[Dxspider-support] Spot with False Origin Nodes

Dirk Koopman djk at tobit.co.uk
Tue Feb 4 16:13:09 GMT 2025


And while we are on this subject and since this debacle, I have been 
seeing quite a few of these:

sh/dx info {\d\d\.\d\d}
G1TLH de GB7DJK  4-Feb-2025 1607Z dxspider >
   14010.0 IT9MRM       4-Feb-2025 1605Z 16.05 SOMMERGIBILE CALVI 
S-68               <IT9ECY>
    7098.0 IT9MRM       4-Feb-2025 1603Z 16.02 SOMMERGIBILE CALVI 
S-68               <IT9CHC>
    7074.0 IQ9AAP       4-Feb-2025 1600Z 16.00 Accredit Station A. 
Vespucci          <IT9BGB>
    7074.0 IQ9AAP       4-Feb-2025 1558Z 15.48 AW. AMERIGO 
VESPUCCI                  <IK1JNP>
    7074.0 IQ9AAP       4-Feb-2025 1553Z 15.53 IQ'S DISTRICT ARMI 
VESPUCCI           <IT9CHA>
    7074.0 IQ9AAP       4-Feb-2025 1543Z 15.43 A. VESPUCCI ACCREDIT 
STATION          <IT9CHC>
    7098.0 IT9MRM       4-Feb-2025 1541Z 16.41 SOMMERGIBILE CALVI S 
68               <IT9ECY>
    7074.0 IQ9AAP       4-Feb-2025 1538Z 15.38 IQ\'S DISTRICT ARMI 
VESPUCCI AW       <IT9ECY>
    7094.0 IQ9AAP       4-Feb-2025 1517Z 15.17 IQ'S DISTRICT ARMI 
VESPUCCI           <IT9CHA>

Exactly why someone wishes to unnecessarily add an extra 6 bytes of 
bandwidth to each spot, repeating the spotted time, is beyond me.

Is this related to IU1NSA's venture below?

