[CQ-Contest] Cheating with Technology

[Paul O'Kane]

Hal Offutt asked

>> Why does it matter where the operator is?

Joe Subich, W4TV answered

> The operator is an integral part of the station and without the 
> operator ... there is no contact.  

I'm with Joe on this one.

Why not compare a telephone call to a QSO.

Everyone accepts that a telephone call is a person-to-person
event.  In the same way, a QSO is person-to-person event,
with amateur-band RF as the medium.  I maintain that QSOs
are diminished to the extent that the path between the
operators is anything other than RF.

For practical purposes, there has to be a "wired" path at
each end of a QSO - from the antenna to the operator.
It seems to me that the current 500-metre "standard" for
contesting hardware is big enough to include operators.

73,
Paul EI5DI