Is it not what ham radio is about? The development of new methods and
technologies? Yes I have a problem with total automation but lets explore
the methods of finding new stations to work. The bands are open more than
we think.
Tom AC5TM
> This starts getting into interesting ethical questions for contesters.
>
> As someone on CQ-Contest pointed out recently, it is technically possible
> for someone to program a computer with an interfaced rig to trawl the
> contest bands during a CW or RTTY contest, decode everything it can,
> and when it comes across patterns that look a station running or calling
> CQ, add an entry to the bandmap. The contester can merrily hold a run
> frequency while his computers go off and find additional stations for him
> to work. The more interfaced listening rigs, the better the software, the
> more effective his bandmap production will be. Forget SO2R (single
operator,
> two radios) - look out for SO6R (single operator, six robots.)
>
> Perhaps the VHF SSB contester's equivalent is software that scans the
bands,
> applies various algorithms that identify characteristics of SSB signals,
and
> tells the contester, if not actual callsigns, that there are signals on
> 50.153, 50.165, 50.171, etc. Perhaps the day will even come when software
> decodes SSB and Amateur phonetics into text callsigns.
>
> So, building automated contest support robots might be feasible, but
> how desirable is it? Would this be a good thing for contesting? Doesn't
> this sort of eliminate or reduce the need for radio operators to learn
> skills that contesting has traditionally rewarded? Does it cheapen the
> skill of copying callsigns? Of feeling your way through a sudden band
> opening? How many more VHF contesters would never, _ever_ stray from
> 144.200 without their computer telling them where to go?
>
> Sort of like captive rovers and pre-arranged skeds, there may be serious
> ethical implications to this sort of envelope-pushing. Already, NCJ
contests
> contain the following rule: "All contacts must be sent and received using
> means requiring real-time human intervention, detection and initiation."
> Perhaps other contests should consider similar long-term solutions to
> these problems.
>
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> Kenneth E. Harker "Vox Clamantis in Deserto"
kharker@cs.utexas.edu
> University of Texas at Austin Amateur Radio Callsign:
WM5R
> Department of the Computer Sciences Central Texas DX & Contest
Club
> Taylor Hall TAY 2.124 Maintainer of Linux on
Laptops
> Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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