I don't have a dog in this hunt, I haven't used RHR but reading some of the comments got me to thinking that things seem to progress on a logical plane; If you control your radio from your computer say with N1MM during a contest or use one of the SDR radios with software guiding the radio, are you not running your radio remotely?
If one wants to say it is OK to use N1MM or any other software to control your radio if it's inside your house then you are agreeing that distance from the rig itself is acceptable, the disagreement then is to define how much distance is too much. I'm sure there are many purists who feel using computers ruined contesting and surely there are those who feel computers ruined the essence of DXCC. Obviously achieving DXCC has changed as anyone doing so for years understands. When I made my first 100, all was done by coming on the DX on my own, some guys got calls from a phone tree but I had no tree I was part of. Then there came packet and Bulletin boards. Later Internet Relay Chatrooms & later came the internet with spotting networks. With today's radios, internet DSP and improved Rx technology, it's obviously far easier today to work DXCC than ever before. How many of us today wait for our tube receivers to warm up before listening? It's simply not the same and won't be the same again. So to me, I take the grumbling I'm hearing being more like sour grapes from those who paid a lot of sweat and failures to get the eventual successes they earned after years of hard work. The idea of other hams using available technology to do what they took years to do is offensive and to them, seen as cheapening the goal. Honestly, if you were a millionaire back when or today and wanted to build a shack and antenna farm to be better than 99.99% of the guys out there, you could do it all along. The rest of us couldn't do it and envied the big guns, got angry at them for dining at the DX table before the rest of us could go after the leftovers. It's always been "unfair" to the little guy, always will be, that's life. To me, if a signal comes from anywhere in the continental USA, it's a USA contact. If it comes from one island or the other in Hawaii, it's a KH6 contact. I personally don't care how the person makes the contact. As to DX calling from one country and pretending to be at their home QTH, there have always been fatuous liars and cheats, that too is human nature. Those people are to be pitied, they know what their illegal QSO is worth and what their illegal DXCC credit is worth, some people want letters associated with their name and they don't care how they get them. IMHO they should get called for that transgression, That's life too. MY DXCC chase is my joy, I don't gauge it by anyone else's expectations any more than they give a rats patoot about my opinion. My 2 cents. 73, Gary KA1J --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com _________________ Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
