I don't know, Kelly.
Where there's a will, there's a way. If a group of guys can come up with the
$2-300,000 (or more) to do a dxpedition, do you really think that they would
balk at setting up a remote station (or stations) that they can activate at
their leisure, for a hell of a lot less money, if given the opportunity?
Contesting has nothing to do with who can afford plane tickets. Lots of
people can. Just as lots of people can stick up multiple rotating towers
with stacks of antennae. I can't and I can't hop on a plane any time I want
and jet off to the sunny south for a contest so I do the best I can with
what I have here at home; like, I assume, you do. But at least if I did hop
that plane, I'd actually be where I said I was. If you are in Manitoba, what
value is there in your equipment being in St. Maarten except for you? You
get to pretend you're in the Caribbean and everyone makes contact with your
"box in a windowless room".
Regarding your Puerto Rico scenario below; yes, it does matter. There is no
problem if Rich is in Puerto Rico; not necessarily at the location of the
equipment but at least in the country. If he is in Maryland, then he's in
Maryland. Period. If you have ever worked anyone on 10M FM through a
repeater, would you say you worked the repeater's location or the operator's
location?
But if you don't care about where the operator is in relationship to his
radio, then why not just remove the operator from the equation? I'm sure
with the advancement in voice recognition software and voice emulation
software, we can all set our stations on autopilot and let them scan the
bands and work each other. No more missing the Asian opening in CQWW because
you fell asleep or having to stop a European run because you have to go to a
family function. And no more countries with no activity. These remote
stations can be set up in each of the DXCC counters, operating on all bands
simultaneously, and they can be assigned their own individual frequencies
(channels) on the HF bands (14.195 could be Italy :) ). Our stations can be
set loose to communicate with them by whatever mode you want in a fully
automated manner. These stations would obviously have a direct connection to
the LOTW. Never again miss the Spratly DXpedition because propagation wasn't
good to your area as it'll be there all the time. The more I think about it,
the more I like the idea. Work the world and never miss a thing. Ever.
I don't think so.
I despise yet relish the challenge of battling through the adversity of
noise and weather to do as good as I can from right here. Not over "there".
Believe me, I think the technology is interesting. I just don't think it
conveys the true meaning of what it is to be an "amateur radio operator".
Maybe all the nay-sayers were right and we are becoming a legion of
self-absorbed appliance operators.
Anyway, that's the way I see it and it just don't feel right.
73 -- Paul VO1HE
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com
> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Kelly Taylor
> Sent: March 19, 2007 00:50
> To: vo1he@rac.ca; 'Richard Thorne'; CQ-Contest@contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Remote Site Contesting Rules -
> Getting out of hand
>
> VO1HE wrote,
> > My issue is with the pretenders who want to be rare DX from the
> > security and comfort of their own homes.
>
> I doubt this will ever happen. Who would set up the radios on
> Heard? The penguins?
>
> Seriously, however, since when has contesting been about who
> can afford the plane tickets? In SS, if WP3R's TX and RX are
> located at the rim of Arecibo, and the operation is clearly a
> Puerto Rican operation (1234 B WP3R 63 PR, instead of 1234 B
> KE3Q 63 MD), does it really matter if Rich is located at the
> rim of Arecibo?
>
> The only time remote operations would cause me concern is if
> they attempt to impart an unfair advantage: in other words,
> when a W0 has a remote station in VO1 but still tries to play
> WW as a W0.
>
> The means of remoting the operation, I don't believe, impart
> any unfair advantage. Sure, it would be neater if the remote
> operation could be done all on RF, but to me, the only
> difference is the length of the control wires.
>
> 73, kelly
> ve4xt
>
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|