Listening Remotely Resolves Receive Randomity

In recent years, I have made considerable use of running radios remotely; first for NX6T operations in Fallbrook and later from Anza and Ramona (both) in So. California.  Accessing these stations require the use of a properly configured K3/0 (from the Concord location), or a K3/0-Mini from my Alameda office.  Even MORE recently, I have been running the Yaesu FT-2000 remotely between my office
in Alameda and its physical setup in Concord.

To simply listen-in (w/o transmitting) on HF happenings around the world, there are 100's of
SDR (Software Defined Receiver) all over the world, accessible using most any internet browser
on a computer w/adequate sound rendering capabilities.  My FAVorite SDR websites include:

• [X] - KFS SDR - Half Moon Bay
• [X] - Northern UTAH SDR
• [X] - K3FEF SDR in Pennsylvania
• [X] - TWENTE SDR in Holland

One of the benefits of using online SDR radios is that waterfall display that most SDR sites utilize.  Radiosport contest operators who appreciate PAN-adapter displays will find the SDR waterfalls to be near-equivalent replicas.

While use of offsite SDR access (to make QSOs) is NoT normally permitted in most radiosport contests, at other times and for other reasons SDRs can be quite useful tools, especially when propagation-checks around the world are needed.  Recently, I was configuring the FT-2000
portable setup in Concord to run by way of the FT-2000RC.Exe APP.  This software can
be run locally by way of a VPN (I use VNC viewer), or it can be run via IP-address using
the same APP on another computer such as the WinDoze-11 system in my Alameda office.

Having proper access to the FT-2000 is akin to having access to yet another SDR - this from
the North-East, East Bay Area.  When ragchewing with the Redwood Radio Roundtable late in the evening on 75-meters, I often listen to our 3830 frequency with the FT-2000, giving me a [so-called] "skip perspective", while running remote from Ramona (in N. San Diego County).

NoT too long ago I was experimenting with running the FT-2000 in Cw mode using the N1mm+ software.  Pre-defined function keys as well as Alt-K (Keyboard entry) is enough to run most any
Cw contest.

However, no matter how you run a radiosport contest, it ALL begins with listening, especially listening before you transmit - I even wrote a Blog entry about that.  ([CLICK HERE] to read that.)

Have YOU ever spent time listening on the various SDR radios located around the globe?

What Discoveries have YOU made?