[CQ-Contest] computers ruined contesting

[Mark Beckwith]

At first glance these seem like legitimate questions for heated contester
debate:

>What about K vs. 1000 vs. KW?

>I know if I hear WA1ABC/DU1 and five minutes later
>I hear DU1/WA1ABC that it's the same guy.

I like to vent just as much as anyone, but in the case of this thread, I
think once it has come out that the actual log errors turned out to be
completely different from those initially supposed, that would be an
appropriate time to stop and wonder if it was worth continuing to discuss
what turned out after all to be "pretend" problems.

I believe we can safely say:

1. nobody gets dinged for changing where they put the portable designator,
whether sending or logging.  When Dan said "each log checker has their own
feelings about this," I bet the part he left out which he should have said
was "and all the log checkers have talked about it and decided to feel the
same about this."

2. nobody is getting dinged for changing from KW to 1000 either, whether
sending or logging.

3. in reality the checkers are somewhat lenient at times, and some people
are saying they shouldn't be so lenient.

4. tightening this aspect of log checking would result in a Pandora's Box of
undesirable side-effects, for example:

When he said "five-nine-thousand" did he pronounce the final "d"?  Is
"thousand" spelled with a capital T or a lower case T?  Was he actually
saying "1000"?  What if you just write "kw", do you get in trouble?

On CW when he sent 599 K did he forget to send the power and was he turning
it back over to you?

My point is, the checkers have thought about the side effects and drawn a
line where the job is getting done well in every day application.

I have yet to see a post which shows this is not the case.

Mark, N5OT