I strongly disagree. I'm lucky enough to have my own station -- I own a
large plot of land and have built a nice antenna farm, so I'm happy
operating from home. But MANY hams do NOT have that luxury -- they live
on small plots of land, or in housing developments where, by conditions
of their purchase or rental of the property, are NOT PERMITTED to have
any antennas. And there are MANY hams who are surrounded by neighbors
with multiple noise sources that make it difficult to hear all but the
strongest signals on a band.
If you are one of those MANY hams who cannot build even a modest antenna
system, the only thing available to you is remote operation.
Moreover, you clearly misunderstand remote operation. Communication IS
via radio. The internet is no different from a telephone link to a
remote site, or a radio link to a remote site. Several years ago, K3NA,
W3DQ, and I visited an old "ship to shore" HF and MF station north of
San Francisco. There are two sites about 20 miles apart, one for TX and
one for RX, each equipped with multiple rhombics. The two sites are
linked by a dedicated landline that carries multiple CW channels as
audio tones of different frequencies, one for each transmitter. That
station dates back to 1913 -- see this link for a description of the
station.
http://www.ptreyes.org/activities/marconi-rca-wireless-stations
If that station were built today, it would likely use UHF or VHF radio
or the internet to link the two sites. But that would not make it an
internet system, or a UHF system, or a telephone system. It's STILL an
MF and HF radio system.
Yet another example. W7RH, who lives in Las Vegas, built his station
about ten years ago at a remote site in the Arizona desert, which he
mostly operates remotely from home. During contests, he operates from
the site to provide greater operating flexibility. http://w7rh.net/
Building a remote station is no small engineering feat -- it's a LOT
more complex than opening a box, pulling out a radio that you've bought,
and hooking it up to an antenna. Remote control is a complex engineering
problem, and the guys who have built good remote stations have my respect!
Someday, old age or bad health may force us to give up this lovely home
in the mountains, but I hope that I can continue to operate some station
remotely. And when I do, I will consider it "real" ham radio.
73, Jim K9YC
On Sat,9/10/2016 6:47 AM, Paul O'Kane wrote:
If ever there was a group of operators who should be
classified separately, it is remote operators.
Why? Because the facts are that -
1. Those operators are at all times communicating over the
internet.
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