[CQ-Contest] Busted calls and Uniques

[K4SB]

Tree wrote:
> However, it should be even more likely that there will be callsigns that are
> really bad - but the checking process was unable to determine what the bad
> callsign was...  and therefore it was counted as a good QSO with a unique
> callsign.  Some manual work on the part of the log checker can probably
> figure out what the busted call is - but they don't have time to do this
> for all logs - so it gets done for none (except maybe for a pair of logs
> that are very close in the results).
> 
> For example, in the ARRL DX contest - the log checking really stinks.  I
> would estimate that only about 25 percent of errors made are detected by
> the program.  Also, maybe one out of 100 of the bad calls is really good...
> so the process isn't perfect.  However, I would argue that it is effective.

Obviously, official calls are not available for some countries.
However, the US, JA, and most of Eu do have official databases.

Just taking the US alone, I can download the latest FCC database,
filter it to remove some calls, and then have a perfectly reliable
database of good US calls. Now, reverse engineer it, and you have a
database of calls which are not issued. Run every US call in the logs
against this database, and you have a clear idea of "busts".

If you limited the database to 4 and 5 letter calls, it's even more
ridiculously simple.

73
Ed