Short answer: I did it the hard way and old fashioned way with my radio, my antennas, all at my QTH.

How A QSO Is Made


The illustration above is how a QSO is made.
To transmit: Radio > Transmit Antenna > Airways > Distant Station Recieve Antenna > Distant Station Radio.
To receive: Distant Station Radio > Distant Station Transmit Antenna > Airways > Receive Antenna > Radio.

There is absolutely nothing mentioned here about the internet, wire connections, fiber optic connections, or man-made satellites. Any use of means other than the airways, natural forces, and heavenly bodies between two stations is not a QSO and it ain't ham radio. You may as well pick up a phone, call a DX station, give him a 5-9 report, and log it as a QSO. And no, I don't care what the ARRL Board has ruled, remote operation is still not ham radio.

No contacts on these pages were made using skeds, and I never called CQ. Not critizing how others operate in this regard, just I'm strictly search and pounce. Besides, if no one ever called CQ, none of us would have many QSOs in the log. Thanks to all ops, actually thousands, who answered my call and put another one in the log.