Topband: WAR !

[Paul Christensen]

>What I do not understand on all this is.  If the station is running on
itself UN-attended.  Is that just not even legal. Never mind ethical?

Fully automated does not always mean unattended.  In the rare instances I am
on FT8 and it's automated through Quick Macros, I may be parked on the side
of a road or sitting in a nearby restaurant as I check the number of
stations worked with WSJT-X.  By using a VNC app on my iPhone, the legal
control point goes with me wherever I go, whether it's in the shack, the
kitchen, or a thousand miles away.  

It's important to always have the ability to kill the transmitter.  Part of
that ability is automatic in WSJT-X.  If there are too many unanswered TX
cycles (e.g., unanswered CQs), transmission stops until re-enabled via the
iPhone.  A Digital Loggers Ethernet power controller resides in the shack.
Power can be killed to any shack device from the iPhone.  

Of course, the control point is lost if there's ever a loss of Internet
connectivity.  If I was more interested in FT8, that problem would be solved
through periodic polling.  Loss of 'x' number of pings in a set time period
would kill the transmissions.  

Paul, W9AC