[RTTY] RM-11708, the "other side"

[Peter Laws]

On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 10:02 AM, Michael Rapp <mdrapp at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Many amateur radio operators in my area, 0-20 miles from the Gulf of
> Mexico, are heavily involved in emergency communications.  Indeed, my local
> club and the Communications Unit Leader of our local RACES/ARES group also
> seem to fully support it.

Here we go.  "We need it for disasters!"  Unlikely, but let's pretend.

How long does it take to send a 1 kB message with the proprietary
Pactor 3 protocol (or name your poison)?  How long does it take to
send the same message with the proprietary Pactor 4 protocol?

My guess is we're talking seconds faster.

And seconds don't actually count in a situation where hams are sending
large text messages.  This isn't like you will be dispatching EMS
units to heart attack victims - it's sending shelter status reports to
some EOC somewhere.  Hell, if Joe-Bob is a little slow getting his
software going, he's already lost the alleged speed advantage.

I also enjoyed the "time is running out!  Act now!" bit with the
implied threat that bad things will happen if this doesn't go through.

Also, the bit about it being years before this can be brought up again
is ... what's the politically correct way to say someone is lying?  Oh
yes, "it's unsupported by the facts".

This thing stinks on so many levels.  More harmful interference, more
proprietary stuff on the amateur bands, more, probably illegal, email
traffic that can't be monitored because it's proprietary.

Really really bad precedent.

-- 
Peter Laws | N5UWY | plaws plaws net | Travel by Train!