in May 2008 FCC ruled against the petition. In the Official Order, FCC said, "Additionally, we believe that amending the amateur service rules to limit the ability of amateur stations to experiment with various communications technologies or otherwise impeding their ability to advance the radio art would be inconsistent with the definition and purpose of the amateur service. Moreover, we do not believe that changing the rules to prohibit a communications technology currently in use is in the public interest." In 2013, the FCC ruled in Report and against the use of encryption in the US amateur radio bands for any purpose, including emergency communications. The FCC cited the need for all amateur radio communications to be open and unobscured, to uphold the Commission's long-standing requirement that the service be able to police itself. In spite of FCC rulings and , Winlink advocates continue to use the proprietary versions of Pactor and other undocumented data formats that cannot be eavesdropped, and continue to press the FCC for encrypted data transmissions in amateur radio, as exemplified in a Winlink petition to the FCC for legalized encryption of the US amateur spectrum while seeking broader spectrum allocations in response to the Puerto Rico hurricanes of 2017. Opponents warn that the continual lack of enforcement by the FCC and continued allowance of "effectively encrypted" e-mail traffic in the amateur bands is a national security threat, and ham operators have written to the US Congress about the threat. The Board of Directors of the Amateur Radio Safety Foundation, Inc. has written FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, other Federal Communications Commission members, and FCC administrators to correct inaccuracies in opponents' claims. See also Amateur radio emergency communications Automatic Link Establishment PACTOR Winmor Footnotes References External links The official Winlink Web Site Winlink Research Project Winlink Tutorial Winlink wide-area HF MESH network Introduction to RMS Express Winlink client program Guida italiana completa per l'uso di RMS Express /-/ Winlink 2000 The Wiki for Pat - a cross platform Winlink client Guia rápida en Español de introducción a la Red WL2K, Winmor y uso del RMS Express, (Spanish White Paper) Packet radio