For those who have not yet seen how the future of 160m band
harvesting - not DX'ing - will be done, check this video out
<http://ae5x.blogspot.se/2018/01/video-fully-automated-ft8-qsos.html>http://ae5x.blogspot.se/2018/01/video-fully-automated-ft8-qsos.html
Apparently SV5DKL made 13.000 QSO's on the bands in a few months,
totally without operator intervention. I bet many hams were happy to
put SV5 as a new DXCC in their log, Isn't it wonderful that his
computer was so helpful with that while the operator was busy with
other things.
As for the legal aspects of unattended operation of a ham radio
station - who will be able to tell if the operator is there or not as
it is fully automatic anyway..
In the near future - if we embrace this way of operating - for
Wednesday activity nights on 160m we just let our computer do the
work and check in the morning how many contacts that were made and
how many that are already credited via LotW. Simple as that.
In contrast to this digital automation it was very interesting to
read Jeff K1ZM's report from the Spratly expedition on how the
experienced and highly skilled crew put in a BIG effort to make real
radio contacts. Way to go! And I am glad that they did not leave an
FT8 robot station behind, neatly tucked away in a corner of the
conference room.. :-)
I do not want to take part in this modern Internet driven computer
game. If people would disconnect their FT8 computers from the report
services on the net there would be a lot less amazing contacts in the
noise as the "a priori" advantage is lost. Then it would be more
apparent what the radio channel is actually providing for them.
I think that the statement from Ken K4ZW in his recent posting is
very appropriate:
"For those who think guys like me are dinosaurs, I would kindly
suggest you don't understand what motives us. 73 Ken K4ZW"
We can't change/stop this new lazy way of automatic band harvesting.
Many will even make huge amounts of money on the new way of operating.
But we can still do it the old fashion way, as it pleases us to make
radio contacts. Therefore I will continue to populate the 160m band
with my CW signal until there are no more stations to work.
73
Peter SM2CEW
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