Yes, as I mentioned before, I would love to see a "Computer op,
unassisted," category. This is a significant technical challenge
worthy of reward. Remember the guy who offered some large cash award
for the first human powered flight across the English channel? I'd
love to see someone offer such an incentive to the first completely
automated amateur station capable of making 200 CW QSOs in the NA
Sprint. Don't know if that would count as "pecuniary interest."
Any legal opinions out there?
At present, N6TR is the only person I know who has tried this. Anyone
else?
Now, let's not over-regulate this category until there are entrants to
regulate. Freedom is the necessity of invention, to twist a phrase.
There is an Artificial Intelligence competition (The Turing Prize?)
where the judges type on computer terminals and try to guess whether
it is a computer, or a real human, talking back. First computer to
fool a majority of the judges wins. Why not apply the same criteria
to a computer op? Special "robot" designators would eliminate this
interesting "double blind" aspect, and computer-phobes would probably
avoid such stations like the plague, or worse. A computer-op
shouldn't require special designation, unless the FCC requires it.
73,
Bob, N6TV
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