[CQ-Contest] unique contacts and logging errors

[KH6DV at cs.com]

There has been a lot of interesting posts related to this thread. The last 
one by Doug KR2Q got my attention.  Doug said something I just have to agree 
with, if you cant prove that the contact did not take place it should not be 
removed from the log. 
The reason I agree with this is simply because I think unique contacts happen 
more often then Doug does.  Doug states earlier in his posting that uniques 
are actually rare. He goes on to allow for the fact that this may not be true 
in the case of a rare dx station. We all know how a rare location can pump up a 
contest log with 1000's
of non contest entrant pursuers.  As a non rare (and almost a non dx) Dx 
station I have to disagree with Doug on this one. There are exceptions to Doug's 
rule other than for rare dx.  The 10 meter band comes to mind as one.  During 
most contests
I work an amazing number of Qrp, Mobile, and Technician class stations on 10 
meters.  During last years SS SSB I had an opening run on 10 meters of a 
little over 300/Hr for 2.5 hours.  Out of this 775 contacts there were large 
numbers of the above mentioned stations that obviously were not in the contest. From 
this huge pool of contacts I cant imagine there not being a modest number of 
stations that only worked one or two contest entrants. The band was such that 
most of these stations mentioned that they had heard little or no contest 
activity that afternoon. I think its reasonable to assume that many of these non 
contesters would work a lone KH6 coming through that afternoon but not bother 
with the Utah and California station that was also on. From events like this I 
receive dozens of "first KH6 worked, pls qsl" notes on cards received just 
after the contest ends.  I just have to believe there are a dozen or two uniques 
in this batch.

While 10 meters may be somewhat of a unique situation, there are other 
similar situations.  I seem to get quite a few Qrp, Mobile, and non contester 
contacts on
40 and 80 meters also.  The Qsl's that result from these contacts often 
mention something like "first 40M (or 80M) KH6."   After 100's of these I just have 
a hard time believing that uniques are really that rare.  I know many hams 
have broken into qso's and asked one or both stations for a contact because the 
location of these stations resulted in someone's last multiplier needed for a 
sweep or whatever. We all know this is common and has a high possibility of 
resulting in a unique log entry. 

Uniques happen. I would like to see them dealt with as Doug suggests.

Just 5X My  $0.02 worth.

Aloha De Ron KH6DV (KH6VV)