[CQ-Contest] Remote op & Who is this guy, really?

[Stan Stockton]

Drew,

That was a great post!

I'm sure that if a survey were conducted using a huge population of hams there would be a very direct correlation between age/year of first license to how strong their opinion is on this matter.

I have operated remote in a couple of contests.  It was a lot of fun but there was something missing.  I did not build any of the antennas or put up any of the towers and have never even seen the station in person.

I'm pretty sure everyone would agree there would be something missing if you walked with cell phone in hand to your next door neighbor who could log on to his remote station, dropped by parachute on Bouvet, to ask him to fire it up because you thought there was propagation between your subscription service remote site to Bouvet on 160m.  The QSO from your neighbor's living room just wouldn't be the same as what most of us consider the real deal.

73... Stan, K5GO (check 67)

Sent from Stan's IPhone



> On Nov 4, 2015, at 10:02 AM, Drew Vonada-Smith <drew at whisperingwoods.org> wrote:
> 
> Friends,
> 
>  
> I had to take this opportunity after the comment about the end of rare sections...
> 
>  
> I think all this remote work, trying to help J. etc is interesting and wonderful and I really don't mean to be negative.  But...what is the point of a "rare section" if you don't have to be there to operate?  Doesn't this in many ways, miss the point of a multiplier?  
> 
>  
> As an analogous example, what if a DXpedition were to put up an automated station in Bouvet, and operate it from home?  Bouvet becomes common.  What have we really achieved?  HF propagation to Bouvet was never really the point, was it?
> 
>  
> I'm not a Luddite, I get the interest, good intentions, and technical achievement in all this.  It sounds fun!  But as a test to see if I was just narrow-minded or a fuddy-duddy, I ran this remote idea past a few non-hams who know just enough about contesting to understand.  The comments I received were:
> 
>  
> - That's bogus
> 
> - That's cheating
> 
> - You guys have lost your way
> 
>  
> Can't say I disagree.  Food for thought.  Not to stop such operations, progress will always move forward, but to try and recognize what it all means and establish limits.
> 
>  
> 73,
> 
> Drew K3PA
>  
> -----Original message-----
> From:Art Boyars <artboyars at gmail.com>
> Sent:Wed 11-04-2015 09:21 am
> Subject:[CQ-Contest] Who is this guy, really?
> To:CQ-Contest Reflector <cq-contest at contesting.com>;
> 
> W1VE said:  "Thanks to a lot of work from J and the remote team, Hal, W1NN,
> will operate [VY1AAA] SOHP in November SS via remote from his home in Ohio."
> 
> OK, so "Hal, W1NN" will operate a NT station from his home in Ohio.
> 
> But for the past many contests "Hal" has purportedly operated "W1NN" in
> Ohio ... remotely from Japan.  (You could look it up.)
> 
> Can we believe that "Hal" is really where he says he is, or that the
> station is where it claims to be, or even who he says he is?
> 
> (In case I'm too subtle, that was a joke.)
> 
> And Gerry will be (actually, physically) at K2LE in VT.  Could that be
> competition for W1SJ?
> 
> Are we about to see the end of rare Sections in SS?  (Not a joke.)
> 
> 73, Art K3KU
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