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

[Dick Green WC1M]

No, Pete specifically said both participants had to have LoTW certificates. 

And the answer to your question, "is it any more valid that a log submitted
by F2xxx to LoTW confirms a QSO with me than a log submitted by F2xxx for an
ARRL (or CQ) contest that got forwarded to LoTW after log checking?"
is...Yes. LoTW has strict authentication requirements designed to ensure
that each log record submitted comes from the holder of the license for the
submitting call. Contest sponsors do not.

The scenario you describe, where one station is an LoTW member and the other
isn't, provides no verification of the identity of the station that's not an
LoTW member. 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.

73, Dick WC1M



> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Gilbert [mailto:xdavid at cis-broadband.com]
> Sent: Monday, July 28, 2008 9:42 PM
> To: wc1m at msn.com
> Cc: 'Pete Smith'; cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] ARRL and Open Logs - Time for the next step?
> 
> 
> Maybe I misunderstood Pete's proposal, but I thought the presumption
> behind it was that QSOs verified by the contest sponsor (especially if
> the sponsor was the  ARRL) could be loaded into LoTW as valid QSOs for
> the entrant even if the other party to the contact did not participate
> in LoTW.  In other words, is it any more valid that a log submitted by
> F2xxx to LoTW confirms a QSO with me than a log submitted by F2xxx for
> an ARRL (or CQ) contest that got forwarded to LoTW after log checking?
> In the second case, F2xxx would not need to participate in LoTW ...
> only
> I would need to.  If there is a problem with that, it would seem to
> imply that ARRL is more worried about cheating for DXCC than for major
> contest results.
> 
> 73,
> Dave   AB7E
> 
> 
> 
> Dick Green WC1M wrote:
> > However, I'm not sure it buys anything to upload partial logs with
> only
> > confirmed QSOs to LoTW. LoTW won't issue a QSL for a busted call, so
> it
> > doesn't matter if the QSOs are confirmed by the contest sponsor or
> not.
> > Also, it's possible for the log checker to disallow QSOs that are
> perfectly
> > legitimate for LoTW (e.g., QSOs made during an off-time or outside
> contest
> > hours.)
> >
> > 73, Dick WC1M
> >
> >
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