Topband: Use of Remote Receivers During 160 Meter Contests

[W0MU Mike Fatchett]

We actually have three camps the two you describe below and the camp 
that will use all those things and then claim a class they are not 
really in.  We all know that lots and lots of people use packet and 
claim unassisted.  How many were exposed and DQed or even admonished?  
Very very few.

Maybe one of the question should be why does the ARRL not allow single 
band assisted entries or allow the use of packet for Single Op single 
band entries.  The CQ RTTY allows the use of packet for all entries.  Is 
CQ more forward thinking knowing that you really have a hard time 
catching the cheaters so just open it up?

The issue we face along with Canada and other very large countries is 
that there are huge advantages to being on one side or the other.  
Having a remote receiver in Maine would be huge for use in Colorado.   
The east coast would love one in the Pacific NW for pacific and asia.

If this discussion were centered around smaller countries such as 
Germany or France I might be inclined to say sure anything you build and 
use as long as it stays inside the country is ok.

Once again we get down to can we detect it?  Can we stop it and how much 
is it being used.  If you can't detect it and can't stop it then you 
almost have to allow it because you are putting people at a disadvantage.

The only fair contest we have is WRTC where we have a judge that 
monitors everything.  Cameras in the shack would not even fix this issue.


Mike W0MU

To me, radiosport contesting is segregating into 2 camps. There is no 
reason those camps cannot co-exist to everyone's mutual benefit. There 
is the "maximize my score/fun potentially the easiest and fastest way 
possible - but regardless do everything available" camp and there is the 
"incremental technical improvement of an established standard - so that 
a baseline comparison can always be made" camp. We have generally 
defined the last one to be SO Unassisted and the first one to be 
essentially all the other categories - single op or multi op. 
Personally, I think that the assisted crowd needs to realize that it's a 
slippery slope. So once you coordinate the radio with the internet, it 
becomes petty to start slicing the onion finely and say that finding all 
my mults through RBN and DX Summit is okay but someone listening 
remotely is not.