Well, maybe with this particular bill.
Nellie's licensing story was pretty bogus.
Ham radio can mean terrestrial comms, satellite comms, or even bouncing signals off the moon and back. The satcomms can be pretty much like a dead drop. As the bird passes over your location, you can send a text-type message (or small email). Then when it passes over your recipient's location somewhere else on the planet, they can download and reply. Rinse and repeat.
Loads of very interesting methods and means for passing information are out there.
Thanks for info Kit.
I used to do that with MIR, using VHF(2M) simplex uplink for ASCII packet or just beacon your station callsign through it. Around 1996-97 when it was still up and it stored and forwarded msgs. using 1200 baud packet format.
SS1