[UK-CONTEST] UK-CONTEST] Remote Control

[Roger Parsons]

I obviously cannot agree with you Paul, and it seems to me that you have shifted your ground somewhat. Earlier it seemed to be the evil internet that stopped remote stations being 'proper amateur radio'. Now that I have described one which does not involve any third party, it appears to be remoteness itself that is a problem.

Others have described some of the ways in which remote stations could be used to cheat in contests. That seems to me to be beside the point - there are lots of ways to cheat and all of them are exactly that.

My station is not a repeater, it is a normal station that happens to have its controls at my house and its radios and antennas at the remote site. And I could use paper logging with no computer at either end if I felt so inclined. It has no relationship to a broadcast situation - there is no studio - and there is a receiver at the same site as the transmitter. 

I fail to see the distinction between:

(a) A 'boy and his radio';
(b) A one site station with the Alpha 87 in the next room (remember I'm in Canada, but I can't afford one in any case);
(c) A modern mobile rig with the front panel remote from the rest of the radio;
(d) An operator in the house with the equipment down the garden in a shack - I know several UK stations are doing just that;
(e) An operator at one location with the equipment at another location - connected in any technically feasible manner.

I can't see the distinction because there is no true distinction.

73 Roger
VE3ZI/G3RBP