[South Florida DX Association] EMERGING HAM RADIO TECHNOLOGY:

[Bill Marx]

>From "Ham-News"

EMERGING HAM RADIO TECHNOLOGY:  CANADA SAYS DXAC TO LOOK AT REMOTE DXCC

According to a release from Radio Amateurs of Canada, the ARRL's DX 
Advisory Committee is currently dealing with questions concerning 
remotely operated stations.  These are operations where the a 
transmitter and receiver may be at a location other than the actual 
station operator.  Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, has more:

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With Local remotely controllable ham stations using systems like 
Kenwood's Sky Command or home built, a ham station can be one place in 
town with the operator at another.  Add to this the recent 
proliferation of Internet controllable transceivers and it is now at 
least theoretically possible to go vicariously on a D-Xpedition to the 
remotest part of the world.  

All it takes now a days is a high speed Internet connection or 
satellite data path along with someone at the remote location to set up 
the station.  If this is in place a ham with enough financial resources 
can literally ship a station out to a wanted D-X spot and make 
thousands of contacts from without ever leaving the comfort of his 
hamshack or livingroom.

Wanting to stay ahead of the curve, it appears as if the DX Advisory 
Committee is tackling this potential change in ham radios operating 
paradigm before it becomes a major headache.  Among the things being 
looked at is the necessity to require that the radio and the operator 
be at the same location.  Also, whether such operations should even 
count for DXCC credit.  
  
Radio Amateurs of Canada is asking its members to provide input on this 
issue to its representative to the D-X Advisory Committee.  So far no 
such request has been made of hams on this side of the U-S and Canadian 
border.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, really 
recording live in the Studio, in Los Angeles.