73 Dirk G1TLH

On 04/02/2025 15:17, Dirk Koopman via Dxspider-support wrote:
> Lorenzo
>
> Not in any particular order:
>
>   * You are a commercial entity which decided, without ever asking
>     anyone, whether it would be OK to AUTOMATICALLY send spots to the
>     network. And doing this to the extent that about half of all spots
>     were WWA related for several days.
>   * You are using bandwidth provided by others - at their expense -
>     for your commercial gain.
>   * Someone contacted you and was informed that this would stop last
>     Wednesday, but it didn't stop until the evening before least
>     weekend's contest.
>   * For at least the first three days, spots were being sent from
>     unknown users (who were not visibly logged on anywhere) on unknown
>     nodes with apparently forged IP addresses from a node connection
>     (apparently in the USA) that was not visible on the network. There
>     was very little "Ham Spirit" visible there.
>   * As for validating users via qrz.com, a quick scan through the
>     archive will tell you that you are, at best, misinformed.
>   * We all noticed that once we started to filter out this traffic
>     that your tactics changed - for the better - but not enough, so no
>     cigar.
>   * I looked at your website on the day that this started any the ONLY
>     information that I could find (not easily) was a very odd postal
>     address suggesting a location in Italy. No callsign, no email
>     address - nothing useful.
>   * We have no bias against anyone that uses the system responsibly.
>     And we define "responsibly" as a human operator either typing a
>     spot or pressing a (function) key in a user app.
>   * You are not the only app/system that sends stuff automatically.
>     Whichever Ftx app(s) are automatically spotting each contact that
>     they hear/make are next on my list.
>
> If you wish / need a distributed channel for communications through 
> the network. There are better methods of doing that without diluting 
> the spot feed. The user base can do that, manually, well enough 
> without machine help :-(.
>
> Your assumption that your idea of "Ham Spirit" would allow your app to 
> do what it did managed to piss off all the active node sysops and a 
> large proportion of the existing user base. As well as causing the 
> sysops a lot of extra work trying to manage it.
>
> But, on a positive note, I had a good hard look at the filtering code, 
> fixed a few small bugs and improved the debugging messages so that, 
> next time, when someone tries something that behaves in a dumping huge 
> gobs of spots on the network - we will be better prepared.
>
> If you wish to discuss how to use the network responsibly, and in the 
> first instance, please feel free to contact me directly.
>
> But, BE WARNED, any attempt to flood spots onto the network will not 
> be permitted.  And will hold you to your statement saying that all 
> spots are generated manually and will insist your system makes sure 
> that users are logged into (a) real node(s) with real IP addresses. I 
> may yet invoke the "nuclear option" of dumping all protocol spots from 
> users that cannot be identified in real time, one way or another, via 
> the routing tables for all active users/nodes that each DXSpider node 
> has.
>
> Dirk G1TLH
>
>
> On 04/02/2025 14:14, Dirk Koopman via Dxspider-support wrote:
>> On 04/02/2025 14:02, Lorenzo IU1NSA via Dxspider-support wrote:
>>> Good afternoon,
>>>
>>> I am Lorenzo IU1NSA, and I am part of the HamAward team.
>>> First of all, I would like to thank Niklas for informing us about 
>>> this mailing list.
>>>
>>> I am writing to express our deep concern regarding the recent ban of 
>>> our node IU1NSA-6 and the IPs of HamAward, which we only became 
>>> aware of thanks to reports from our users during an important event. 
>>> Operators informed us that their spots were not appearing on many 
>>> web clusters, forcing us to intervene promptly to ensure the proper 
>>> execution of the event, in respect of both participants and sponsors 
>>> involved.
>>>
>>> We are unable to understand the reasons for this ban, especially 
>>> since we never received any prior communication, neither directed to 
>>> IU1NSA nor to HamAward. From the emails you exchanged, it is evident 
>>> that some of you visited our website: I therefore wonder why none of 
>>> our contacts, clearly visible on every page, were used to reach out 
>>> to us and clarify any doubts. This total lack of communication has 
>>> left us puzzled and concerned, considering the impact such decisions 
>>> can have on the activities of thousands of operators.
>>>
>>> Personally, I was particularly struck by the attitude of Luigi 
>>> Carlotto IK5ZUK. I know Luigi IK5ZUK well, as we collaborated to 
>>> organize the WRTC 2022 cluster node in Italy, and until recently, we 
>>> exchanged advice on which servers to rent for managing our nodes.
>>> Moreover, Luigi IK5ZUK has my direct phone number, and we have often 
>>> communicated via WhatsApp. Therefore, I find it difficult to 
>>> understand why he decided to ban my node without even contacting me, 
>>> despite having the means to quickly resolve any issues. This 
>>> behavior, combined with your arbitrary handling of the situation, 
>>> forced us to reorganize independently to continue our activities, 
>>> while also raising concerns about a potential unjustified bias 
>>> against us.
>>>
>>> I would like to emphasize that the HamAward platform complies with 
>>> all the rules required for sending spots: every user is registered 
>>> through a mandatory QRZ authentication procedure and can only spot 
>>> under their own name, with a limit of once every 10 minutes. There 
>>> has never been any flooding of the network, and no spot has been 
>>> generated automatically. All spots were manually submitted by users. 
>>> Your assumptions regarding automation do not reflect the reality of 
>>> the situation.
>>>
>>> We believe that banning nodes without first attempting to contact us 
>>> for clarification is inconsistent with the Ham spirit, especially 
>>> when all the necessary means to do so were readily available. This 
>>> is even more serious considering that we have official agreements 
>>> with A.R.I. Italia for the management of awards, and the HamAward 
>>> node was banned even during one of these official events. I wonder 
>>> what the Ham spirit represents when an activity linked to A.R.I. 
>>> itself is blocked.
>>>
>>> We feel it is important to open a direct dialogue with you to 
>>> understand the reasons behind what happened and, above all, to 
>>> prevent similar situations from occurring in the future. 
>>> Transparency and communication are fundamental to the proper 
>>> functioning of this community.
>>>
>>> I take this opportunity to commend you for the excellent work you do 
>>> in managing the network and Dirk G1TLH for the development of 
>>> DXSpider software, which represents a benchmark for all of us.
>>> We appreciate the work you do and recognize your technical 
>>> expertise, and we hope that in the future we can establish a more 
>>> transparent and direct dialogue, with mutual respect and for the 
>>> benefit of the entire community.
>>>
>>> I look forward to your response.
>>>
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Lorenzo IU1NSA
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Dxspider-support mailing list
>>> Dxspider-support at tobit.co.uk
>>> https://mailman.tobit.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/dxspider-support
>>
>>
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>> Dxspider-support at tobit.co.uk
>> https://mailman.tobit.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/dxspider-support
>
>
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