Topband: Brave New World

[m.r.]

It is mis leading to say there was no one in the shack implying that the station made the 
contacts without supervision.  Each position was properly and legally remotely controlled. 
The station was properly identified by each control operator. The control operators did 
NOT claim they were transmitting from anywhere but the K4VV station location.

Remote control does NOT suddenly make the station different.  Its transmitter, receiver 
and antennas are all the same.  The stations transmitters were all correctly identifying 
the station.

It simply does NOT MATTER where the person is sitting. The remotely controlled station 
actually has some small dis advantages over a locally controlled station.  There is an 
additional layer of complexity, and there is propagation delay through the network 
(Internet) that delivers the control commands & the data being transmitted.  There also is 
the dis advantage from the lack of "spatial orientation" an on site operator has.

Controversy over remote control is silly.  MIS USE of remote control is MIS USE, and is 
the fault of the person mis using the capability.  It is NOT the fault of remote control. 
It is the same kind of issue as the 15 KW amplifier in the basement that is "hidden" from 
the station operating area.

The mis use issue is showing up because it is now easier for someone to deliberately mis 
use the capability.  Before remote control was commonly available, someone wanting to make 
use of a station in a different country had to either fly there, and illegally use his own 
call in a foreign country, or, simply persuade someone at the station to make the contact 
using his callsign, and not that of the station and country.  Both acts are illegal and 
improper, and have absolutely nothing to do with the station itself, and how it is 
controlled.

Blame MIS USE - or call it illegal use - of a stations capability.  It REQUIRES the 
deliberate act of an operator. The STATION does not perform the illegal act, the operator 
does.  There are many examples of illegal use of a station by a person sitting at the 
station.  Those same acts carried out by remote control are no more and no less illegal. 
(bad English usage, but the point remains)

Robin Critchell
WA6CDR




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Blaschke, w5un" <w5un at wt.net>
To: "Eddy Swynar" <deswynar at xplornet.ca>; <topband at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 13:13
Subject: Re: Topband: Brave New World


This is just the beginning!

Dave, W5UN

On 2/25/2015 9:05 PM, Eddy Swynar wrote:
> Hi Guys,
>
> I am really & truly surprised that nobody here has raised so much as even an eyebrow at 
> this story:
>
> http://www.arrl.org/news/no-one-in-the-shack-as-station-logs-4200-contacts-in-arrl-dx-cw-contest
>
> The whole notion---to me, at any rate---compromises the very essence & the "...joie de 
> vivre!" of operating on 160-meters, don't you think...? And to imagine that one of the 
> "perpetrators" in all this is actually exuberant about his accomplishment...
>
> “...'No one was in the K4VV shack for the entire contest!' said Mike L*, W0**, who took 
> part in the contest via K4** from his own shack in Virginia..."
>
> This too is "progress"...? Oh well, I guess maybe it is. Time marches on, things evolve, 
> things "de-evolve," & nothing stays quite the same.
>
> ~73~ de Eddy VE3CUI - VE3XZ
> _________________
> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
>

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