[Dxspider-support] Network degradation

[David Spoelstra]

Keith-
"For what it's worth" - your work was worth a lot! Thank you for working
with the HamClock developer and resolving all the issues. It's a great app
which lots of people use. I run it in server mode on my old DXSpider RasPi
so that I can bring it up on any browser on any computer or smart TV in my
house.
-David, N9KT

On Thu, Feb 27, 2025 at 9:15 AM Keith, G6NHU via Dxspider-support <
dxspider-support at tobit.co.uk> wrote:

> David,
>
> If the sponsors you mention were aware of the tactics that HamAward are
> partaking in, then I doubt their sponsorship would last much longer.
>
> If you were sponsoring something and it was demonstrated that the people
> you were supporting were doing this, how would you feel?
>
> 1) Submitting spots to the dxcluster network using fake callsigns.
> 2) Submitting spots to the dxcluster network via dxcluster systems which
> don’t exist.
> 3) Falsifying IP addresses.
> 4) Flooding the network with these spots, often many hundreds of times in
> the space of a few seconds.
> 5) Uploading spots to the dxcluster network, making them appear they are
> being submitted via valid nodes when in fact, those nodes only accept spots
> via accounts protected by passwords and those spots have been submitted by
> a user who does not have a password, nor even an account on that node.
>
> Personally, I’d be withdrawing my support immediately and starting an
> investigation.
>
> Yes, you are entirely correct, the PZK award scheme is being run by
> HamAward and the two posts I linked to a short while ago were from members
> of HamAward so they’re fully aware of what’s happening, they’re members of
> this email group and are reading these emails right now.
>
> For what it's worth, I was the person who approached the HamClock
> developer and between us, we resolved all the issues we had.
>
> I’m not going to go out of my way to contact HamAward because we know
> they’re reading these posts and I’ve already made my feelings known.  Stop
> faking spots, stop uploading spots in a fraudulent way.  Continue to allow
> your users to use their self spot buttons but ensure that spots can be
> traced back to a legitimate source.  I’ve already said in a previous post
> that I think what you’re doing with the award scheme is technically superb
> but please, do it in a legitimate way and we can all happily coexist.
>
> This isn’t going away, there are four award schemes currently active at
> HamAward with more scheduled throughout the year.
>
> 73 Keith G6NHU
>
>
> On 27 Feb 2025 at 13:02 +0000, David Spoelstra via Dxspider-support <
> dxspider-support at tobit.co.uk>, wrote:
>
> I agree with Rudy.
>
> If these are SES stations, then it will be easy to contact them and ask
> some questions. Maybe we can learn something that will help us in our
> endeavors. Are we 100% certain it's not a weird bug in *our* systems?
>
> Reminds me of HamClock. The torches and pitchforks came out and the
> initial reaction from the majority was "ban it". Instead I asked that
> someone who understood what was going on to contact the HamClock author and
> he was happy to work with us and I haven't heard anyone complain since. I
> don't remember who it was that contacted them, but thank you again for
> taking the time and allowing a HamClock to peacefully coexist with us.
>
> "Seek first to understand"
>
> BTW, it looks like the email address for the "The 95th anniversary of the
> PZK and centennial of the IARU" SES is sp6mi at pzk.org.pl
> It looks like their spotting services are coming from "HamAward"
> https://hamaward.cloud/
> Their QRZ page: https://www.qrz.com/db/SN100IARU where it clearly says
> the page is powered by HamAward.
> Maybe we should also talk to HamAward since they are now a big player
> backed by ICOM, MOMO Beam, WIMO, DX Engineering, and others. I don't think
> they are going away anytime soon.
> This is also very interesting because HamAward is also the group spotting
> the WWA which I believe we have also had issues with.
> Maybe, just like with HamClock, someone who can speak at a technical level
> about the issues could work with HamAward and maybe we could easily get all
> our issues resolved for now and future SES events sponsored by the big
> players.
> Here's a form to contact them: https://hamaward.cloud/contacts  I'm sure
> an email stating that they are about to have all their spots across the
> entire DXSpider Network banned might just get their attention...
>
> -David, N9KT
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 27, 2025 at 7:15 AM Rudy Bakalov via Dxspider-support <
> dxspider-support at tobit.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> These are really big words that need support rather than speculations and
>> emotions.
>>
>> Who outside of this reflector is complaining? What is their pain point?
>>
>> What makes a spot legitimate beyond the obvious call and frequency
>> accuracy? Does the world share and understand your definition of? Or you
>> assume they do?
>>
>> Flooded? What percentage of overall traffic are the alleged fraudulent
>> spots?
>>
>> Fraudulent? What makes these spots fraudulent beyond not meeting your
>> expectations for their origin? Who’s been defrauded?
>>
>> A lot of accusations solely based on logs, no interactions with end users
>> or the alleged bad guys.
>>
>> Rudy N2WQ
>>
>> Sent using a tiny keyboard.  Please excuse brevity, typos, or
>> inappropriate autocorrect.
>>
>>
>> > On Feb 27, 2025, at 6:49 AM, Keith, G6NHU via Dxspider-support <
>> dxspider-support at tobit.co.uk> wrote:
>> >
>> > We all want the same thing, we want to give our users good, reliable,
>> trusted spots, they want to provide spots for their users.  Let’s get it
>> sorted so they can do it legitimately without flooding the network with
>> fraudulently injected spots.
>> >
>> > 73 Keith G6NHU
>>
>>
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