Shouldn't this topic be dealt with at a generic level rather than CQ WW 160?
The remote receiver is as valuable on 80 or 40 as it is on 160 in a contest.
I agree wholeheartedly with the feeling that the use of a remote receiver
should not be allowed in ANY contest in the unassisted category, let alone
the 160 Contest. So why just deal with it here?
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. If you are a "technology should expand the experience" believer - then
you take the good with the bad in my opinion. Let 'em do it all in the
unassisted category and make that "arms race" the interconnectivity race.
The unassisted category can continue in the hardware and on-site innovation
arms race. Both competing amongst themselves and both benefitting from a
combined "event" on competition day.
Its similar to Golf (with different tees and "gentlemen's rules - vs PGA
rules played at the same time) or a road race with elite runners carefully
controlled vs the rest of the crowd. The event is bigger and sustainable
with the 2 groups and it doesn't matter what the other group is doing as
long as your group is all you are competing against.
Finally, in talking to a few of the contest directors, a lot of their
interest in "relaxing the rules" to allow things like assisted and remote
receiving stems from the feeling that the contest organizers are required to
enforce all of their rules. And of course - how can a contest organizer
enforce the use of where you are listening. Virtually impossible. Maybe it
is time for the competitive sect of the radiosport community to relieve the
contest sponsors of that burden. We can set up our own methods of
enforcement and monitoring to make the competition as fair as it can be.
Thoughts?
Ed N1UR
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