[Today’s run: 1 mile warmup then ten repeats of about 150 yards]
It’s kind of an esoteric subject.
The regulations that govern amateur radio specifically rule out the transmission of music. So a ham cannot have an “amateur” radio station in the sense of Top-40 or Country Western. (A ham also cannot “broadcast” to nobody in particular, with some exceptions.)
One time I made a petition to the FCC to suggest that they get rid of that rule about music. They weren’t interested in making the change and I can understand their inertia on the subject. But here’s my argument:
In the last 20+ years there has been a surge of “data” modes used by hams. A data mode usually consists of multiple carrier (tone) signals sent in patterns to indicate data bits, usually binary data.
Generally speaking, a ham cannot send “coded” data. That is, they can’t send stuff in secret codes. But they can invent a new data mode. Stuff that is sent via a data mode is not intelligible to a receiving station unless they know how to unpack the data to get back the information being sent. Data modes can be used to send text, pictures, spreadsheets… all of the kinds of stuff that you might put on a computer.
Ok, so now I suspect you are starting to see an issue. Once you get into these data modes then the content is no longer obvious to the general public. What would stop someone from sending an audio recording file via a data mode? Nothing. If it is a recording of a spoken text then I think you are fine. But if it is a recording of yourself singing, you may be in trouble.
The FCC does regulate content both of amateur and commercial radio and television. For regular voice transmissions, I think the FCC would be willing to warn and/or punish an amateur for using bad language on the air. But anyone who has decoded amateur slow-scan TV knows that there are pornographic images being passed around. But SSTV content is not obvious to the general listener.
I think that the no-music regulation was invented to keep a dividing line between commercial and amateur radio and also to avoid having to police things like copyrights of recorded performances. A commercial station has to pay for that type of thing. Real money. And I think that is the rub.
I think amateur radio already crosses the line by allowing the transmission of pictures, since every photograph is copyrighted. But people mostly don’t care because the volume is low and the whole thing is “off the radar” for copyright holders. It would be like someone faxing you a funny from the Sunday comics. Who cares?
Bottom line is that the FCC rejected my suggestion to remove the no-music restriction. I think the thing is a pointless regulation. I don’t have any great desire to start singing on the air so I won’t make a big deal out of it. I just think it is a dead-wood regulation.