Coincidental to the Marathon
bombing, a Massachusetts ham has asked the FCC to permit amateurs to encrypt
certain sensitive information in emergency and emergency-preparedness
communications. The ARRL Letter
reports that the petition was filed by Don Rolph, AB1PH, of East Walpole, and
requests the change to permit hams to transmit personal medical information
without running afoul of privacy laws. The proceeding is RM-11699. Comment
deadline was July 8.
A second petition, by the Toledo Mobile Radio Association in Ohio,
requests expanding 10-meter privileges for Technicians to include the repeater
subband at 29.52-29.7 MHz. At press time, the FCC has not taken any action on
this request. See the "Zero Bias" editorial in the August issue of CQ for a
discussion of this petition.
