Your SDR was effectively a "remote receiver" used by the DX station. Credit for contacts made utilizing remote receivers depends on the rules governing specific awards and contests. Here's the relevant rule governing DXCC credit:
9. All stations must be contacted from the same DXCC entity. The location of any station shall be defined as the location of the transmitter. For the purposes of this award, remote operating points must be located within the same DXCC entity as the transmitter and receiver. As you can see, this isn't completely clear. In the first part of the sentence, "remote operating points" is not defined. Does that include only the transmitter, as defined in the second sentence, or both the transmitter and receiver, as suggested by the second part of the third sentence? In fact, the second part of the third sentence appears to contradict the second sentence! My guess is that they want the transmitter and receiver to be located in the same DXCC entity, but this is not stated explicitly. Fortunately, the situation is much clearer for ARRL contests, and for most CQ contests: remote receivers are not allowed. Period. (Well, except for the Extreme category in CQ WW.) For ARRL, the definition of a remote receiver rests on General Rule 5.3, which states that all transmitters, receivers and antennas must be within a 500m circle. Since the 160m contact made by the DX station utilized a transmitter in his location and a remote receiver (your SDR and antenna) located more than 500m from the transmitter, it would not be eligible for credit in any ARRL contest and in most CQ contests and categories. However, note that the ARRL rules on remote receivers do not preclude the operator from being outside the circle. So, you can remotely operate a station that's anywhere else in the world. The location of the transmitter and receiver (which must be within the same 500m circle) defines where the station is located, not the op's location. So, if you operate a transmitter and receiver located within the same 500m circle in Ghana, and you are sitting comfortably in your easy chair in Brooklyn, NY, running the station over the Internet, the contact is perfectly legal for ARRL contests and counts as having been made from Ghana. Hope this clarifies the issue, at least a little. 73, Dick WC1M -----Original Message----- From: Robert McGwier [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 1:27 PM To: Tree Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: Topband: Web SDR's and 'Cheating' As a Software Radio Developer and chair of the ARRL Software Defined Radio and Digital Communications technical committee, as a DXCC recipient, contester, and as a ham radio operator period, I abhor this misuse of the technology. Boo Hiss indeed. Bob N4HY On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 9:17 AM, Tree <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 07:21:26PM -0800, Bob Kupps wrote: > > > What is the ethical position on this, it sure seems wrong to me > > What country are the people really "working" with their radio? > > There is not a two way exchange of information with someone in a > single country - therefore - no QSO. The DX station is making > these QSOs not count. If caught - they will not be accepted for > DXCC. > > Next step - put the transmitter there too and make it even easier!! > > Boo hiss!! > > Tree N6TR > _______________________________________________ > UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK > _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
