Something to consider, if that is accurate.
The guy was eventually caught. His punishment was $20K and the loss of his license.
However, in all honesty, an encrypted communication can be claimed that you are working with digital modes with different compression schemes. The only real requirement here is to have a call sign in the clear in a common digital mode (CW preferred). Just dont be stupid and do a dump of a GPG encrypted block down the xmit.
For example, I regularly run channel 12 on my home wifi gear (european firmware). On my router, I have a sticker that states my callsign and EXPERIMENTAL. It's now allowed under part 97 tentatively. I also, out of respect, went to the 2 local HAM groups and stated what I was doing and where. If there's interference, I can change it.
Go look at the ACR specs for the chipset in your AP, and then realize that they're talking about the 'spacing'(for example) between ch 1 (centered at 2412MHz), 6 (2437MHz) & 11 (2462MHz) in the 2.4GHz band. Note that the center frequencies are 25MHz apart. In DSSS (1 or 2Mbps) or CCK (5.5 or 11Mbps) your radio has a signal bandwidth (or frequency occupation) of 22 MHz. Using OFDM modulation, the signal bandwidth is 20MHz.
Radios do not have an exact edge to their channel, and energy spreads beyond the edges of the channel boundaries. However, the overall energy level drops as the signal spreads farther from the center of the channel. The 802.11b standard defines the required limits for the energy outside the channel boundaries (+/- 11 MHz), also known as the spectral mask.
At 11 MHz from the center of the channel, the energy must be 30 dB lower than the maximum signal level, and at 22 MHz away, the energy must be 50 dB below the maximum level. As you move farther from the center of the channel, the energy continues to decrease but is still present, providing some interference on several more channels.
Ch12 is centered at 2467MHz. 11MHz up is 2478MHz. The US ISM band ends at 2485Mhz. In theory you don't need to be a HAM running under part 97 to transmit here, BUT remember that you're probably transmitting at 100mW (20dBm), so your radio's design is probably transmitting 50dBm into the edge of the band.
MOREOVER, the HAM band in-question is 2390-2450 MHz, so you're operating illegally when you're transmitting WiFi on ch12 (centered at 2467MHz!)
We've discussed what my proposal was with the 2 local ham groups. One person works for the FCC and finds non-compliant stations. From what he indicated, as long as I put "EXPERIMENTAL" on the device, and watch for interference (iow: be a good amateur operator), I can do this.
I've passed their kind requests, along with publishing what I am doing and with what wattage I am transmitting. I am also monitoring my emissions as I usually do when operating.
I'd also like to remind you that an evil device called a microwave oven transmits more as static on 2.4GHz broadband than my narrowband wifi.
