[VHFcontesting] [VHF] Bill Moore's Objections to the "Stop-Gap Proposal" for VUCC/LoTW

[Les Rayburn]

Bill,

I like your suggestion.

Obviously, I wrote my reply in too big of a hurry. Card Checkers do not look 
at print outs from LoTW, but I see no reason why they couldn't. As Bill 
suggested, simply printing out the QSL record from LoTW would resolve that 
issue.

Can they be faked? Certainly...but nothing is easier to fake than paper 
cards. Many hams post pictures of QSL cards that they've received from rare 
and semi-rare DX on the Internet all the time. It would be a simply manner 
to capture these, modify them in Photoshop, and print them out on card 
stock.

You might get caught claiming to have worked North Korea, but I imagine you 
could sneak through almost anything else.

That's why the high level of security on the LoTW application has never made 
sense. In the end, it's a hobby. If you cheat, you're only cheating 
yourself.

Imagine this dinner conversation on a first date with a pretty girl-- "I'm 
#1 on the DXCC Honor Roll" says the ham. "Yawn"- says the pretty lady.

Who really cares? All these awards are meaningful to us as hams, but having 
security that exceeds that used for my online banking, investments, etc. 
just makes no sense. It also makes it much more difficult to make changes to 
the application in the future.

73,

Les N1LF




--------------------------------------------------
From: "Bell Mark (ST-VS/EAP2.2-US)" <Mark.Bell at us.bosch.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2010 2:35 PM
To: "Les Rayburn" <les at highnoonfilm.com>; "VHF Contesting List" 
<vhfcontesting at contesting.com>; "VHF List  Non-Contest" 
<vhf at w6yx.stanford.edu>
Cc: "Greg Sarratt" <w4ozk at arrl.org>; <NC1L at arrl.net>
Subject: RE: [VHF] Bill Moore's Objections to the "Stop-Gap Proposal"  for 
VUCC/LoTW

> Les --
>
> I envisioned it working in a slightly differently way.
>
> Print out the QSO data page for each LoTW contact you want credit for. 
> Now you have an 8.5 x 11 QSL card, and the front of it is the LoTW page 
> for the particular QSO.
>
> Can it be faked?  Certainly.  I can also print out a faked QSL card on my 
> home printer if I want to.
>
> The checker never has to log onto LoTW.    If the grid is not in the LoTW 
> printout,  add it with a pencil like we currently do for QSLs that do not 
> contain the grid information.
>
> 73 Mark K3MSB
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