4) They have enormous fines to payout 5) This was mostly backoffice not consultants

What fines?

Apparently mostly back office

Getting that sort of range is not common. Most of it is line of sight. Sat comms work far at sea where VHF is useless. With ARES, you are relying on an inconsistent volunteer network with spotty results by location and time.

I'm a licensed ham and have worked emergency events. I would not rely upon this if my life depended on it.

I'm also a HAM and work Search and Rescue, I would also never use this as my primary emergency device unless I had someone I knew actively monitoring the frequency. Buy something like a Garmin InReach Mini (~$15 a month subscription free) or a PLB (no monthly cost)

I took their in-person class in Ada, OK back in the day. Highly recommended the training material. https://www.advancedpilot.com/

They have a great test bed for validating their science.

When I read your comment too quickly, I saw Ada training. [1] Of course, you meant what you wrote, Ada, OK! [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language)

[2] https://adaok.com/

I took that same course (in Fall 2013 I think); it was excellent.

Sadly, both John and Walter have passed away, leaving only George as the last amigo standing.

note that words have special pronunciation such as kehBEC not keeBEC. Pilots also pronounce numbers differently Tree (3) or Fow Er (4)

https://skybrary.aero/articles/icao-phonetic-alphabet

All pilots, private and commercial, have to learn this. I taught it to my kids driving to school when they were in elementary school.

I think it’s fantastic your kids were able to drive to elementary school

Your comment belittles the hard work Vint puts in every day. He could easily retire but is still amazingly energetic and engaged. Downvoted.

I don't think GP comment belittles Vint. It belittles Google, for just hiring him for his name and not for his expertise. Vint is very vocal about IPv6 adaptation, yet it sounds like his opinion seems to be treated as if he was some kind of intern there. "Cool Vint, you do your stuff, publish your papers and we do our stuff".

AFAIK, Philip is not really retired. He does a lot of expert witness work these days https://philip.greenspun.com/software/expert-witness

He teaches occasionally at Harvard, usually a short course. This is covered under the subsection "Teaching might be the answer."

Ham radio transmissions are not allowed to be encrypted per FAR 97.113(4). [1]

I suspect this is also a violation of FAR 97.113(3) "Communications in which the station licensee or control operator has a pecuniary interest, including communications on behalf of an employer"

[1] https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=d4b3c60d2d60000a14...

Do the “part 5 experimental licenses” have that ham encryption restriction? It sounds like that at the very least are exempt from the ham station ID requirements. Are they actually ham operators, or other licensed entities permitted to use the ham bands?

Part 5 is not bound by ham radio rules, you can transmit anything according to certain rules, and if you use the Part 5 rules, you don't care about the rest of the rulebook.