Friends
After more than a year spent in
making it work, I’ve been using my remote station since last September
with huge
success. For me it’s a natural solution, living in an apartment at the
side of a
huge granite mountain that blocks half of the globe. I never thought of it as
an excuse, like it was mentioned here, but a
great solution.
My station is in my beach
house, about 100km (80mi) away from home. There I have my Steppir and dipoles.
Much has been said that ham
radio has evolved into appliance operators. Well, in this time I´ve been
fiddling
with my station I’ve built kits, came to know my equipment really well,
optimized
my station. I learned the importance of sound construction and reliability.
It’s
been a long time since I´ve had so much fun.
Propagation wise, my stations
lies in the same area of my operating point, and I am OK with that. Maybe I
wouldn’t feel confortable if it was too distant, maybe even in a
different time
zone, but I can’t judge that. However, some of the positions in this
reflector
really surprise me.
Yes, for better or worse, ham
radio has evolved a lot in the last decades. The ozone smell of smarks don't
exist
anymore, the glow of tubes are gone, Dxing has became a point and shoot game
based on
clusters, skimmers are scanning the bands to feed spots. Just look at recent
spots
confusing PJ4C and HK0NA to realize how many code illiterate are on the CW
segments.
Remote stations are a part of the change, and for me, a welcome one.
I respect all opinions, but I
sincerely don’t care if one is for or against it. It works for me, I am
very OK
with it, and – trying to go back to the list purpose– I look
forward to
having my K3/0 so I can replace the TS-480 that sits there with my wonderful
K3.
But maybe this discussion has driftet too
off-topic.
73,
Marcelo, PY1KN
> I think we can safely say that operating a remote mountaintop station > from
> the comfort of one's retirement home is nothing but a pipe dream >
for most of us. The extent of my own remote operations is likely to be > from
the far flung regions of my house. I'd be willing to pay about > 150 bux for
this added capability which, I guess, means it is bound to > remain a remote
possibility. > > 73, > Drew > AF2Z > > On Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:30:24 -0800, you
wrote: > >>On
1/16/2012 9:38 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV wrote: >>> This hobby really needs
fewer intolerant and narrow minded old men ... >> >>I've missed
this thread, which has obviously gone on for quite a while. >>But I SURE DO
AGREE with this statement, except that I would change one >>word -- This
WORLD really needs . . . . >> >>I've operated from a Chicago
city lot with wires and an S7 noise level, >>from a couple of west coast
super stations, from a damn nice station in >>PJ4, and from my own station
in Nor California that is getting to be >>pretty nice. I've run QRP in
contests, and I've run legal power. In >>every situation I've had fun, but
I've had the most fun in the stations >>I've built myself (with considerable
help from friends). For a short >>time I had a lease on a mountain-top QTH
that I hoped to develop, >>perhaps even remotely operated, but the realities
of cost set in, and I >>gave up the lease. From experience, I can say that
operating from a >>mountaintop can be good for another 10dB or more on the
HF bands, and >>the noise levels are often quite low too. >> >>With all of this
experience, I would be the LAST to begrudge a guy who >>lives in the city, or
in a small place where antennas are limited and/or >>the nose is high, the
opportunity to compete with a remote station he >>has built himself -- indeed,
I would applaud him for it! Anyone who >>thinks it's easy should talk to some
who has done it -- like K6VVA, a >>serious contester and expeditioner who has
been working on developing >>his for nearly three years now. Remote control of
a rig is a tiny >>fraction of the problem, although in a remote site you may
also have to >>build the communications link (K6VVA did). There's also the
matter of >>building a shack, building a power system, building an antenna farm
(and >>it's seriously WINDY on mountain tops), building a switching system and
>>a control system for it, even building a road to get to it and buying >>snow
vehicles to get to it during contest season. >> >>As
to cheating -- I include in that category a guy who starts working >>DXCC at a
QTH on one coast, then moves 2,000 - 3,000 miles (CO and NC, >>or CA and NY),
still within the US, and counts the QSOs he has made from >>both locations for
ANY award, including DXCC. or operates at a QTH >>across the country to make a
QSO that he adds to his award totals. >>Anyone who has operated from locations
2,000 miles apart KNOWS in his >>heart he's cheating, even if the stupid ARRL
DXCC rules say it's OK. I >>didn't start over when I moved from WV to OH to IL,
because the >>distances were short enough that it didn't change the difficulty
of >>working any given country, but I DID when I moved to CA. >> >>Like the man
said -- it's between you and your conscience. And mine is >>clean. >> >>73, Jim
K9YC >>______________________________________________________________ > >
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