Internet control

[WQ9E]

Hopefully articles like this aren't used as a recruiting tool to attract assorted tinfoil hat types, militia, and other assorted paranoids into amateur radio.  We already have enough interesting members in this fraternity:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/05/rushkoff.egypt.internet/index.html?hpt=C1

[W8EJO]

To paraphrase Mr. Jefferson (*), who knew a thing or two about such matters, the price of freedom is a nicely fashioned tin foil hat.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20029302-501465.html




* http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/2283

[W7TFO]

Logic obviously would lead to the use of private radio, such as ham radio, to get things communicated.

I remember there was supposedly some sort of blanket ban on hams in NOLA during the Katrina fiasco. 

Any thoughts as to the veracity of this and what we might find as a group in the event of a "national security revocation of amateur privileges"?

73DG

[Opcom]

The TX state guard communicated occasionally with hams in the area during that time. There were no restrictions we were advised of.

[KA0HCP]

There was no blanket shut down of ham radio during Katrina.   As I recall, the FCC designated a handful (2 or 3?) frequencies for emergency traffic only and directed all hams to avoid interference to them.   Just as they have done numerous times before during disasters.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

It is not uncommon for governments to restrict or eliminate communications during wartime.  Ham operations were essentially shut down during WWII for example.  Back then no one complained much, since the war was widely supported, and there were so few hams.  Spies would have used HF radio in some form to report back, and masking themselves in among ham traffic would have made detection difficult.  However, clandestine methods were used by both sides regardless of the shutdown for average folks. So it didn't stop or even necessarily hinder covert communications that much. It was more designed to prevent easy intelligence gathering by opposing forces though simple conversation.

Fast forward to today.  The network is used by vast amounts of businesses and people, who have either come to depend on it (in the case of businesses) or addicted to it (private citizens).  In case the Gov decided that they needed to shut down the net, a large number of folks would be affected, but a group of net-savvy folks would be able to operate around the blacked out regions.  There are quite a few ISP in the states, unlike the 4 in Egypt, where some folks still had access even after the shutdown.  They also usurped cell service to broadcast pro-gov messages.  All this did was promote more anger towards the government. 
Can you imagine the effect on the populace in the US if suddenly, the internet and all cell phone service was stopped?  (take away your kids cell phone for a day, and multiply that drama by a factor of 10 million or so).  I think it would backfire severely if used to suppress a revolt or anti-government movement.

Once again, it illustrates a point, if you give the government power, you have to rely on it's judgment of what the best use of that power is. Governments in general have shown that they will eventually confuse that which is best for the people, with that which is best for the government.  In short, can you trust a group of folks who's reason for existence its the continuance of their own power to place what's good for the people over what's good for them?

[k4kyv]

During WW1, they not only shut down ham radio operation, but ordered that all equipment had to be dismantled and antennas taken down.  This included even receivers, and it was declared illegal for individual citizens to intercept wireless communications.

During the war, the navy was given control of radio communications, and after the Armistice they were reluctant to relinquish that power.  I believe it was sometime in 1919 before amateurs were allowed back on the air, months after the war was over and this didn't happen until after a fight.  The navy didn't want the power of wireless communication in the hands of individuals.  The ARRL has claimed credit for successfully lobbying to reinstate amateur radio, and despite their annoying tendency to self-promote and pat themselves on the back, much of it was probably true, since there was little else in existence at the time to lobby for amateur radio.

Maybe people re-cycled their Doughboy hats instead of using ones made of tin foil, but there was a lot of paranoia after the war.  High schools across  the country stopped teaching the German language, often as a result of state laws banning the classes.

During WW2, not only was ham radio forbidden, but legal resident aliens of German and Italian origin had their short wave radios (which included a large percentage ordinary broadcast receivers in use at the time) confiscated by local authorities, and many of those sets were never given back to their owners after the war was over. I have heard unverified stories about radio repair shops being ordered to disable the short wave bands of all broadcast receivers brought to them for repairs. Amateurs were supposed to register their transmitters with the government, but I don't see how it would have been possible to get them all, since a large number of their owners were already in basic training or on their way to Europe or the Pacific by the time the decree came down.

During the Spanish Civil War, hams were ordered off the air, and some of their transmitters were used by both sides to broadcast propaganda to the populace.  Later on, these low power ham rigs were replaced by megawatt transmitters located in USSR, Germany and Italy.  This is the origin of the  take-over of the top end of 40m by short wave broadcasting.

In Moscow, as the USSR was collapsing and Yeltsin was climbing on top of the tank, there were reports of Russian hams using transmitters in AM mode to broadcast to the public, as all official news sources had been shut down.

[WBear2GCR]

despite efforts to prevent me, I am communicating with space aliens using my amateur radio equipment... actually, interdimensional beings, no amount of tin foil can stop me! Btw, when was the last time anyone saw or had any genuine tin foil and not that bogus aluminum stuff??

                _-_-bear

[KL7OF]

tin is $9 per lb.....Alum is $.90    Was there ever a "real tin" foil?

[steve_qix]

It would be very easy to shut down the Internet in the US.

First of all, if the major peering points were shut down, that would stop packets from being routed between major areas/carriers.  There goes the backbone.

Second, if just the very few cable companies we have here, and the very few phone companies we have were banned from passing IP traffic THAT in and of itself would kill much of it because those providers account for virtuall all of the "last mile" connectivity to the end user.

Really, if you think about it, there are very few network providers that don't rely on one of the major backbone network, or a phone company or a cable provider.

I used to own an Internet service provider business.  At that time, we used UUNet and Eastern Microwave (which became EMI, and eventually Intermedia) as our upstreams, and UUnet had quite a bit of the backbone Internet traffic (UUNet, Alternet and some others were all part of UUnet).

