Topband: Rules vs. Ethics (was Brave New World)

[W0MU Mike Fatchett]

I am still waiting for a real case scenario where remote radio has 
harmed or damaged someone, somehow........

You are confusing ethical and moral.

There is nothing unethical either.  It is condoned by the ARRL.  It is 
not how it used to be done.  So what?  Everything evolves and changes.

Unethical is using more power than legally allowed.  Using multiple 
operators and claiming single op.  Using remote receivers, claiming to 
be operating from a country  you are not in, rubber clocking, using 
packet when you shouldn't and on and on and on.  We don't we get on the 
people that we know for fact use excessive power?  Wink wink.

Just because you or I believe something might be unethical or immoral 
does not make it so.

We don't have to like the changes.  Why don't we just say that and leave 
off all the bs associated with it?

The ARRL is in the business of selling awards.  This lets more people 
work toward their awards.  It does not affect your DXCC or award one way 
or another.

Mike W0MU
On 2/26/2015 2:45 PM, Larry Burke wrote:
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>> Except it is not an ABUSE of the rules.  People feel that it is an abuse
> but it is fully sanctioned by the ARRL.
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> Jim stated as much in the note to which you are replying.
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> What is in play here is the difference between laws/rules and ethics. Just
> because something is "legal" does not make it ethical.  Adultery is not a
> crime in 29 states of the United States or most of the industrialized world.
> Is it therefore ethical? Is it ethical to click between remotes on the east
> and west coast because DXCC rules permit it? Throwing their hands up, the
> League is leaving the answer to the last question up to the individual
> operator. Why, if such operations are so ethically pure would one commercial
> remote business advertise "completely anonymous operation"? The very nature
> of the wording suggests their service is the ham radio version of the
> No-Tell Motel.
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> With regards to the "how I got my award shouldn't matter to anyone else",
> I'd argue that the operator on the "other end" of an unethical contact can
> be affected. There's a fair chance that he is pursuing an award as well. An
> operator in EU pursuing WAS (or VUCC on 6m) may work a W7 who is using a
> remote -- commercial or otherwise -- and does not indicate the location of
> the actual transmitter. The EU op goes away thinking he worked Oregon. Lo
> and behold the LoTW match or paper card shows up and "confirms" he did.
> There are a couple of west coast stations who routinely use east coast
> remotes to work EU on 6m and use their home state and grid square in the
> exchange. A savvy op on the "other end" can often tell if the exchange is
> legit, but there are strange spotlight openings on that band, just as there
> are on Topband. These ethical lapses are not entirely victimless.
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> Larry K5RK
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