Perhaps, in the ARRL's view, the results of a single contest only matter for 12
months, while DXCC records are "forever". Therefore validated contact
information in LOTW would assume a higher priority or importance than a contest
log QSO.
Or I may be wrong :)
73 SR
-----Original Message-----
From: Pete Smith [mailto:n4zr@contesting.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 06:08 AM
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] ARRL and Open Logs - Time for the next step?
At 10:18 PM 7/28/2008, Dick Green WC1M wrote: >....Anyone can submit a contest
log labelled "F2xxx". ARRL and CQ >have absolutely no idea whether those logs
came from the actual F2xxx or an >imposter. If someone wanted to game or
discredit the DXCC system, they could >submit a contest log under a bogus call.
The log would then be forwarded to >LoTW. If LoTW were to accept such a log
without proper authentication, then >the system could be fooled into granting
DXCC credits that were not earned. >Once that happens, confidence in the system
is lost. > >Bottom line, LoTW won't accept QSO records from an unauthenticated
source. I respect Dick's views on this, because of his intimate knowledge of
both the LOTW system and ARRL contest policy. However, I think that these
implementation issues can be ironed out, if we don't lose sight of the
objective, which is to promote both contesting and the LOTW system. The point
is for people to know that contest QSOs will show up in LOTW, so if
they join, they can get award credit for them; conversely, if they
participate in contests, they will benefit their quest for awards. For those of
us who already upload every QSO to LOTW (like Mal), the practical difference is
nil. I am clueless about the fine points of computer security. However, Dick
assumes that a contest log must be authenticated, before a single contact from
it is accepted into LOTW. It seems clear to me that if an LOTW certificate were
required for submission of a contest log, that would be totally contrary to the
idea of promoting contesting and LOTW. However, my view is that if logs for a
given contest are open, and if only cross-checked contacts are transferred, the
chances of a spoofer contaminating the system through a bogus log are very
small. To begin with, he would have to actually operate in the contest using
the fake callsign, to make cross-checked QSOs that would be transferred to
LOTW. He would have to borrow the callsign of a station that
had a LOTW certificate (forget my original notion of both stations needing to
be members of LOTW - one should suffice). To me, that would almost require
collusion between the spoofer and the person whose callsign was being borrowed.
All of this would have to be done in public (because both contest logs and
results would be published). I wonder if everyone has forgotten that back in
the 1970s, DXCC credit *was* given for ARRL DX Contest QSOs. Was the system any
less subject to gaming in those days? Were we any less concerned about the
sanctity of DXCC? 73, Pete N4ZR 73, Pete N4ZR
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