The dividing line...automation in the future

Contacts made with a robot!

After my post, the video from SV5DKL and the blogpost from AE5X I did a bit of creative thinking. From the comments I read here and there I see a dividing line drawing slowly. On one side of the line you find the radiohobbyists who did their best to earn DXCC for years on CW/SSB, it was a struggle and every new DXCC felt like a huge accomplishment. On the other side you find radiohobbyists that were thinking about a solution to make everything a lot easier, they adopted digital modes, RTTY in a early stage PSK31/64 and now FT8 or JT65/9. Revealing that a FT8 can be made completely automatic is something that make the other side very angry like this is a kind of DXCC blasphemy. Something that's going over the big red line, something that should never be revealed. But though they forget that automatic QSOs are already possible for years with SIM31 a alternative PSK mode. It still is a big questionmark for me why SIM31 never had more popularity as it is sensitive and working very well.

 However in 2018 it seems to be hot to work with FT8 and even the Bouvet DXpedition (nr. 2 on the most wanted DXCC) will be on air in that mode. Something radiohobbyists really look forward to and I think as soon as 3Y0Z is spotted DX hell breaks loose. It might not be the truth but I can imagine the Bouvet DXpedition team has been thinking about a automated station for FT8. Stathis SV5DKL has been doing it with a macro automation program but anyone with programmer skills can modify the open source WSJT-X in my opinion and make a special version for DXpedition use only. In FT8 mode the software is already 90% automated and the 10% only involves clicking the "enable transmit" button after a QSO and looking out for QSOs that get lost in the noise (program will keep trying till the operator ends it). As a matter of fact, if 3Y0Z is not using automated software future DXpeditions will.

It will even be possible to drop a full automated station on a Island or in a most wanted country that can work stations automatically without a operator being there. And not only in FT8 mode but in every digimode you want. Think about that...
And then....I discovered some Hawaiian radioamateurs did already in 2014 and have been experimenting with a fully autonomous marine robot called waveglider. They already have a version 3 ongoing at the moment and it makes and logs contacts in PSK31 and FT8. The callsign is KG6JF and you might already made a contact with it without knowing it is a fully automated robot.

Find more info on their clubsite: http://www.jrfarc.org/

Is this going to be the future? Or is the future already here and are there more automated stations? We probabely will not know as in most countries a automated system with a robot is not legal yet, But I guess it will not take long before it will be legal and in that case you will not be able to tell if you make contact with a robot or with a operator?