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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