There are a few misconceptions in this email. Stations can be spotted
no matter what category they are in. An unassisted single operator has
no control over how often they are spotted by other stations during a
contest, and being spotted by some other station does not change their
status to assisted. Unassisted stations are not allowed to use the
clusters (web pages, etc.) themselves.
How do people cheat using packet/web sites?
(a) Using spots, but claiming unassisted. There are ways to detect this
by analyzing the logs of the major DX clusters. Common signs of
this form of cheating include an unusually high percentage of QSOs to
rare multiplier stations that occur very soon after a cluster spot,
logging broken call signs that were spotted that way, etc.
(b) Self-spotting. By spotting yourself, you draw more callers. Most
cheaters of this form log into clusters/web sites using bogus call
signs to hide their identity. Most don't realize that their IP
addresses are logged and give them away.
(c) Cheerleading. The first big incident of this was a Caribbean station
in the 2002 ARRL DX contest, when the op enlisted the support of a whole
team of spotters from his home contest club to follow him around the
bands and spot him constantly. This is the most insidious form of
cheating, as the op himself may never use the cluster system, but
relies upon others to cheat on his behalf.
And contrary to assertions, many contest sponsors and other individuals
do examine and understand the cluster/web site data, and there are plenty who
are passionate to retain the concept of an unassisted single operator class.
Exposing cheaters does not necessarily mean that the rules need to be
changed.
On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 08:25:33AM -0800, frank bechdoldt wrote:
>
> I have reports of :
>
> During the contest there were non contestants (formally assisted) spotting
> non assisted people on some of the web pages. This was not to help the non
> assisted people, but to help the formally assisted people get more QSOS and
> contacts and ultimately QSL cards for working these individuals. In the last
> contest Non assisted qso numbers doubled while the number of registered
> participants dropped because of the loss of an category.
>
> The ARRL can not police the web pages. Unassisted people benefit from the
> activity of others no matter how they communicate or spot with each other.
> The current rules has their head in the sand on this issue. The only fair way
> to do it is to acknowledge that all sorts of assistance exists and other than
> exchanging actual QSO information all classes are allowed to spot or be
> spotted. That or police the web pages and all spotted call signs are
> registered and sent to the ARRL to ensure they are listed as assisted. A
> major scandal like this happened one with a CQ HF contest where someone
> documented unassisted people were being spotted and the QSO times matched the
> spots. Why expose an ARRL contest to that?
>
>
>
> k3uhf
>
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--
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker@kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/
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