Many US private and governmental radio services licensed by the FCC permit encryption, especially if the license applicant can show some need. As far as I am aware, there are absolutely no requirements in the FCC regulations mandating key escrow, disclosure, or retention or any restrictions on the strength or type of crypto used. At most there may be a requirement to disclose the type and/or technical details of the crypto system as part of a license filing, but no requirement for key disclosure at any time. As any ham knows, the amateur radio service is the one major exception to this rule. Hams are not permitted to encrypt or deliberately obscure the meaning of a communication by any other technique. This is usually justified as a measure to protect the amateur radio service against abuse by commercial interests who might otherwise be able to transmit encrypted traffic on ham frequencies with relative impugnity, and as a means of ensuring that the rules and regulations can be enforced. This regulation probably had its origin in the 1920s or 1930s, however, and may have been originally actually primarily intended to prevent use of coded long distance radio communications by rum-runners and spies. Many current generation private point to point commercial microwave and domestic satellite systems use encryption or at least provide it as an option; I have never heard of any requirement for key escrow or disclosure here either. And, of course, an increasing number of radio delivered broadcast or multicast services such as stock quotations and sports scores transmitted over SCA subcarriers and satellite transmissions of cable TV programming and sports events are being encrypted to protect the commercial interests of the copyright holders against real or imagined losses from piracy. I do not know whether cypherpunks believe in intellectual property or not, but to many others this is understandable, and in fact more understandable than passing laws making mere interception of radio signals a crime. Further, there is no current restriction preventing a user of the current analog cell phone system from transmitting strongly encrypted data with a modem over a voice channel or even low bit rate encrypted digital voice. This is not illegal or restricted by any US or state tariffs that I have ever heard of. Recently the FCC has allocated certain frequency ranges for completely unlicensed use (notably the band between 902-928 mhz) by devices radiating limited power. Devices operating in this band may use any kind of encryption the user desires and do not require anything other than FCC type approval (you can't build them yourself or modify them without going through a formal (and expensive) type approval process however). Using correct antennas and a path free of major obstuctions such as hills or a large building these spread spectrum devices can securely communicate over ranges measured in miles without any kind of license being required. And in the near future certain other regions of the spectrum will open up to low power unlicensed use, again without any restrictions on encryption. I have a friend who has obtained a FCC license for using DES encrypted HT's on the itinerant VHF frequencies allocated for temporary business at random places use by such things as road-show crews and construction companies; all he had to do was explain that he bids at surplus auctions and needs to keep his future bids confidential and he got the license without trouble. He certainly has had no requirement to disclose or archive the keys he uses or even certify that the radios are actually using DES in a particular mode (he could use 3-DES). So it is simply not true that use of encrypted radio transmissions within the domestic US is restricted or forbidden by treaty or even inaccessible to private citizens of ordinary means. Encrypted international radio communications may be another matter, however, but domestic stuff is fine. Dave Emery N1PRE die@pig.jjm.com