[CQ-Contest] Packet spot flap

Sat Oct 4 00:26:13 EDT 2003

> 
> looked at both reports and you must understand that remote use of a
> telephone number and computer can cause all sorts of problems.
Earthlink
> and others ran into what was called the Alabama gang of spammers who
used
> Birmingham telephone exchanges but were actually is Europe or Asia.
I
> looked at some of the "real" addresses for all the bogus microsoft
> messages
> and they come from .Cz, .ru, and even China.

Sure, but who is going to call an isp in the Ukraine from the states
just to make dx spots via dxsummit???

> 
> DX Summit is probably the most used web page for Dx spots with EHam
> second.
> I can use virtually any call to make posts if I wanted to.
> 
> Some other thoughts....
> 
> 1.    Many of the spots come from multi op stations or as in the case
of
> Italy an operator at the multi op.  You see this is the logs too where
a
> fairly rare station works a multi op and then the next few calls are
> individual ops at the multi op.  As long as the operators don't try to
> turn
> in a log this is perfectly legal (in most contests and certainly by
the
> FCC
> in the USA).

An op at a multi-op spotting the multi-op using his own call is just as
bad as spotting using the multi-op's call.  It is just another way of
disguising the self spotting, and a rather poor one at that as the list
of ops is published.

> 
> 2.    I see no reason why someone can't look at say DX Summit during a
> contest so long as the station does not use web spots for QSOs.  For
> example
> several years ago in the CQ 160 I spotted V31AH as he was calling CQ
with
> no
> answers and was loud and on a clear frequency here.   I was looking
for a
> rare (for me) SE Asia station on 40 at the time.  This can account for
> the single spots that are not bogus (false call) explained earlier.

This type does not get reported in my stuff.  When I look at the groups
of single spotters for a given dx call it is obvious when it is random
spots vs organized spots... for example, here is a group of spots for a
station (not in the contest) that are singletons:

DTS				Spotter	FromNode	Dx	Freq
Comment
9/28/2003 17:10:00	9A4PA		9A0CVZ	3B9FR	14023.8	 
9/27/2003 14:12:00	EA2IA		EA2URD-5	3B9FR	28022.4

9/27/2003 18:09:00	W1UN		W1GQ		3B9FR	28022.2
gud sigs
9/27/2003 14:01:00	W4NU		N4XMX		3B9FR	28022.2
QSX 28029.08
9/27/2003 14:25:00	OM3CUG	OK0DXH	3B9FR	28022.2	Roberto, qsx
029.2 no easy wid
9/27/2003 20:13:00	AA3DF		K3WW		3B9FR	21024.4

9/27/2003 13:16:00	F6IRO		K1TTT-14	3B9FR	28022.3
QSD !!!!
9/28/2003 14:40:00	W4MQ		K4JA		3B9FR	28019.4	
note the random mix of nodes, varying comments, and randomly distributed
frequencies... on the other hand, this is a suspicious one:
DTS				Spotter	FromNode	Dx	Freq
Comment
9/28/2003 06:32:00	4L8A		K1TTT-14	4L1DA	21093
rtty
9/28/2003 06:10:00	DL7BF		K1TTT-14	4L1DA	21090
ww
9/28/2003 06:53:00	4L1AW		K1TTT-14	4L1DA	21093
ww
9/28/2003 12:46:00	DF5HA		K1TTT-14	4L1DA	21108
rtty
9/28/2003 05:48:00	DL7BO		K1TTT-14	4L1DA	21090
ww
9/28/2003 05:57:00	4L3Y		K1TTT-14	4L1DA	21090
ww rtty
note, all the same node, all integer frequencies, and similar comments.
These are not contrived either, the database queries do the grouping and
counting, I just scan down for large groups of spots for the same dx
station that have a pattern to them. 

> 
> 3.   I have yet to find (K3WW is the exception) that using spots helps
a
> so
> called single operator. Of course if we find out they move to Multi Op
or
> assisted depending on the contest the first time and are DQed the
second
> time.

The real question that I think someone else asked, has this been done
based on this type of information?????  In either your contest, or any
other cq or arrl test??

> 
> I am afraid we are getting far afield from having fun in a contest.

Some of us don't have lives between contests so we have to do something
to keep busy... and helping keep contesting an honorable endeavor seems
to be something worth while. 

David Robbins K1TTT
e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
web: http://www.k1ttt.net
AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net