traffic via a public communications network unless we have a NOV (permit). I considered the case of gating from internet to RF which is clearly prohibited, but in the other direction is a bit of a grey area. If a packet were to travel no futher than APRS-IS it would at first consideration be OK, but then I considered that if it gets gated back to RF at some point then the original (RF to APRS-IS) station is then part of the relay process via a public communications network.
> 
> 73
> Nick G4IRX
> 
> 
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