[CQ-Contest] Self spotting

[Jim Brown]

Bob,

What matters are (1) who built the station and (2) the RF path between 
transmitter and receiver, which includes their antennas. The location of 
the transmitter and those antennas determines the location of the entry.

As I see it, someone builds their station and remotes it is in one 
class. Someone who rents a station or guests at a station someone else 
built is in a very different class. Ham radio is a technical hobby -- 
that is one part of a contest entry, operating is another part. BOTH 
matter. and I view both as of equal value.

As an example, my neighbor Bob Wolbert, K6XX, designed and built his 
station from the ground up -- he cleared the land, built the towers, 
rigged them, designed and built the control system, ran the hard line, 
etc. I place him a very different class with someone who rolls into a 
multi-op and sits down, or with someone who rents a station, whether 
on-site or remote.

Anyone with an open mind and brain knows that thanks to scoring rules 
devised almost a century ago, in almost any DX contest, a decent station 
in Maine is going to blow away a super-station in W6. THAT'S the problem 
we ought to be concerned about. Not the guy in a city buried in noise 
who remotes to a station where he can hear. Or builds his own station 
where he CAN hear and remotes it. Especially in the last case, his 
achievement is FAR greater than the appliance operator in W1/W2 who 
plugs in his radio to the antennas he bought.

73, Jim K9YC

On 3/15/2024 6:47 PM, kq2m at kq2m.com wrote:
> 
> Hi Paul,
> 
> Not to change the subject but, if "All required elements of a
> contact must be exchanged via amateur radio.", then how do contacts
> made via remote qualify?  Is the internet considered to be Amateur Radio?
> 
> It seems to me that contacts made via remote - which requires the use of 
> NON-Amateur Radio technology as a conduit for making those qso's - 
> should be in a separate category because those NON-Amateur Radio means 
> are essential to making those qso's.