diff --git a/internal/cat/flex.go b/internal/cat/flex.go
index a9dab3c..e549757 100644
--- a/internal/cat/flex.go
+++ b/internal/cat/flex.go
@@ -60,6 +60,9 @@ type Flex struct {
 	txRawLogged    bool         // log the first raw transmit status once (field-name audit)
 
 	spotsEnabled    bool           // push cluster spots + manage the panadapter overlay
+	// foreignSpotSeen counts what probeForeignSpot has already reported, so a
+	// skimmer posting all evening cannot turn the log into its own transcript.
+	foreignSpotSeen int
 	spotIdx         map[int]bool   // panadapter spot indices currently known to the radio
 	pendingSpot     map[int]string // seq → callsign, awaiting the spot index in the R response
 	pendingSpotMode map[int]string // seq → ADIF mode, paired with pendingSpot
@@ -883,6 +886,9 @@ func (f *Flex) handleStatus(payload string) {
 					f.spotIdx[idx] = true
 				}
 				f.mu.Unlock()
+				if !removed {
+					f.probeForeignSpot(payload)
+				}
 			}
 			debugLog.Printf("Flex: status %s", payload)
 		}
@@ -1377,6 +1383,40 @@ func (f *Flex) ZoomPan(bandwidthMHz, freqMHz float64, centre bool) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+// foreignSpotProbeMax bounds the probe below. Enough lines to see what another
+// program writes into a spot, few enough that a running skimmer — which posts
+// hundreds an hour — cannot fill the log file with them.
+const foreignSpotProbeMax = 60
+
+// probeForeignSpot records, verbatim, the spots this radio receives from
+// programs OTHER than OpsLog.
+//
+// A CW skimmer (SDC, for one) posts what it decodes as panadapter spots, the
+// exchange included: chasing a split pileup means finding the "5NN" the DX just
+// sent and moving the transmit slice there. Acting on that requires knowing
+// exactly what the spot looks like — which field carries the text, whether the
+// report is the callsign or the comment, what source names the skimmer — and no
+// amount of reasoning substitutes for reading real lines off a real radio.
+//
+// So this logs and does nothing else. It is deliberately not a feature.
+func (f *Flex) probeForeignSpot(payload string) {
+	if strings.Contains(payload, "source=OpsLog") {
+		return
+	}
+	f.mu.Lock()
+	if f.foreignSpotSeen >= foreignSpotProbeMax {
+		f.mu.Unlock()
+		return
+	}
+	f.foreignSpotSeen++
+	n := f.foreignSpotSeen
+	f.mu.Unlock()
+	debugLog.Printf("flex: foreign spot %d/%d: %s", n, foreignSpotProbeMax, payload)
+	if n == foreignSpotProbeMax {
+		debugLog.Printf("flex: that is enough foreign spots to go on — no more will be logged this session")
+	}
+}
+
 // SendSpot renders a cluster spot on the panadapter via "spot add". Spots carry
 // a lifetime so the radio expires them on its own (the API has no "spot clear").
 // Per the SmartSDR API, spaces inside a field value are encoded as 0x7F.