Yes, independent folks COULD build SOME of the Internet back up in the absence of cable and DSL/Fios providers, but it would be minimal at best for quite a while.  We would need unregulated fibre or else we would have to create a vast wireless infrastructure, and that would only be at most T3 speed (which with today's traffic isn't much at all!).

The other thing is the relative ease certain traffic could/can be filtered, blocked, redirected or even modified.  Since I have done all of these things myself (I manage a municipal network) I can say with reasonable certainty how easy it is to do!!

When I owned the ISP, if the police (with proper documentation) wanted information, we gave it to them.  If we were asked to shut someone off, we did.  For a while, we could not distribute certain news groups because the upstream blocked them, for fear of being sued for distribution of pornography (finally a court case settled the matter, and the providers were pretty much relieved of any liability in this matter).

Anyway, just some examples - it would be a quick matter to shut our Internet down - maybe not completely, but it would be rendered effectively crippled.

Regards,
Steve

[WA3VJB]

In Moscow, as the USSR was collapsing and Yeltsin was climbing on top of the tank, there were reports of Russian hams using transmitters in AM mode to broadcast to the public, as all official news sources had been shut down.

When the FCC was considering voice mode communication for licensed radio hobbyists on the proposed 60M band, part of the thinking was that this band would be ideal for hurricane-related communications.  I filed Comments in the regulatory proceeding, urging that AM be among the permitted modes.  

Had that been approved, AM transmissions with emergency news, information and health & welfare traffic could all have been monitored by local citizenry on the widely available, portable multi-band shortwave receivers in the Central American region.

In passing, it would have been nice if the group in Newington would have endorsed and pushed the idea, but no.

As it is, hurricane preparedness drills can and should include stations capable of running high powered AM on established net frequencies for such traffic on 20m, 40m and 75m.

Meantime, there has been very little migration to 60m by hurricane nets, as intended.  The FCC even tried to motivate these stations toward 60m by discontinuing pre-emptive declarations of a communications emergency, which --  more often than not -- were only a stunt by certain belligerent net control ops along the Gulf Coast to claim a frequency and feel important for a while.

I remember there was supposedly some sort of blanket ban on hams in NOLA during the Katrina fiasco.  

The closest I recall to this was permission refused for any unsolicited, ad hoc HAMs trying to come into the disaster zone. Authorities were concerned that these people would add to the drain on food & water, while not having a designated purpose for being there.

There were very few, if any, licensed radio hobbyists originating traffic out of the New Orleans area during Katrina, despite what Newington's people implied in their talks with federal offiicials who reviewed communications shortcomings.  (a report cited a few stations in unaffected areas who stood ready for traffic that never came)

Far more health & welfare traffic was originated directly from cellphones in the first days of the aftermath, primarily by text messaging, but occasionally also on voice circuits on sites that were still up via battery or gensets.

One of the more impressive efforts to re-establish communications was by a group of internet technicians, who set up a relay link on wi-fi frequencies from outlying areas and brought internet connectivity to the disaster zone.

See Page 14 of a report describing this effort. It's the sort of thing radio hobbyists would have done years ago, and should be prepared to do now and forward.

https://wiki.ittc.ku.edu/resilinets_wiki/images/Katrina_RuruRai.pdf

[K9FH]

The ARRL has claimed credit for successfully lobbying to reinstate amateur radio, and despite their annoying tendency to self-promote and pat themselves on the back, much of it was probably true, since there was little else in existence at the time to lobby for amateur radio.

Probably true?  Here's an interesting read. It's H  P. Maxim's testimony before a congressional committee that was considering "Government Control of Radio Communications" in 1918.

http://www.archive.org/stream/governmentcontr00fishgoog/governmentcontr00fishgoog_djvu.txt

[Steve - K4HX]

Thanks for posting that link! Very interesting reading.

I was struck by HPM giving amounts invested in equipment by certain stations.

Mr. John Hays Hammond, jr., an amateur of Gloucester, Mass., has probably invested in excess of $15,000 in amateur apparatus.

Wow! That would be about $250,000 in today's dollars!

[W8EJO]

Update:

'Kill Switch' Internet bill alarms privacy experts'

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
"Just as the Egyptian government recently forced the Internet to go dark, U.S. officials could flip the switch if the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset legislation becomes law, say its critics.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2011-02-15-kill-switch_N.htm

[steve_qix]

Update:

'Kill Switch' Internet bill alarms privacy experts'

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
"Just as the Egyptian government recently forced the Internet to go dark, U.S. officials could flip the switch if the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset legislation becomes law, say its critics.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2011-02-15-kill-switch_N.htm

Well, I see which side of the isle this proposal is coming from:  Lieberman, Carper and Collins from ME (a RINO at best).  But, there's more to it:

"the bill would also see the creation of a new agency within the Department of Homeland Security, the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC). Any private company reliant on "the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the U.S. 'information infrastructure'" would be "subject to command" by the NCCC, and some would be required to engage in "information sharing" with the agency" says CBS4. 

That's propably more dangerous than the "kill switch" part!!

[Ed/KB1HYS]

yea, used to be they would have to get a court order to 'wire tap' now it's just legislated right in... convenient and sooo not right.

[kg8lb]

tin is $9 per lb.....Alum is $.90    Was there ever a "real tin" foil?

 Yes, there was and still is real tin foil. Tin foil dates back to a time when price rates were reversed and aluminum was very costly.
For those who may prefer the real deal :http://edisontinfoil.com/foilsale.htm

  BTW, To avoide ridicule from the under-informed masses , a stealth tin foil hat is easily fashioned by tin foil lining your favorite Fedora or Fez.
No one need know .