[CQ-Contest] Re: self-spotting

[David Robbins K1TTT]

> Here's something I have thought of.. and I betcha you have too!
> }What would it take for the Finns (for example) to REQUIRE folks to
> register
> and sign in to put spots on the DXSUMMIT?

Let me tell you a story about dxsummit.  A few years ago when I started
analyzing spots from the cluster all I could do was statistics on the
calls that made spots from dxsummit.  Knowing that web servers can keep
logs that include ip addresses I tried contacting the operators and was
soundly ignored.  After several attempts both direct and through some
well known intermediaries I gave up and recommended to the arrl and cqww
log checkers that they try to request the data to analyze for
themselves, I never heard that they obtained anything either.  Just
about a year ago (right around the start of the Iraq war) I got a late
night phone call from a U.S. Secret Service agent who had been referred
to me by a cluster sysop who traced some of the 'kill bush' type of
announcements that occurred around that time to the k1ttt-14 node.  That
node is of course one of the gateways from dxsummit to the cluster
network.  I checked the logs and sure enough that's where they came from
and I referred the agent to the operators...  Well, it was about a week
later I got an email from one of them pointing me to the page that now
lists the ip addresses.  That is the level of pressure that is needed to
get them to even release data.

Now multiply that by 750 or so (a rough guess of the number of nodes out
there), add in all the complications of different software used, and
just try to figure out how to control any kind of access to stop someone
who is determined to cheat.  The one big key is that anyone cheating by
making spots for themselves has to skew the spot statistics to bring
attention to themselves.  And to make any real difference in their score
they have to make a lot of spots which makes them stick out like a sore
thumb in the post contest analysis.

So, what will work?  Pressure from peers is a start.  I know some of the
stations I fingered in the beginning have been contacted by friends who
pointed out what they were doing was wrong, and they stopped.  I know
that some have been educated by the reports and some who have been
chastised in other forums.  I would really like to see more action by
the log checkers, or at least more public information about their
actions.  After all, dq'ing is the highest penalty that can be applied,
but even getting a log reduced to a check log and having the reason
published would be good to see.

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