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Re: Topband: DXCC Fairness

To: jim@audiosystemsgroup.com
Subject: Re: Topband: DXCC Fairness
From: Herb Schoenbohm <herbs@vitelcom.net>
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:07:04 -0400
List-post: <topband@contesting.com">mailto:topband@contesting.com>
On 9/19/2012 1:17 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
Talk about DXCC fairness -- it's FAR easier to work DXCC with a modest station anywhere around the Atlantic, or within 1000 km of it, than it is from the Pacific. I've got a very nice antenna farm and have taken the time to become a competitive contester, but I am almost never able to work DXCC in a weekend contest, all bands combined. But guys on the east coast consider it trivially easy. The difference is especially striking on Topband -- there are often openings from EU to eastern NA, whereas we might HEAR a dozen signals a YEAR out here in California. It took me four years to work 100 countries on 160, and two years later I'm at 125. I haven't heard EU for two years.

73, Jim K9YC
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UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
Jim,

Hold on as help is on the way. With the new remote control interfaces like Remote Rig and Icom's RS-BAS1 there is no need to be in a bad location as long as you have a good internet connection. Some contests are changing the rules by including the "Extreme Category" which permits such operation. The DXCC rules once required you to start over when you cross state line or call zone boundaries. Now you can be anywhere in the U.S. and the credits keep piling up. I don't think the ARRL, based on their pedantic history, will be fast to jump on allowing remote stations (inside the same country) for DXCC purposes, but it will happen eventually. More and more of their members are hopelessly trapped in gate communities, condominiums, and urban settings were participation in their hobby is just not very satisfying. The ARRL must be flexible if it wants to serve its membership. I know there are some on this list who will flame me for the suggestion and some who look down their noses to people with bad locations and limited lot sizes. But i would like to share the thrill to someone on the West Coast to have hundreds of Europeans calling during a good contest opening just asmuch as I would like to hear what JA's sound like that I never can hear from my location. I am certain that all of this old way will change with new technology devoted to remote control via internet now that some of the bugs are out of the process.

Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ
_______________________________________________
UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK

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