Here's an email from Jim Reisert AD1C to the DXAC-I reflector about remote operation in the DXCC program. This will likely be a hot policy issue, if it isn't already! It will be interesting to see what the feedback is from DXAC members. I thought the board would be interested. Cliff K0CA DXAC Board Liaison From: Jim Reisert AD1C [mailto:jjreisert@alum.mit.edu] Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 5:04 PM To: dxac-i list Subject: [dxac-i:1049] Remote operation - has it gone too far? Hello fellow DXAC members, I have heard from two different sources in the last week about stations who are near the top of the DXCC Challenge ladder who are making some of their contacts remotely, for example, an East Coast station using a remote transmitter located on the West Coast to work Swains Island on 10 meters, a band otherwise unavailable to most of us in the Northeast. In reading the DXCC Rules as published on the ARRL web site (which seems to match the printed January 2007 edition), I found only these two references to remote operation (the underlining is mine): http://www.arrl.org/awards/dxcc/rules.html 8. All stations contacted must be "land stations." Contacts with ships and boats, anchored or underway, and airborne aircraft, cannot be counted. For the purposes of this award, remote control operating points must also be land based. Exception: Permanently docked exhibition ships, such as the Queen Mary and other historic ships will be considered land based. 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. Is this really within the spirit of the DXCC Challenge, and in the spirit of the DXCC award program in general? Of course, the playing field is never level, but it seems to me that have some have found a way to unlevel it even further. I have no axe to grind, being far down the list myself. Thoughts, anyone? Thanks & 73 - Jim AD1C -- Jim Reisert AD1C, 7 Charlemont Court, North Chelmsford, MA 01863 USA +978-251-9933, <jjreisert@alum.mit.edu>, http:// <http://www.ad1c.us/> www.ad1c.us <http://www.ad1c.us/>