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.
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.
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.