[CQ-Contest] When is a QSO not a QSO?

[Ken Alexander]

--- Paul O'Kane <pokane at ei5di.com> wrote:

> Paul is right. Amateur radio, and contesting in
> particular,
> is a point-to-point (single-point to single-point),
> person-
> to-person, solely-RF-based technology.

To continue with my previous example.  Working me in
KH6 ia all about RF-based point-to-point technology. 
It couldn't take place without it.

> Any deviation from this, regardless of how much fun
> or
> how convenient or how technically advanced it may
> be,
> serves only to dilute the achievement of completing
> the
> QSO.  Repeater QSOs are an example of "dilution".

That's pretty harsh!  Please note that my operating a
KH6 station from VE3 does nothing to improve
propagation from your QTH to KH6.  It'll be just as
tough as it always is and the achievement won't have
been diminished.

As far as repeater operation diluting the achievement
of completing a QSO; whaddya say we check with the
thousands of hams that use repeaters every day to see
if they feel their ham radio experience is being
cheapened by using repeaters?  Isn't effective
communication the objective here?  Not every QSO has
to be a weak signal DX achievement.

> > --- "Ken Alexander" <k.alexander at rogers.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > Sorry, no sale Paul.  If I had a ham friend in KH6
> who
> > let me operate his station remotely . . . At the
> end of
> > the contest, if you'd worked me you would have
> worked KH6,
> > not VE3.
> 
> Ken is right in that Paul would have worked KH6. 
> But,
> ultimately, he is wrong because it's not a valid
> amateur
> radio QSO - it's a step towards EchoLink or Skype. 

Is it actually written somewhere that it would not be
a valid amateur radio QSO, or are you just writing
your opinions into the rulebook as we go along?  Why
does the use of a 5000 mile microphone extension cord
invalidate a QSO when the ham working me has gone to
all the trouble I mentioned previously to work a KH6
station?

I'm not using it to trick someone into thinking I'm
something I'm not.  I'm using it to be someplace I
couldn't otherwise be, for any number of reasons.  I
ID using the KH6's callsign as a guest operator might,
or as VE3HLS/KH6 just as if I was physically there and
using his equipment.

Is it really harmful to amateur radio if the only
thing missing is that I'm not there sitting in the
operator's chair?  I can't see it.  I see nothing but
benefits.

> There's a fundamental issue here - at what stage
> does a
> "QSO" become something else?  I suggest, for
> contesting
> purposes, it's when the operator(s), and all
> equipment
> and antennas, are not physically located within a
> circle
> of 500 metres diameter.

When is a QSO not a QSO?  In contesting, it's when
it's a busted QSO, when one or both of the parties
didn't record the exchange information correctly.  And
if someone works a KH6 in a contest and hears my voice
then they worked a KH6.  They didn't have to turn
their antennas towards Ontario.  They didn't have to
wait for the band to open to Ontario.  They had to put
out the effort in order to swap RF with a KH6 long
enough to say they worked them.  It's as simple as
that.

73,

Ken Alexander
VE3HLS