Tons of amateur radio links in the US are encrypted. Just look at literally any repeater. The myth that there is no encryption on ham channels is as wide spread as it is misunderstood.
It is allowed to used an encrypted connection to administer a remote repeater, like for amateur satellites. Only the control link may be encrypted. The repeated signals may not, just like any other amateur transmissions.
I look at lots of repeaters. I'm a repeater engineer for our city radio club. Not one has any encrypted links, unless you're talking about echolink/allstar/D-Star/YSF, in which the audio is transmitted via the internet through various protocols to other gateways, repeaters, reflectors, conferences, and end users.
Even the DTMF tones to control repeaters aren't encrypted. Some repeaters do obscure the re-transmission of the DTMF codes by muting the output, but this is legal.
Interesting. I’ll have to revisit this topic. My understanding was that the use of encryption was restricted while the parent was saying it is illegal.
To clarify what percentage of your clubs repeaters are reachable through one or more encrypted connections?
