Hack Green Again

My Reply to G4OBK probably covers it, Walt.

73 Mickey

Inappropriate, Walt!

"A more psychological definition of gaslighting is “an increasing frequency of systematically withholding factual information from, and/or providing false information to, the victim - having the gradual effect of making them anxious, confused, and less able to trust their own memory and perception.”

Look, the RSGB lists 168 webSDRs, thirteen of them in the UK. They are a tool, and they are here to stay. They provide a means of continuing in ham radio for those with impossibly high local noise levels. Use of them is not cheating until the rules say they are cheating, at present the rules do not say this. The question, then, is how and when they should be used, what the ethics of using them should be. You favour flat out banning of their use, basically you are saying to people with impossibly high local noise levels “tough s**t, get out of SOTA, get out of ham radio!”, basically this is saying “I’m all right, Jack!” Your grounds for banning them are yours to say, but from here it looks like extreme conservatism based on nothing more than dislike.

Dislike should play no part in this discussion. I dislike CW and FT8 (a plague on both your houses!) but I would never advocate banning them. The real question should be what harm do web SDRs do? Please define the harm for us.

HF is becoming increasingly difficult for many due to noise.

There is always VHF/UHF

There’s no arguing with that…

73 Mike

Just imagine if all chasers were using Hack Green to receive. Not against the rules, you say.
In that case, activators are just working the same station - Nantwich - over and over again, to claim multiple qualifying points for their activation. Worse, they have no way of knowing that they are cheating. Where is the sense in that?

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

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Point of order Mr. Speaker. It can’t be cheating if the rules allow it.

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Oh, balderdash! The station that they hear and work is the transmitting station. They have no way of knowing whether the receiver used by that station is in the shack, at the bottom of the garden, in a local farmer’s field or in the next county. Nor should it matter. They are being heard, they are hearing. End of.

When Don is concerned, such as now, I always take note.

I am trying to remain neutral Pedro, even though, like everyone else, I have opinions on the issue.

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What about the SOTA activator who is all chuffed with the new WAB square he thinks he has worked. Only to find out the qso isn’t valid because the station he thought has worked used a WebSDR receiver in another square. Totally agree with NYY, if everyone used Hack Green then effectively we’re all working one station and I think that sums it all up perfectly.

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So are you, as the activator, receiving transmissions from the chaser, or from Hack Green? Asking for a friend.

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Ask the operator for their square. You already can’t trust the square if they are mobile or portable.

Also, a SOTA rule to make WAB work better seems rather parochial to this operator in California.

wunder

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So is this hypothetical activator working a transmitting station or a receiver? I suggest that if you have concerns about the validity of such a contact you should take it up with WAB, I wouldn’t presume to comment about the rules of another award scheme. Also, since this seems to you to be such an important matter, I suggest you go through all your contacts and eliminate those using a web SDR.

Just to muddy the waters, suppose the WebSDR were on a summit with a mobile connection to the internet. (The equipment is located In a box powered by solar to meet the other SOTA rules) Who would be able to claim a S2S ?

73 de

Andrew G4VFL

It’s the position of the transmitter that is key. Not the receiver (although there are rules for that as well). Check out the rules for DXCC on this.

It’s a good suggestion. So good that SOTA has already had it for years.

Why not ask the many on here (including the G association manager) who have done exactly that and continued through to the full licence? Operating abroad, and the respect of your fellow radio amateurs are the big motivators though I guess.

Nope. No chance. CW remains far more efficient and far easier. I struggled for many minutes to make a single data contact on one of my activations today, threw the towel in and added six QSOS in three minutes on CW to qualify.

SOTA is about setting your own goals and working towards them. And to be fair Mike, that’s exactly what you’ve always done. You’ve never striven to progress your positions in the honour rolls for activator points or uniques, focusing instead on greyline DX, kite antennas etc. So carry on doing what you enjoy and don’t worry about how others choose to do so.

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The rules don’t actually allow it. It’s just that they don’t specifically disallow it.
Applying that logic, it would be perfectly in order to make the contact by Skype or Facetime because there is nothing in the rules that says you can’t.

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

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Good idea, but how would he identify those who had been using a Web SDR?

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

The rules do disallow Skype or Facetime, unless you can get it running over an amateur link. I might give credit for that.

SOTA General Rules 1.20, Section 3.7.1, paragraph 2.

All operation must comply with the amateur radio licensing regulations and must use the permitted amateur radio bands of the country in which the Association is base.

That is a “must” about amateur frequencies.

wunder

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This is a wonderful article from 1936 looking forward to ham radio in 2036. Its from the September 1936 edition of Amateur Radio Wia magazine in Australia.

Sorry its a bit long, buts uncanny in a lot of ways to what is happening today.

John VK6NU

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THAT was the point!