[CQ-Contest] cut numbers

[Art Boyars]

N6TJ said: "Simply asked:  why send more than required to get the message across?"

Indeed: "... to get the message across...."   Well we knew that even before Claude Shannon explained it.  So it works OK for "5NN" and for CQ WW, where all you have to copy is the call sign, and the logging software fills in the zone.  If somebody in Brazil sends me "AA" I don't have to wonder if he is advocating sobriety.

And it's not such a good idea for SS (where you actually have to copy something; I'm thinking of adopting K0HB's variable CK).  Jim, are you ready for "nbtj aeeu a kvku bt md".

Go ahead and use cut numbers.  Just be ready to change your tactics if enough non-experts slow you down by asking for a repeat, or if enough newbies -- the ones who prestage the exchange in the log before they call you -- won't even try because they can't figure out what you're sending.  (That last one is kind of hard to detect, isn't it?).

(Sidebar: In CQ WW the software also fills in the 599.  In the recent WW CW I was at a multi-op.  Some station sent us a 579!  I fumbled with the keyboard, but could not figure out how to get into the RST field to change the automatic 599.  So I asked my companion op.  He replied, "You can't."  I'm afraid we're going to get dinged for a busted report.)

(Side-sidebar:  And if you know that -- as I suspect --  the log-checking software does not check the RST, then instead of telling me that, explain why we have to send RST.)

73, Art K3KU
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