[CQ-Contest] Packet Cheerleaders-enforcement IMPOSSIBLE!

Ted KT1V kt1vbulk at demop.com
Fri Nov 12 22:16:59 EST 2004



There cannot really be any significant enforcement, because there is no 
authentication.
Someone can log in under a fake callsign to hide their identity, just as 
easily as someone can assume a specific identity to masquerade as someone else.

Example: CQWW CW promises to enforce strict non self spotting rules and DQ 
self spotters, so I assume my competition's callsign, maybe WC1M because 
he's a little better than me, and make a few spots of him. Or maybe I go 
MM, and spot KC1XX using the calls of his ops during their off times. And 
knock off LPL and LR the same way.

In the next contest, after all the controversy has been resolved somehow, I 
spot myself as I myself, insisting someone is stealing my call. Maybe I 
hire someone to drive my mobile 100 miles away and do it to help "prove" it 
wasn't me - after all, its via a packet node I can't hit from home. And its 
cheaper to hire someone compared to my current investment in contesting.

I'm not saying no one can ever be caught, but widespread enforcement is 
impossible. Some devious (or standard hacker) thinking shows many nefarious 
possibilities . . .
Of course someone could also go and cut guy wires too, an equally heinous 
crime, but probably less likely in my experience

73
Ted KT1V

Ted Demopoulos
Demopoulos Associates, www.demop.com
Aligning Information Technology with Business Objectives.

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