[CQ-Contest] Re; Use of remote receivers at "HQ" station in IARU contest

[Stephen Bloom]

Thanks, this definitely clears that up.  One thing that was confusing for me was … I did look at the contest rules on the ARRL Web Site, and while it stated that HQ stations could be at multiple sites, as long as they were in the same ITU Zone, I just didn’t see anything about antenna location.  I assumed therefore that it defaulted to the standard rules, which allow the use of remote, but state that all antennas need to be within x number of feet/meters of the station.  I agree, that under these rules, DA0HQ did a nice job.  I will say, I sure hope this remain a forever very rare exception to this rule.  Remoting is one thing, allowing in effect separate TX and RX locations changes things drastically (though it was a heck of a lot of fun when I was a Shore Station op), and we all know that there are already stations doing it.  

 

73

Steve KL7SB

 

 

 

From: David Siddall [mailto:hhamwv at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2018 3:10 PM
To: cq-contest <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Cc: Stephen Bloom <sbloom at acsalaska.net>; frenaye at pcnet.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Re; Use of remote receivers at "HQ" station in IARU contest

 

It is clear in the IARU rules that the geographic boundary for stations participating as HQ stations can be anywhere within their country so long as all are within the same ITU zone.  In the case of Germany, they certainly can use remote receivers or complete remote stations, so long as the remote locations are within Germany. (The ITU limitation does not apply to them.  It DOES apply to countries spanning multiple ITU zones, such as the USA and Canada.)

 

I congratulate DA0HQ for their technological innovation in one of the few contesting situations that allows this particular type of operation.  I have heard that one or more other HQ stations is doing the same or similar set-up.  The only other contest that I know that permits remotes is CQWW 160 (limited to SOA HP and single remote within 100 kilometers).

 

It also is correct that IARU HQ stations are not entrants in the contest itself.  WWROF, not ARRL, scores their logs as a service.  You can read more information about this in my contesting column in CQ Magazine, June, 2017 at pages 95-96 and continued in July, 2017 at pages 87-88.  Or, you could just read the IARU contest rules, they are clear enough about HQ station limits.

 

73, Dave K3ZJ

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Jul 17, 2018 at 3:05 AM, <sbloom at acsalaska.net <mailto:sbloom at acsalaska.net> > wrote:



Hi Tom et al:

I asked around about this before the WRTC closing ceremony tonight. The general consensus is, "There are no rules for the HQ stations." One of the reasons I assumed that there *were* rules is that this station (DA0HQ, no point in hiding the obvious), was *so* serious about multiplier hunting etc. (enough to have dedicated mult positions on each band). I took myself off the op list and left for a number of reasons, but the final one was the "rx antenna" instructions. I'd say bottom line, in this case it looks like it doesn't matter. The only thing I'd add on this particular station is, my sense is that the remote receivers are integrated with their normal rx antenna switching. It seems unlikely to me that it would be that way, only for this contest, but that is of course, speculation. Were I a log checker for one of the major contests and DF0HQ/DA0HQ were one of the leaders, I would be asking for audio.

73
Steve KL7SB


On Mon, 16 Jul 2018 12:02:36 -0400, Tom Frenaye  wrote:

Steve/KL7SB wrote:

I was wondering about the following situation ..
I was scheduled to operate at one of the HQ stations for this contest. In
this case, this particular station was doing 15 and 40M CW, with stations in
other parts of the country, doing 10, 80, and 160.  I didn't actually
operate, for reasons that don't matter at the moment.  What was
strange, to me, is that when they were giving the ops instructions, and
explaining the rx antenna switching, they explained that positions 1-4 (I
think) were Beverages, and that in addition they had remote receivers, and were
encouraged to use them if necessary.
I checked out the IARU contest rules, and don't see anything stated
specifically, but I know in general, contest rules require all antennas both rx
and tx to be in fairly close proximity to the actual transmitting
location. Any ideas?

My reading of the IARU rules and the supplemental ARRL General Rules for Contests suggests that remote receivers are not permitted, even for HQ stations. Traditionally, HQ stations have been treated separately and have special rules to allow multi-muli and stations in multiple QTHs within the same ITU zone.

They don't officially compete for score - the rules say they get participation certificates. But, the scores are collected and compared (I don't think it's part of the IARU/ARRL log checking process, yet a table of HQ scores is included in the results. The HQ competition is intense and at different times there have been serious issues with some groups finding ways to bend/break the rules in order to finish at or near the top.

I think it's a "bad thing" if one or more of them was actively using remote receivers and hope the associated HQ scores will not be included in the final table.

-- Tom

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