[CQ-Contest] ARRL and Open Logs - Time for the next step?

[Pete Smith]

At 10:18 PM 7/28/2008, Dick Green WC1M wrote:
>....Anyone can submit a contest log labelled "F2xxx". ARRL and CQ
>have absolutely no idea whether those logs came from the actual F2xxx or an
>imposter. If someone wanted to game or discredit the DXCC system, they could
>submit a contest log under a bogus call. The log would then be forwarded to
>LoTW. If LoTW were to accept such a log without proper authentication, then
>the system could be fooled into granting DXCC credits that were not earned.
>Once that happens, confidence in the system is lost.
>
>Bottom line, LoTW won't accept QSO records from an unauthenticated source.


I respect Dick's views on this, because of his intimate knowledge of both 
the LOTW system and ARRL contest policy.  However, I think that these 
implementation issues can be ironed out, if we don't lose sight of the 
objective, which is to promote both contesting and the LOTW system.  The 
point is for people to know that contest QSOs will show up in LOTW, so if 
they join, they can get award credit for them; conversely, if they 
participate in contests, they will benefit their quest for awards.  For 
those of us who already upload every QSO to LOTW (like Mal), the practical 
difference is nil.

I am clueless about the fine points of computer security.  However, Dick 
assumes that a contest log must be authenticated, before a single contact 
from it is accepted into LOTW.  It seems clear to me that if an LOTW 
certificate were required for submission of a contest log, that would be 
totally contrary to the idea of promoting contesting and LOTW.  However, my 
view is that if logs for a given contest are open, and if only 
cross-checked contacts are transferred, the chances of a spoofer 
contaminating the system through a bogus log are very small.  To begin 
with, he would have to actually operate in the contest using the fake 
callsign, to make cross-checked QSOs that would be transferred to LOTW.  He 
would have to borrow the callsign of a station that had a LOTW certificate 
(forget my original notion of both stations needing to be members of LOTW - 
one should suffice).  To me, that would almost require collusion between 
the spoofer and the person whose callsign was being borrowed.  All of this 
would have to be done in public (because both contest logs and results 
would be published).

I wonder if everyone has forgotten that back in the 1970s, DXCC credit 
*was* given for ARRL DX Contest QSOs.  Was the system any less subject to 
gaming in those days?  Were we any less concerned about the sanctity of DXCC?

73, Pete N4ZR

73, Pete N4ZR