Your spots are showing

You can tell a lot about a person from how they post a DX spot on the cluster. If you don't believe me, follow me through my own personal examination of some spots for DT8A one evening last week. This is a little over an hour's worth of spots for DT8A that I've culled from the cluster. The bold print below some of them is my "qualified" analysis.

DX de NB4F: 14180.0 DT8A 2212Z GA

DX de W3TZ: 14180.0 VP8/DT8A 2216Z AR

DX de EA8TL: 14180.0 DT8A in simplex 2218Z EA8

DX de EA7JR: 14180.0 DT8A worked at 1st call, 100w 2221Z EA

Must be up for world's greatest DX'er award. Sorry if you'd said "5W" it would've sounded better and you'd have gotten my vote too.

DX de PY2BRA: 14180.0 DT8A 2223Z PY

DX de EA5MB: 14180.0 DT8A 59 2226Z EA

DX de KF8RU: 14190.0 DT8A/VP8 2234Z MI

DX de EA1SB: 14190.0 DT8A tnx up 10 2235Z EA

DX de W7IMU: 14180.0 DT8A UP 10 (AN-010) 2237Z WA

DX de N3DG: 14180.0 DT8A QSX 14190 2238Z PA

DX de EA7HMD:14180.0 DT8A 5/9 10 up new one 2239Z EA

Why not tell everyone it is a new one for you, we're all thrilled for you and will make a note in our own logs that you worked them too.

DX de KC8YJJ: 14180.0 DT8A 2242Z OH

DX de K4WSB: 14180.0 DT8A QSX 14190.0 AN-010 2242Z FL

How it should be done. Perfect.

DX de PY2SEI: 14180.0 DT8A 59 in São Paulo UP 10 2249Z PY

How do you get that cute little curly character in there?

DX de AA8M: 14190.0 DT8A 2250Z OH

DX de EA5FD: 14180.0 DT8A 5/5 im99tl 2251Z EA

Huh? Do we care where YOU are? But instead of a grid-square, just tell us.

DX de WD4LUR: 14180.0 DT8A Up 10 2254Z TN

DX de WV8BL: 14180.0 VP8/DT8A 5/9 Wv. UP 10 2253Z WV

He's 5/8 in VA, by the way. Any other states like to report? Tell me, what good does it do me to know that? I can either hear them or I can't.

DX de EA1EUI: 14180.0 DT8A 10 up 2255Z EA

DX de PY2OI: 14180.0 DT8A 5/9+ IN BRAZIL 2256Z PY

DX de EA4SG: 14180.0 DT8A 10 up. TNX AN-010 ! Just 100W 2259Z EA

Thanks for the 100 watt info. Since 90% of us are running 100 watts too, I'm not sure what your point is, but ok. We can calibrate our S-meters accordingly.

DX de VK6DU: 14180.0 DT8A sri 0/0 today ;-( 2302Z VK

I have no idea what this means but it's cute.

DX de EA4RL: 14180.0 DT8A 5/9 10 up 2307Z EA

DX de CT2GQL: 14180.0 DT8A up 10 tks for contact 2309Z CT

Look at me, look at me, I made a contact!!!

DX de PP2RON: 14180.0 DT8A UP 10 AN-010 2308Z PY

DX de K8HLH: 14180.0 DT8A 2309Z OH

DX de FM5DN: 14180.0 DT8A nice sig 59 hi Lee ! 2312Z FM

Just in case he didn't copy the "59" when you said it over the air, might as well repeat it here. Nice personal touch too.

DX de EC7JA: 14180.0 DT8A 5-9 in seville tnx.... 2314Z EA

DX de EA5GN: 14180.0 DT8A 5/9 73 2319Z EA

DX de KF6JOQ: 14180.0 DT8A up 10 loud 2319Z CA

Thanks for the "loud", it'll help me in case I hear a couple of signals, I'll just listen for the loudest one...

DX de K5IID: 14180.0 DT8A 2322Z TX

DX de VE3FDT: 14180.0 DT8A QSX 14190 2325Z ON

Another one who knows how to post a spot; good job.

DX de W7RRS: 14180.0 DT8A 2326Z FL

DX de KF4NEF: 14180.0 DT8A Up 10 5/9 In N C 2330Z NC

DX de VE3AXW:14180.0 DT8A TNX 4 THE 59 LISTENING UP 10 2331Z ON

The winner of the day - uses CAPS to make sure everyone notices, throws in "TNX 4 THE 59" just to make sure everyone KNOWS he worked him, and why not, he just spent 5 minutes calling on the DX frequency while everyone yelled "UP 10". Guess he thought he'd be nice and tell everyone else so they don't get yelled at too?

DX de YV5KQA: 14180.0 DT8A c d dx up 10 59 73 2338Z YV

Nice to know that he's calling CQ, otherwise I doubt we'd all be here. Yeah, why not, best regards to you too.

DX de K8JRG: 14180.0 DT8A 2344Z OH

Now, why am I so interested in this? That's a fair question. I guess because there's so much abuse and misuse of the clusters that unless people start pointing out the right way and the wrong way, no one will get the message and we'll forever have gigo - garbage in, garbage out. And these are just a short snippet on a single station. What it really boils down to is there's some folks who really like to brag and they want you, and me, and everyone else to know about it.

I'm willing to bet that some of the people who post garbage on the clusters are some of the same people who post their QRZ profiles in the third-person. You know the ones.

"Clyde McGillicutty graduated magna cum laude with a triple E from Slouch State. Clyde won the award for being the top salesman in the Southeast for Playtex Bras before launching a half dozen highly successful companies. Clyde has worked every station on every band. Blah, blah, blah."

Why on earth would you write about yourself in the third-person? Oh well. That has nothing to do with clusters, does it?

I've often felt that gaining access to post a spot on a cluster should be regulated. Whether that's a username and password, or some sort of registration process, something to restrict who can and can't post spots. Along the way, there's a lot of smart hams out there, surely someone can come up with a way to filter spots being posted - maybe by searching for keywords and phrases - and if a poster "violates" the, ahem, "ethics for proper posting" a given number of times, they're banned from posting spots for, say, 30 days or 60 days, something to that effect. Yes, some of the offending posters are surely smart people too, they'll figure out ways around it, but at least there'll be SOME deterrence in place. Maybe some won't fool with the hassle of circumventing the stopgap measures and they'll give up? There's hope, right?

And, speaking of the aforementioned "ethics for proper posting", what exactly does that mean? Well, I'm not sure, I just made that up because it sounded good. But a start could be a list of words or phrases that shouldn't be posted to clusters. Here's a few suggestions:

1. Worked 1st call - does it really matter if it was the first, second, or 200th call? For that matter, everyone could really care less if you worked them or not, just spot them.

2. 5/9 plus 20 - who cares? Didn't you already send his signal report over the air? I sure don't care what it was. Neither does anyone else. Just remove all signal reports altogether. They're lies just like the ones on the air.

3. Anyone who self-spots - does this really need an explanation?

4. Reporting the type of antenna used - again, no one cares. If you used a dipole, does that give me hope?

5. Tnx fer the QSL - or the related, $$-hound, no QSL. Many times these are posted when the spotted station isn't even on the air. Thanks for making everyone's alarms go off.

I guess I gripe a lot, don't I? I'm not really all that grouchy of a person...really. I just believe that people could use a little more common sense and have a little more courtesy. It wouldn't take much.

I'm not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, but I do stay at a lot of Holiday Inn Expresses, so I assure you that I'm better qualified than your average Joe to make these critiques.