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

[Michael Keane K1MK]

At 07:08 AM 7/29/2008, Pete Smith wrote:
>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).

Slim has been a regular fixture in the DX game for a long time and 
Slim has benn known to borrow real callsigns.

To know that a station is an LoTW participant all one has to do is 
look at the HB9BZA users list, so requiring both stations needing to 
be members of LOTW really doesn't all that much.

>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?

Do we know why the practice was stopped? Back then, DXCC desk didn't 
require submission of documentation to approve DXpeditions either; they do now.

I think the answer is yes, over the years DXCC has become more aware 
and more concerned of the ways some have tried to "game" the system 
thanks in no small part to Don Miller, Romeo, etc.

73,
Mike K1MK

Michael Keane K1MK
k1mk at alum.mit.edu