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

Thu Nov 5 19:53:41 EST 2015

In October I took an exploratory trip to the most northeastern coastal
portion of Maine to evaluate a contest station project there. The station
would be able to be operatedon-site or remotely. I would probably operate
on-site during good travel weather and remotely during winter weather when
travel isn't as safe or timely.

Based on my exploratory trip: I can assure those that question how
difficult it is to build, maintain, and operate a remote station that it
is much, much harder than doing the same thing in your own yard. In these
remote areas services are not easily available.  The closest Lowes was a
2-3 hour drive.  The closest hospital was a 2 hour drive. The closest
crane was 5 hours away. No stores are open 24 hours. The power flickered
from time to time. I never saw a UPS or FedEx truck my entire time there.
If something breaks I would have to drive 15 hours one way to fix it. Oh,
and the weather wasn't the most hospitable. Fortunately, the people there
were super-nice and seemed entertained by the eccentric looking professor
guy toting around a radio connected by a black wire to an aluminum stick.

Since I have moved from house to house 3 times in the past 10 years, and
will probably downsize when my kiddos go to college I see significant
financial value to having my antenna system on a parcel I do not live
onŠmoving antennas costs a lot. And the propagation in Maine is much
better to EU than the region where I live. I am attracted to the
technological challenges of remote contesting. Overcoming them will be
very rewarding!

Spark gap ops complained about cw guys. AM ops complained about SSB
people. Old RTTY machine ops complained about digital dudes. And so on an
so forth.

It may be sensible for remote operations to have their own entry
categories.  Still, my guess is that the remote-op scores will be
consistently lower than on-site ops.  Much like assisted scores are
typically lower than non-assisted. Of course each op chooses their
category so they have the most fun.  The more people on the air the better.

I also believe that we have a much better chance of getting younger people
involved if remote operation is available. The GUI be more video-game like
for them, which is what we need if contesting (and Dxing) are to continue.
If you have not watched kids play MineCraft you may not understand why.

Technology is constantly evolving.  And that's half the fun of our
wonderful hobby.

73, Scott W3TX

On 11/5/15 3:20 PM, "W0MU" <w0mu at w0mu.com> wrote:

>Please feel free to put a remote station in Bovet or any other rare DX
>and see how that works out for you.  I don't think you have a clue how
>much work needs to go into your pie in the sky example.
>
>Whether a section is rare or not has no relevant meaning.  The rules
>allow this.  Rare is subjective.  What is rare for you may not be rare
>to me or the next guy.  So you would rather VY1 not be on the air at all?
>
>So you would be ok with me running a remote station in the very unrare
>section of Colorado?  Sounds Hypocritical to me.
>
>You do realize that remote operations are allowing people to operate,
>legally and fully within the rules who might not otherwise be able to?
>You are ok with this?  So you would rather have less people operating in
>a contest.  Curious.
>
>What is bogus?  Who said it?  You realize that the vast majority of
>people are for remote operations, which is why the rules allow it. It is
>only a few that tend to complain constantly about it.
>
>The hobby has changed dramatically since the early 1900's.  I would
>guess those amateurs might not recognize what Amateur radio is today vs
>what it was back then.
>
>What limits?  The FCC allows this and so do the rules.  Exactly what is
>wrong here?  Someone is operating a radio station in a far off place
>from his living room.  This is pretty damn cool and something that
>actually could be "sold".
>
>W0MU
>
>
>On 11/4/2015 9:02 AM, Drew Vonada-Smith 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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