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There is a difference between a question that could be answered on another site, and a question which is off-topic for this site.

For instance, I'm probably going to start asking questions about Go Boxes, some of which will involve mostly power source issues.

These questions are not off-topic for this site, if they have to do with Amateur Radio, they should stay even if the question could be moved without change to another site and still receive an answer. I don't want to add an addendum to each question indicating that while it could be answered elsewhere, there are issues and products specific to this community that might resolve it better than the other site would given that it's for ham radio use.

The sites can overlap, this is OK and by design.

So please consider carefully whether the question actually doesn't belong on this site at all before suggesting it be migrated to another site when there is obvious overlap.

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    $\begingroup$ Agreed - you should all be extremely jealous when it comes to your content and favor keeping anything created here answered here whenever possible. Don't migrate just to try and better bucket or categorize things (in general, sometimes things get a little weird). $\endgroup$
    – Tim Post
    Feb 2, 2014 at 12:51

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You are starting with an obvious and agreeable assertion: "Questions that aren't off topic shouldn't be moved", but really your issue is with what's on-topic. This is a loaded question: anyone who disagrees with you is now suggested as supporting the opposing viewpoint: "Questions that are on-topic should be moved", which is wrong and absurd.

If you want to ask about power sources for portable operation, then that's fine. Operating on battery power is a pretty common thing, and we are talking about operating amateur radio equipment. The issue with that question isn't that it's off topic: it's that it's not a good question for a Q&A format. It says "some people insist" without saying who these people are, or what there objections are. How can an answer support or refute those objections when you haven't even told us who they are or specifically what they said?

If you want to ask about antennas for radio astronomy, this is an entirely different issue. Radio astronomy has nothing to do with amateur radio except that it's another thing that uses radio. Would you also argue that questions about commercial radio broadcasting, cell phones, and microwave ovens are on topic? While it's possible to construct questions that touch on these topics while having relevance to amateur radio...

...antennas for radio astronomy does not do so. Your question is only about astronomy. It doesn't involve operation in the ham bands at all. It doesn't directly involve operating ham equipment. There's no overlap: this question is squarely about astronomy.

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  • $\begingroup$ You've convinced me on the Radio Astronomy question, and I've deleted it. $\endgroup$
    – Adam Davis
    Jan 24, 2014 at 16:18

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