[CQ-Contest] zero pointers - was: Rick's Cafe...NQ4I's "Play itagain"

[Doug Smith W9WI]

On Mon, 2006-10-30 at 20:28, Ted Bryant wrote:
> Sorry to disagree with you, but having rules that allow valid QSO's worth zero points is just plain
> silly. If it is a valid QSO it should also have some point value.  The fact that the QSO may also be
> a multiplier is incidental.

Actually, I'm with Kelly...

Contests have funny quirks.  The Sprint QSY rule has a valid purpose but
drives people batty.  Many QSO Parties have a strange special bonus
station.  The SS exchange is ridiculously long and the
one-QSO-per-contest rule (vs. one-QSO-per-band) makes for a long boring
contest without doing anything for people's scores.  Our own Tennessee
QSO Party has its double and triple mults.  

Yet the community wants these rules (well, maybe not the Tenn. multiple
mults!) kept the way they are.  Because these are some of the quirks
that make these contests what they are.

I would suggest zero-pointers are one thing that makes the CQWW the
CQWW.  Really, they add a bit of strategy to the contest: while your
concentration is on working as much DX as possible you do have to
remember to catch those Zone 3/4/5 mults and that own-country country
mult.  Sometimes it can be an actual challenge.  (I worked something
like 650 Qs & managed to miss the USA mult on 40 meters...)  

Surely these don't seriously impact a competitive score, do they?
 
-- 
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN  EM66
http://www.w9wi.com