As much as I'd like to (and I know many of you
would as well) 'You can't go home again!'.
What that means is that as much as I'd LOVE to
return to those golden days of yesteryear where
the human/machine interface was more tilted
towards the human side AND the results of ones
efforts were more aligned with the impact of the
skill of the human side more than the machine
side.
But we can't and I don't think anyone REALLY
wants to. (I sure don't want to go back to
cumbersome manual or semiautomated manual
logging! :-(
I think we, as the contest community, can strive
and work and push to have the problem of
self-spotting and cheating by spoofing packet
spots dealt with.
My suggestions -
Dave K1TTT has given a GREAT push in providing a
solid, empirical, verifiable, method of tracing
spots from suspected spotters to the IP address.
While this does not, in and of itself mean
anything nefarious has occured, what it DOES do
is provide a pattern or trend to use as a
launching pad for further discovery.
let us take this foundation and use it as a tool
to further define, refine, and enhance our
technology to better allow us to more accurately
and efficiently identify, locate, and properly
account for the self-spotters and cheaters.
Will our efforst be easy (at first) to implement?
NOPE! BUT YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE IN ORDER TO
GET ANYWHERE!
My suggestions - since there seems to be a
critical mass of real action and interest to deal
with this and start moving on it..
WE, the contesting community, were able to band
together when the ARRL was contemplating taking
results out of Q-street and managed to collect
ourselves to the poit where they postponed it for
six months and allowed us to present a
public/private case which raised the knowledge
level up.
So we CAN do things if we choose to.
1 - Gather a SMALL group of folks who are
interested in seroiusly working this issue.
2- Solict comments from the community on the
areas of concern. (K1TTT has already produced a
VERY GOOD starting point for valid analysis and
discussion)
3- Work to produce some kind of initial framework
to work within. Decide on a plan of attacking it.
Start small and work on bitesized chunks so it's
manageable.
4- produce a coherent plan and see what kinds of
responses you get, recognizing that we are going
to have to start within our own resource bases
and technology to prove it works and then it can
be branched out.
We MAY NOT affect anyone else.. but WE can make a
difference in our own COMMUNITY. It may not make
much of a change in the entire Contesting
community world wide.. BUT if we can make some
incremental POSTIVE changes, we can build
momentum and work to improve.
It's not gonna be easy because we are attacking
an entrenched problem that has festered for a LOT
of years.
BUT we have many respected and honorable guys
whos words and deeds carry weight and clout.
LEt's seriously think about doing something.
Doing nothing only generates sound and fury and
no action but constant kvetching and bitching.
Press on!
73
Chuck K3FT
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