[CQ-Contest] Remote Operations

[Gerry Hull]

Ed,

You hit all the touchstones.   The amateurs doing remote are ahead of the
licensing authorities.
Some administrations are advanced in this area, others simply do not care.
  I would not go willy-nilly
and remotely operate a station without at least researching the issue a bit.

Two examples:  During WRTC this year, from the HQ hotel in Boston, I
operated two remotes  -- in Sweden and in Brazil.
In Sweden, if turns out the licensing authority does not mind remote
operation.  However, I approached
the national association, and got a letter stating that there was no issue
with operating a remote
station from outside of Sweden.

Brazil was a different story ...  It seems that remote operation on VHF has
proceeded us by quite a few years.
You can activate repeaters all over the world using Echolink and similar
systems... In the same way, you are
putting RF on the air.  Well, the licensing authority in Brazil had a
memorandum of understanding regarding
Echolink and similar systems.   HF operation was covered.

CEPT, as you point out, is a slippery slope -- as it was intended for
operators located in country.

My suggestion -- if you are going to attempt remote operation in another
country -- is to do the legwork before hand.

A final option is to be a virtual operator in a Multi-op -- no big issues
there.

73,  Gerry W1VE




On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 6:09 AM, Ed Sawyer <sawyered at earthlink.net> wrote:

> As long as the radio portion abides by the critical rules of all TX and RX
> being in the same location, I think remote controlled contest stations are
> great for the hobby allowing more interested people to join in the contest.
> I also think that the licensing issues as people do so cross country
> boundaries are not as simple as they currently would appear and that as
> this
> method gains popularity, some details not conceived by national regulators
> may be added that stop or ristrict the practice.  Things like CEPT come to
> mind which assumed the amateur was IN the country and operating not dialing
> up a remote station and using it from their homeland.  Also the lack of a
> physical control operator isn't clear.  But those things will catch up over
> time and get clarified globally I am sure.
>
>
>
> Ed  N1UR
>
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