If you read through a variety of the comments posted to the FCC, you will see this is a hot issue, and unfortunately is not an easy answer.

The actual proposed ruling change deals STRICTLY with emergency situations and training for such. Unfortunately, most of the 80m ragchewers and DX-chasers who probably still use paper logs didnt get that fact and posted their blab accordingly.

It is my hope that the FCC will recognize those facts and rule accordingly.

Ive said it in private conversation, but Ill state my prediction here:

Look at the recent past, where the ARRL "leadership" commented/filed AGAINST a possible FCC rule change/waiver/etc (Recon Robotics, BPL, etc); The FCC almost ALWAYS went the opposite way. So it is my prediction that this proposed change will go through! :-)

Now, of course, Im a die hard Steeler fan, and every time I think they will win, well..... lol

KTF

Thanks Jim!

I'm going to give the guy over at ARRL a shot first. Then I'll jump in to what I fear would be the nightmare of getting an answer from the FCC :)

I followed the directions and flashed two WRT45's. All went OK and I set them aside until I obtained a gain antenna to place a node in the attic with gain antenna aimed out the attic window. When I had the antenna set up I found that the password I wrote down did not work.  I tried upper/lowercase combos and as it had a number and the number shifted. All did not work.  Has anyone got a way to recover the passwords and/or the WRT45's?

Thank you for the reply, your point is taken. I wouldn't and do not expect software (or firmware) to inspect each packet for FCC compliance.

I do however feel that using COTS (commercial off the shelf) applications would be a strong enabler for HSMM to bring an influx of new license holders into the art. The most commonly used VoIP software that provides server software encrypts its transmission by default and cannot be turned off.

I'm open to be the guy that pursues the answer, though I'm not sure where to get started.

How do I go about finding and accessing a, "...duly appointed person, empowered to interpret the rules and regulations..." in order to get a solid answer on this issue?

Check the main page http://hsmm-mesh.org/ about legal information.

We don't debate encryption here.  

HSMM sends whatever data you send through it.  It doesn't check for FCC rules compliance.

If you want to use encryption, you do so at the risk of your own ham license.

I like the idea of the drop box from the article of the same name.

What boxes have people used for outdoor deployment? Any info on manufacturers and part numbers would be appreciated.

I have one node up in Gateway mode, and am planning on one at the top of the tower with a beam pointing at our local repeater site..

I'm going to go ahead a coin the term "Meshsite." It's a website, but on the mesh :)

So what I'd like to do is to host a meshsite on one of my nodes. This site would display any important info to new meshers to the area such as chat server info, mail services, etc. To be effective however, it would need to broadcast its existence in some way to a new mesh when it connects.

Ideas?

I acquired a couple of new WRT54G-RG routers which were produced by Cisco/Linksys for Rogers "Talkspot" - these routers have 32 Meg of ram installed instead of the usual 16 Meg. During the firmware upgrade, I noticed that when DD-WRT was loaded, it recognized that there was 32 Meg of RAM, but when I installed the HSMM-Mesh firmware, it appears that only 16 Meg are being recognized. Has anyone succeeded in having the software recognize all 32 Meg of memory in these ex-Rogers routers?

By the way, the serial number on both units I have begins with CDF11 which doesn't fit the pattern for identifying versions of the WRT54G series of routers (it uses a 12VDC switching pwr module), and the circuit board looks pretty much identical to my WRT54GL (the CPU is a Broadcom 5352).