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[CQ-Contest] When is a QSO not a QSO?

To: <CQ-Contest@contesting.com>
Subject: [CQ-Contest] When is a QSO not a QSO?
From: "Paul O'Kane" <pokane@ei5di.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 08:34:39 -0000
List-post: <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
Was "Remote Site Contesting Rules - Getting out of hand".

> --- "Paul J. Piercey" <p.piercey@nl.rogers.com> wrote:
 
> My point is that when I make contact with a station,
> even in a contest, it's the operator that I am working,
> not the equipment.

Paul is right. Amateur radio, and contesting in particular,
is a point-to-point (single-point to single-point), person-
to-person, solely-RF-based technology.

Any deviation from this, regardless of how much fun or
how convenient or how technically advanced it may be,
serves only to dilute the achievement of completing the
QSO.  Repeater QSOs are an example of "dilution".

With sufficient dilution we are eventually reduced to the
level of EchoLink, Skype and cellphones - all great fun,
all highly technically advanced, but not amateur radio.

> --- "Ken Alexander" <k.alexander@rogers.com> wrote:

> Sorry, no sale Paul.  If I had a ham friend in KH6 who
> let me operate his station remotely . . . At the end of
> the contest, if you'd worked me you would have worked KH6,
> not VE3.

Ken is right in that Paul would have worked KH6.  But,
ultimately, he is wrong because it's not a valid amateur
radio QSO - it's a step towards EchoLink or Skype. 

There's a fundamental issue here - at what stage does a
"QSO" become something else?  I suggest, for contesting
purposes, it's when the operator(s), and all equipment
and antennas, are not physically located within a circle
of 500 metres diameter.

73,
Paul EI5DI
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