SB> I'll look into this just out of curiosity sake, but are there
SB> provisions in CFR Part 97 that say encryption (even one time)
SB> is permitted only when used for access control on packet radio,
SB> etc. I would certainly make sure all my ducks were in a row
SB> before transmitting an encrypted password. Just MHO.
U.S. regulations are worded permissively, not proscriptively. In particular,
enciphering is prohibited only when intended "to obscure the meaning of" the
commumication content. Therefore, enciphering is legal under U.S. amateur
radio regulations in all cases where the message exchanged is free of any
message content, such as am arbitrary password used only for authentication.
-- Mike