Topband: more on DXCC remotes

[Michael Adams]

Here's what I sent my director:

For whatever it’s worth, I’m generally OK with leaving DXCC as-is as regards to remote operating.  I don’t necessarily see remote operating as any more or less “troubling” as going to a neighbor’s/buddy’s big gun station to grab a new one, or traveling across  the country to have an easier shot at a desired continent, etc.

That being said, I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some kind of “DXCC classic” (or some such augmented title), where in addition to the usual DXCC rules, there were two additional criteria:

•	The station used to make a “DXCC classic”-eligible QSO must be designed primarily for the use of the applicant (exception: husband/wife or parent/live-at-home-children teams); and

•	All QSOs for a given award must have been made within a 250 mile circle, within a single DXCC entity

…and advance the “QSOs made after… are eligible” date to the present time

Those rules might need to be tweaked, but the intent is to not disallow remote operation (particularly for those hams who live away from their stations due to HOA restrictions, etc.), but instead foster individual amateurs’ efforts at better station design and engineering.  While I have no objections to operations like Remote Ham Radio, or those who may queue up at a big gun station from whence many different operators may seek to work a rare New One… I can empathize with those who might feel that such tactics are “cheating”.

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Michael Adams | N1EN | mda at n1en.org