First off, several people have questioned the advantage of "spotting" on
VHF. I have to agree, it really doesn't matter. Even if you call
someone on the phone and tell them to work you on 432.105 or what ever,
you STILL HAVE TO MAKE THE CONTACT! If the distance is short, you
probably would have run across each other anyway. If it is a truly long
haul contact such as FN42 to FM08 on 1296 (350-400 miles) you will still
have to complete with each other. Think of how much fun it would be to
make such a contact even if you were alerted by packet cluster or phone
call. On VHF the contact means everything!
Secondly, now open your minds up a bit here and forget all of this whose
cheating and what if situations and who has an extra advantage. Why
shouldn't we embrace new technologies and help to advance the state of
the art by using them? Every ham has access to such things as APRS,
Packet Cluster, Email, etc. Even a rover out in the boonies has access
to these things if he wants. So why not allow it for every class of
entry? It's really not unfair to anyone. If you don't use these
things, that's your choice but it is available to you. In fact I feel
it is more unfair to allow Multi-op stations to use APRS and restrict
the other classes.
Since these forms of making contacts are not allowed, I do not run APRS
on my rover. What do I care if a Multi-op knows where I am anyway?
They get so many contacts by brute force that it means very little to
them. If I want to work them, all I have to do is call them on their
run frequency.
73 and good VHF DX to all,
Jim K3LFO
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