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

[steve.root at culligan4water.com]

Perhaps, in the ARRL's view, the results of a single contest only matter for 12 months, while DXCC records are "forever". Therefore validated contact information in LOTW would assume a higher priority or importance than a contest log QSO.

Or I may be wrong :)

73 SR
-----Original Message-----
From: Pete Smith [mailto:n4zr at contesting.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 06:08 AM
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] ARRL and Open Logs - Time for the next step?

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 _______________________________________________ CQ-Contest mailing list CQ-Contest at contesting.com http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest