[CQ-Contest] L.O.T.W.

[David Robbins K1TTT]

> The reason LOTW is requiring this complexity and level of digital
> signatures
> is because the importance some hams have placed on the perceived
> "integrity"
> of the program is far beyond the actual intrinsic value of the awards it
> relates to. It's an award, not the Holy Grail, and too many people have
> obsessed about it way too far for way too long.

I'll agree with that.  Just consider the value of what is being protected by
this pki encryption with systems that handle much higher value data.... like
cash!  I can get to my bank and deposit, transfer, withdraw, pay bills, etc,
with nothing more than my account number and a password that was set up in a
30 second form I filled out at the bank... that could have been done by
mail, but I just happened to be there at the time.  another example, last
year I traded near $1M in stocks with again nothing more than an account
number and password to log into a secure server... and that account can
transfer either way to my bank without me having done anything more than
give them my account number and the bank routing info.  And I have never
been closer to the brokerage than a phonecall, and the only paper required
was a check for the initial deposit.  Paypal is another example, EBay is
another, both handle everything via the internet, no paper, no post cards
with passwords, no special encryption software.  

I believe there would be plenty of security with just a simple password
system.  Call, email, or fill out a web form and the arrl mails you a
password to your fcc address... beyond that what else does the encryption
stuff buy anyone?  When you login to a secure web server everything uploaded
or downloaded is encrypted anyway.  All it does is add to the cost of the
whole system by requiring lots of extra operations to generate and send out
certificates, write and test and distribute software, and slow down
processing by requiring the user to do a manual encryption step and the
server to do another decoding step on top of the ssl layer.

This over the top security is just another example of the obsession the dxcc
people have shown over the years that convinced me long ago that I didn't
need to bother with the politics and other bs just for a plaque.  I get
enough plaques and paper just for emailing a plain text file to contest
sponsors, why should I go through all this work with pieces of paper (ask
n2ow about the 10 file boxes I have in the basement now that haven't even
been sorted) or other systems just for another one.  but yes, I did register
for lotw and have uploaded 180k contacts to it in hopes of reducing the
bureau or direct cards I get... so far I don't think it has helped much.

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