Sorry…talking radio to radio, person to person, is no longer acceptable. All valid contacts need to be interfaced to a computer and/or the internet to be legitimate. Don’t you know that it’s all about technology, advancing the hobby, and not people?
Do we really want to do this and still be called Amateur Radio Operators?
Seriously…can’t we just talk?
Hmmmm - this brings up some interesting possibilities. I get to visit family and friends in Germany about every 2 years. As a chaser over there, I have several unqualified mountain hunter associations where I have only one summit. So now I can use the internet to “get on the air” and catch another summit in those associations. INTERESTING.
Someone made the comment that SDR is only a radio with a very long speaker wire and VFO line. Add the MIC or KEY wires to that, what’s the difference, a long connection can work both ways.
I’ll be in DL-land in a week. I’ll try to chase EI, GM, I, LA, OM, SP and UT while over there to get them qualified. But now the pressure is off. If I don’t catch summits while in DL-Land, I can just use a remote radio to chase them. COOL!
Vy73 – Mike – KD5KC.
Soon to be DL/KD5KC, and who knows where else I might pop up.
Yep, that’s what I said! As for adding a mike and key, that too has been done. Frequently. In fact one of the participants in this thread has done it to get over the problems of an upper floor apartment. You can even rent access to a remote rig in the USA and perhaps elsewhere. It is not against our rules, and perhaps strangely, there seems to be little appetite to ban a full remote rig, just a remote receiver, isn’t that odd?
The one thing relevant to SOTA that you cannot do is activate by using a remote rig, the rules already won’t permit it, though they were drawn up before it was a serious possibility. So if you think it is cool, go for it before the purists catch on and agitate to ban it, and before the MT places any restrictions on it!
The strong anti-remote sentiment is widespread among participants, and the handful that do occasionally incorporate use of a remote receiver do so “ethically” it would seem. Those claiming to be about to regularly use remote TX/RX seem to have their tongues very firmly in their cheeks!
I’ve no interest in working a SOTA activator using a remote, even though I have high noise levels here at home. It seems most feel this way. I’d say this was all a non-problem. It is a potential problem in people’s minds, but little more than that.
Relax - and do SOTA!
Remote receiver (i.e. Web SDR) and remote transceiver are very, very, different.
Remote transceivers are not freely available. You can not just log in wherever you like. One can build or hire a remote station, same as one could build, borrow or hire and operate personally some station anywhere in the world. Also, one must comply with local regulations to operate it.
I do no object being chased by DL/KD5KC. It is irrelevant (although interesting to know) if the operator is in DL, sitting by the radio, or somewhere else, connected by Internet (or by a long wire, or leased telephone line, whatever). As far as I am concerned, in this case I am being chased by a DL station.
However, being chased by someone who is logged into a Web SDR receiver close to me, spoils partially the fun for me. As an activator, operator and builder, I like to know that my signal traveled all the way to the other station (and viceversa), not to the closest Web SDR receiver (or repeater).
73 Fric
OK. Well, it doesn’t matter to me. As long as the rules apply to ALL the same way, what difference does it make?
SOTA is about having FUN. FUN means different things to different people. I feel like it is kind of like owning a Gun in Texas. Nearly everyone has one. There are a few old grouches who are against it. OK - then don’t have one. But as long as I stay within the laws (rules), you have no say in what I do.
SDR? Whatever! Probably not me, but that is my choice. What right do I have to demand that of others? As long as I am afforded the opportunity as everyone else, it is fair.
Vy73 – Mike – KD5KC.
Soon to be DL/KD5KC for a month.
Pete - I’m going to send you my reply via FT8. I hope your clock is accurate, and your radio is stable enough! Ready? 
This thread is really interesting. I never realized that people were using web SDR for SOTA chasing! I just assumed everyone used it for slacking off at work when you’d rather be out playing radio!
No chance of my radio being stable…or myself for that matter…my clock has always been a little off.
FT what? Must be an old Yaesu radio…I likely owned one.
Pete
WA7JTM
I knoiw the feeling…
I’ll wager that the number of people doing it is only a small fraction of the overall chaser group, but it’s an emotive topic
And if that is what they need to or want to do, so what? It’s still amateur radio. You guys need to get out onto a summit I reckon, that’ll clear your head and make you all happy again!
My (maybe extreme?) point of view: My hobby is Amateur Radio - not Wireless Radio!
73, Alfred, OE5AKM
Indeed. There were only 2, out of 43 who responded to my earlier poll, saying that they logged QSOs completed with the use of WebSDR.