[CQ-Contest] spotting game, changes proposal

[KI9A at aol.com]

Good, in theory, but, considering the very large amount of "casual"  
contesters, just on looking for DX, it is impractical.
 
Make it too hard to get on a simple thing like the packet cluster, and the  
casual guys will disappear. And, as everyone knows, he big guns depend on the  
casual guys..
 
I'd like to see what percentage of spots are on a local, VHF/UHF cluster,  
and how many come from telnet site.
 
How would you regulate EVERY i-net cluster, such as DXSUMMIT?  Me  thinks it 
is impossible. 
 
73-Chuck KI9A
 
In a message dated 3/16/2008 10:11:21 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
felipe-listas at terenet.com.br writes:

Hello  folks,

I've been watching these threads about spotting and not spotting  and all.

What do you think about proposing some changes in the packet  cluster 
network?

The packet cluster network has been designed maybe  more than 20 years 
ago, and probably restricted to packet radio use. These  days there 
werent all those  security problems and cheating in  mind.
Nowadays  I cant know for sure, but probably  more than 90%  of cluster 
access are from internet.


Somethings that it seems  (to me) urgent to deploy:

- exchanging of origin (TCP/IP address, radio  frequency, port, home 
node) for users between cluster nodes;

-  limiting user logins, so a user would not be able to login with the 
same  callsign to more than one cluster, unless he connects as CALL-1, 
CALL-2  (sometimes the user opens a log software, a webcluster and other 
aid  software that also connects to the cluster);

- think about  authentication... at most of the clusters now, one can 
simply login as  wish, no passwd, no control. we could think of using a 
couple of  centralized servers for controlling authentication (ISPs and 
TI industry  already do that with a software called radius), or using 
some key exchange  like lotw does.

I know these are not trivial changes, and probably  there are more 
changes needed that didn't come to my mind.
This would  require upgrading all the servers, but could be scheduled to 
do in a  couple of years.

At least this would let us keep closer attention to  cheaters, and 
probably after getting identified, the cheaters wont behave  badly again, 
right?


73,

Felipe Ceglia -  PY1NB
http://www.dxwatch.com
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