[CQ-Contest] Remote Site Contesting Rules

[rmthorne at cox.net]

I'm a remote contester out of necessity.  

As far as I'm concerned I am following the current rule both in black and white and in the spirit of the rule.

My transmitters and receivers and antennas are all within a 500m(more like 30m in my case) diameter circle.  The only thing I have done is extend the microphone cable or cw keyboard via the internet.

Now, if I had two remotes in two totally different locations (and used them both during a contest),ie an east coast and west coast station, that would clearly be a violation of the rules.

Some one made an arugment last year that setting up a remote on  a mountain top was unfair to others.  My response was it was no different than one of the super stations who have the resources to build what they have.  You do what you can do with what you have.

That being said, remoters probably have a bit of dissadvantage in the first place.  We have latencey issues over the internet, we lose the internet in the middel of a run to Europe.  We lose control of a piece of equipment and have to drive to the remote to reset it etc, etc.  If I operated the exact same station in person, my score would be better as compared to operating the same station via remote.


Rich - N5ZC


---- Eric Hilding <dx35 at hilding.com> wrote: 
> (RE-Threaded from Packet debate)
> 
> Tree, N6TR, wrote:
> 
> > 3.7. All transmitters and receivers must be located within a 500-meter
> > diameter circle, excluding antennas.
> 
> In a discussion with a fellow NCCC member after our Annual Awards meeting last night, a mini-debate about "remote site" operations and "rules" necessitates a question with regard to this "500-meter diameter circle" stuff (a reference was made to Tree's Packet debate post content).
> 
> What about remote-site Contesting where all the "transmitters  and receivers" are located within the area as described, but the Contest op is sitting next to his home QTH fireplace on a snowy winter evening "operating" via a notebook computer in his rocking chair?  Umh, assumably there will be more "rocking chairs" in future use as Contesters continue to age :-)
> 
> If point-to-point gear is used for the home QTH to remote site connectivity, should these be construed as "transmitters and receivers" in the food chain, thus squelching any such Contest participation for Awards purposes???  Don't many forms of "landline" connections use some form of "transmitters and receivers" in places?
> 
> If there is no problem (on the surface), what may happen when others like myself now pursuing remote locations to mitigate pee-poor home QTH's invest tens of thousands of dollars (collectively, more like Millions) over the next 5 years,  only to get nuked by somebody's "new interpretation" of the rules that would ban such venues?
> 
> IMHO, the current rules **SHOULD*** be amended to clarify "All HF or UHF/VHF Amateur transmitters and receivers specifically used on the bands of operation involved in the Contest must be located within a 500-meter diameter circle, excluding antennas.", and remain cast-in-stone for perpetuity.
> 
> Personally, I think antennas deserve to be included in the entire 500-meter diameter circle mix.  
> 
> This is a real potential can of worms that needs to get ironed out now.
> 
> Inquiring minds would like to know (especially before writing out a bunch of checks).
> 
> Tnx & 73...
> 
> Rick, K6VVA
> 
> 
> 
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