this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2026
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This tech would be great if we had high power nodes all across the globe. But we do not. Maybe a cool idea could be encrypted data over FM radio. The radio stations already exist and are a dying business. Nonprofits could buy up radio stations and rebroadcast data broadly and only those with the encryption keys could decrypt. Cut the ISP out entirely. Like the difference between a local call and a long distance call.
Meshtastic communication would prioritize local hops where they are available and then where there are spans of area without nodes, they could hop across radio broadcasts.
Primary issue would be speed. Next to no bandwidth on a signal like that. Kbps not Mbps. Perhaps an incentive for much better compression as well.
Packet over radio does exist, and it's sloooooooooooooow and there's tons of loss. Imagine the first modems over phone lines, then slow it down more.
Legally, in the US, it can't be encrypted, either. A single geostationary satellite would be faster, especially if latency wasn't an issue.
I don't think you're going to be downloading a linux distro over this system. It's probably just going to be text and the most basic data,
That's what the internet was, at first
Yep, but what we had access to was far, far different than what we see today. I wouldn't have a problem with basic features like FTP, telnet, newsgroups or whatever, but the content will be limited. Gonna be back to dialup speeds.
That's what the last bit of my comment was about. Compression would need significant improvement before it were usable for most things people use the internet for.
I'm not sure compression would solve the issue I mentioned - this would be probably more akin to using Napster to DL a song in 2001 via dialup, or trying to get an image off a newsgroup at best. I'm not saying it wouldn't be useful, just very limited. Like I said, you're not getting a full distro this way.
For anyone reading this currently, it appears that regulation bans any form of encryption over HAM radio broadcasts. So I guess that's one reason this won't work.
It's also slow AF. It's potentially faster to have someone read you text than get it by packet over radio.
How would they find out ?
A high powered antenna that transmits a lot of "static" would be a dead giveaway.
It's not really static. It's digital, the transmission scheme has structure. It's only the transmitted data that is encrypted, but you'd have to first unpack the transmission to get to the data.
I understand. I was replying to how gov agencies would find out. Any digital transmission is basically "static" to an analog receiver.
True, you could send encrypted data via morse code. Nothing but a pure tone.
Regulations can be changed?
Sounds like a better idea to implement as a reticulum medium.