This note copied from the List.Contesting.com and permitted re-published by author – TF4M Thor.
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 constantlyfor 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 noisemaking 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 5watts and window antenna” and so on….
At the same time, one of the most powerful stations on the planet is unableto 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 Iam 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 thisexplained 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 insync with the HB9 – both obviously with a similar internet delay.
I have decided not to make my Perseus receiver available over the internetanymore because of these issues.
Not naming the cheater only serves to create suspicion on other DX stationsand 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 shouldnot tolerate this behavior on 160 Meters.
73 Thor, TF4M