Re: hamradio/satellite

Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> wrote:

 
 
On 2024-07-18, rek2 hispagatos wrote:

>
Hello anyone has any active/updated info on radio/satellite on gemini?

 
It'd be questionable at best (at least in the US), due to the integral
encryption.

I dislike the mandatory encryption in TLS, and it would seem that I am not
the only one; I have read about some others who also disliked it. But,
fortunately there are other possibilities.

Although using Gemini with ham radio is inappropriate due to encryption,
you might be able to use unencrypted protocols such as:

- Gopher (although there is no virtual hosting; I don't know whether or not
that will be a problem for your use)

- HTTP (if used without TLS; unfortunately some programs try to insist on
using TLS even if you do not want to do, and there are other complexity)

- Spartan (which uses the same file format as Gemini, so you could use the
same files with both Gemini and Spartan)

- Scorpion (if used without TLS; the protocol specification I wrote says
that servers should allow unencrypted connections if possible, due to this
and for other reasons)

- NNTP (if without TLS; again there is no virtual hosting but this will be
less of a problem if the names of the newsgroups do not conflict)

(unless there are other prohibitions relating to such things)

(Maybe UUCP is also possible; I don't know much about that)

Probably, Spartan can be used since it is the same file format than Gemini
(actually there is one difference, but it is close enough).

Of course without TLS it means that client certificates cannot be used, but
for public files, that will not be a problem, anyways.

You can write about radio/satellite on a Gemini server though, and these
problems will not apply for a usual internet access, unless you should need
to access these files by the ham radio or otherwise if you cannot or are
not supposed to (or don't want to) use encryption, for any reason. You can
also write about Gemini protocol and file format in a service that is using
a different protocol that I had listed above, without encryption.

If you are concerned about if the file is correct, one possibility is that
you can use the cryptographic hash of the file when accessing it to check
that it is correct (e.g. the "hashed:" scheme that I had written about, or
you can just do it manually instead if you prefer). (I don't know if this
prohibition of the "encryption" is including cryptographic hashes, but it
is not significant to this since the hash does not need to be sent to the
server in order to use it.)

I live in Canada and I do not know what rules are difference in Canada
relating to ham radio, though. (If you live in other country, then you
might consider that too)

--
Don't laugh at the moon when it is day time in France.