Topband: Web SDR's and 'Cheating'

Fri Oct 7 08:58:55 PDT 2011

Anyone who makes available his sdr without delay, just helps cheaters. We 
all know some of them who use a sdr receiver to make qsos. Maybe there is no 
need anymore to learn the calls. Just stop this. A delay of 1min for example 
is perfect to enjoy all the goods of an sdr receiver without helping 
cheaters. I don't know if software allows it but i don't think it is 
difficult.
73 Kostas sv1dpi

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thorvaldur Stefansson" <otradalur at gmail.com>
To: "Brendan Minish" <ei6iz.brendan at gmail.com>; <topband at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 7:47 PM
Subject: Re: Topband: Web SDR's and 'Cheating'

> hello Brendan,
>
> Perhaps this thread is too old, but I only now came across it, sorry if 
> the
> subject has been beaten to death already.
>
> As you may know I have served my Perseus SDR receiver over the internet 
> for
> almost a year - it never occurred to me that people would use it for
> cheating purposes.   I found the experiment interesting for a variety of
> technical issues - it also pleased me to allow remote users to experience
> what Zero Noise level sounds like.   Obviously the issues are the same
> whether a SDR or a regular remote receiver is used for cheating.
>
> http://microtelecom.it/map/PerseusServers.html  shows a map of remote
> Perseus receivers.
>
> However, reading your post on the topband reflector got me thinking that 
> the
> scenario was familiar....:
>
> I am hearing a station in the Caribbean on 160m with strong signals and I
> start calling him thinking he will be an easy QSO.... I call him 
> constantly
> for about two hours without luck.
>
> In the beginning I do not have any propagation to EU, but he is working EU
> with a fairly good rate.
>
> When his signals have almost disappeared (RST 339) at my location and
> propagation has changed from TF to EU away from the Caribbean (!), he
> finally hears me and we had a QSO.
>
> This is cheating on so many levels I don´t know where to begin...
>
> the DX station is listening to a receiver located in EU - and because the 
> DX
> has a good transmit antenna on an island surrounded by Salt Water he has a
> relatively good signal in EU  - but the DX suffers from high tropical 
> noise
> making it difficult for him to hear the weaker signals.
>
> With the remote receiver, he can now clearly hear even the poorest signal
> from EU - stations with poor antennas are now able to "work" the DX 
> station
> even though their setups should not be able to work any DX contacts at 
> all -
> on the cluster the DX is spotted "good ears"  "hears well" "worked with 5
> watts and window antenna" and so on....
>
> At the same time, one of the most powerful stations on the planet is 
> unable
> to get through since I did not have propagation to EU!
>
>
> All the effort of building a superb station, trying to make use of elusive
> short propagation openings, all of this is flushed down the toilet....and 
> I
> am hearing that contesters have been doing this for years !
>
> So this is the reason that the 599+40 station can´t hear me!  not even a ?
> sometimes.
>
> And here  I was naive enough to think there was a rational explanation -
> this might be because the stations were using directive antennas and were
> listening in another direction - certainly plausible, I myself have long
> Beverage antennas which will have this effect....I have even heard this
> explained as "one way propagation"....
>
> I well remember my QSO with KH2L on Top Band a few years ago that was 
> ruined
> by HB9... who was obviously using a remote receiver to help him hear the 
> DX
> - the HB9 kept calling completely out of sync about 30 seconds off sync
> right on top of my transmissions during the QSO, he managed to ruin my QSO
> completely and it took me a whole year before I heard and worked KH2L
> again.....I remember there was a russian station who was also calling in
> sync with the HB9 - both obviously with a similar internet delay.
>
> I have decided not to make my Perseus receiver available over the internet
> anymore because of these issues.
>
> Not naming the cheater only serves to create suspicion on other DX 
> stations
> and ruins the sense of accomplishment in making long haul DX contacts.
>
> Any contacts made in this manner  are not valid for any award purposes -
> after all they are simply contacts over the Internet - only by naming the
> cheaters can we put a stop to these practices - at the very least we 
> should
> not tolerate this behavior on 160 Meters.
>
> 73 Thor, TF4M
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hello all
>
> I have a Software Defined Receiver (SDR) that I make available when I am
> not using it for others to use. it's an SDR-14 and is usually connected
> to one of my beverages via a multi-coupler so it hears and performs well
> Software wise , anyone using sdrradio can connect to it.
> the latency is alos very low with sdrradio.
>
> I am happy to make this available to others because in turn I enjoy
> using internet connected SDR's provided by others
>
> last night however I took a listen to what the connected user was
> listening to, It turns out that the connected user was a DX station
> utilising my SDR to work 160m SSB. He had a pileup of EU stations and
> was utilising my SDR to better hear his pileup.
> Surely this is 'not on' After all the EU stations may have been able to
> hear him (although I could not copy him better than about 21 here)
> But he was using a receiver within Europe to hear the EU stations calling.
>
> What is the ethical position on this, it sure seems wrong to me
>
>
>
> -- 
> 73
> Brendan EI6IZ
> _______________________________________________
> UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK
> 