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--- blog:2019-09-07:monitoring_winlink_messages [2019/10/17 07:30] – ve7hzf
+++ blog:2019-09-07:monitoring_winlink_messages [2020/08/07 13:03] – external edit 127.0.0.1
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-====== Monitoring Winlink Traffic ======
+====== Monitoring Winlink Traffic (UPDATE) ======
 See [[#Oct_17_Update |update below]].
-To over simplify things a bit, there's a debate right now about Winlink with respect to our inability to monitor traffic between other parties.  When someone sends you a message over the air, you receive it in your inbox, but other hams watching the exchange will only be able to see the callsigns involved, the subject line, and a few other things.  The body of the message, though, will appear to them as a compressed mess of gibberish.
+To over simplify things a bit, there's a debate right now about Winlink with respect to our inability to monitor traffic between other parties.((See: this [[https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/wireless/is-ham-radio-a-hobby-a-utilityor-both-a-battle-over-spectrum-heats-up |IEEE Spectrum post]]))  When someone sends you a message over the air, you receive it in your inbox, but other hams watching the exchange will only be able to see the callsigns involved, the subject line, and a few other things.  The body of the message, though, will appear to them as a compressed mess of gibberish.
 Winlink has a document that:
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 >The FCC should require all digital codes to use protocols that 'can be monitored in entirety by third parties with freely available, open-source software.'(([[https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/wireless/is-ham-radio-a-hobby-a-utilityor-both-a-battle-over-spectrum-heats-up |Is Ham Radio a Hobby, a Utility... or Both? A Battle Over Spectrum Heats Up]], July 8, 2019))
-That sounds very reasonable.  In principle, you can easily imagine that if a program like Winlink can easily decompress a message for one recipient, it could just as easily decompress all the messages it hears.  It would simply be a matter of managing these messages in a way that is easy for the user to filter what is theirs and what isn't.
+That sounds very reasonable.  In principle, you can imagine that if a program like Winlink can easily decompress a message for one recipient, it could just as easily decompress all the messages it hears.  It would simply be a matter of managing these messages in a way that is easy for the user to filter what is theirs and what isn't.
 Well, it seems that there's been some progress in decoding over-the-air messages recently:
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 From [[https://qrznow.com/pactor-developer-scs-announces-monitoring-software/ |qrznow.com]]:
-> SCS, the company that created PACTOR, has unveiled software that offers the ability to monitor the content of PACTOR 1, 2, and 3 transmissions over the air. The free PMON software runs under the Linux operating system. A software version to monitor PACTOR 4 is scheduled to become available next year.
+> SCS, the company that created PACTOR, has [[https://www.p4dragon.com/en/PMON.html |unveiled software]] that offers the ability to monitor the content of PACTOR 1, 2, and 3 transmissions over the air. The free PMON software runs under the Linux operating system. A software version to monitor PACTOR 4 is scheduled to become available next year.
 >
 >[...]