A ham that cannot erect a station of his/her own uses a rental station to achieve DXCC. The ham publishes this fact on their QRZ page and openly discusses it on the forums. Does that ham lack integrity?
- Glenn W9IQ
‘Grasping at straws’ is the surest sign of a weak argument.
It’s pretty simple. Your station - your accomplishment. Using someone else’s - not.
Excuses and/or admonitions don’t change the above.
Hi Donald (K1VSK):
I disagree - Glenn's question makes his point very well, particulary with regard to full disclosure. In that regard, there does not seem to be one uniform way of adjusting for diverse/remote TX and RX locations in many awards and contests. Perhaps suggestions on how to fix that while allowing for various styles of remote operation would be more useful than debating the ethics of these relatively new operating methods.
Regarding the ethics of renting time on a remote station ...
Hams are allowed to use whatever resources they have to operate and achieve awards, within the rules of the award or contest. I have a very good friend who lives in a high-rise co-op in NYC. He really can't put up any antenna other than a magnetic loop in his living room (and you know how well THAT works!) - but he DOES have the financial means to rent time on remote stations.
Renting time on a very capable station CAN be an advantage, just as access to broad, inexpensive plots of land, surplus coax and permissive antenna laws can be to someone who builds an extensive antenna farm. Either way, the ham develops his/her operating skills, which is one of the key objectives of the amateur radio "service".
Just because a ham has different resources and finds a different solution to a problem is no reason to challenge their ethics. In fact, it's downright silly and is equivalent to saying that any ham with a 50 foot tower and 3-element yagi is cheating, compared to those who can only put up a wire or magnetic loop antenna.
While stations are very important to hams, a ham is NOT defined by his or her FIXED station - for example, operating mobile has long been explicitly permitted. Quite a few licensed operators have no station of their own at all. And in an emergency, the skills of any ham are just as likely to be useful at a 3rd party emergency station as his/her own. In fact, I'd argue that the diversity and learning involved in remote operation makes a ham even more valuable in an emergency. One reason why IOTA, POTA, etc. are good learning excercises. For that reason, I think that remote operation - whether it's your own private station (of which there are plenty) or a rented one, fits right in.
You MIGHT suggest that some contests be limited to non-remote operations, or choose to operate only those that are - but it's you choice to limit your own operating span.
And there IS a tendancy for some hams to judge their status by the size of their antenna farms. Remote, rental operation tends to make that vanity moot. But many of the remote stations are also more modest in size.
So - different strokes for different folks - live and let operate. We all appreciate this hobby in slightly different ways.
Brian - K6BRN