[CQ-Contest] RULES CLARIFICATION FOR UNIQUE REMOTE CONTESTING OPERATIONS

[Eric Hilding]

Dear Contest Sponsors & Managers:

I would greatly appreciate an "Offical Ruling" in this specific matter (below), and permission to publish the Decision(s) to the CQ-Contest & NCCC Reflectors.

Part of the objective of advocating more Remote and SO2R REMOTE Contesting is to yield more QSOs for everyone participating in the events.  And, to enable more "Little Pistol Contest Stations" to put out more competitive signals.  As we go into a new Sunspot Cycle, the QRP ops *could* set up inexpensive remote stations with battery or cheap solar power and get their antennas somewhere decent.  The issue of the TS-480 Control Head needs resolving with concrete clarity now.

Please reply ONLY to: p5 at k6vva.com (in order to bypass my heavy filtering).

Tnx very much & 73...

Rick, K6VVA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Eric Hilding 
To: cq-contest at contesting.com 
Cc: nccc at contesting.com ; w4tv at subich.com 
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 6:28 PM
Subject: RE: [CQ-Contest] SO2R REMOTE CONTESTING


Joe, W4TV, posted a very interesting quite salient "little legal" question:

> When one starts to split the transceiver (one part at the
> remote site another part at the control point) as is being
> proposed with the TS-480 control heads how does that impact
> the rules that all transmitters, receivers and antennas must
> be located within the 500 foot circle?

Some remote control software options I've evaluated reside on the HOST (remote station QTH), and some on the CLIENT (operator point QTH) end. 

I would say the Control Head is similar to a piece of remote control software (except that it has buttons and knobs on it :-)  The main (rig body) transmitter/receiver unit itself would be still within the overall "remote" station boundaries which I think is a 500 meter vs. 500 foot circle, and can actually be operated remotely *without* the Control Head in the food chain at all (and is not essential to "transmitting/receiving" if one chooses to use software control).  In fact, the return audio from the remote site will come via the computer and NOT the Control Head if the latter is used on the CLIENT end.

However, "in an abundance of caution" I personally want to get a firm, iron-clad answer to this from the Contest Sponsors.

Tnx for posting, Joe.

73...

Rick, K6VVA

P.S.  I can hardly wait to hear what Paul, VO1HE, will have to say about this (as you know, Paul, I have discovered via our recent emails, that you do have a sense of "humour" :-)