[CQ-Contest] Signal report

Zack Widup w9sz.zack at gmail.com
Thu Dec 11 10:32:09 EST 2008


That's one thing I like about SS, VHF contests, NAQP etc. which do not have
a "signal report" as part of their exchange. The exchange is usually
something you actually have to copy.  I may know what grid square most of
the guys in my area are in but when the Rovers get out, I actually have to
copy what they send. And the name sent in NAQP can be any sort of name, not
your real one, so it gets to be a lot of fun.

BTW after all these years of using CT, I finally found out it allows you to
log a real signal report!  Duh!

73, Zack W9SZ

On 12/10/08, Al Lorona <alorona at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>
> What is the purpose of the signal report in the exchange for the ARRL 160m
> contest?
>
> That is the question posed by my 10-year-old son after he wandered into the
> shack as I began operating last weekend and noticed that my logging software
> always automatically filled in the RST as '599'.
>
> Poor guy. He stood thinking about it for a long time, then finally he said,
> "Dad, that's like answering '10' every time someone asked you how old you
> were, no matter how old you were, even if you were an old man!"
>
> A few contacts later, he said, "Dad, you could barely hear that guy, but
> you sent him a 5NN. That's lying!"
>
> If we are reasonable and fair-minded we must finally face facts and
> eliminate the farce that is RST exchanges in contests.
>
> If we are going to require sending a literal '5NN' as part of the exchange,
> couldn't we at least use those kilowatt-hours consumed by our radios and
> amplifiers to send something halfway useful? Even a piece of trivia such as
> your name, a serial number, or the temperature in the shack is less futile
> than '5NN'. Or eliminate it from the exchange entirely, no?
>
> Even Field Day has it over the ARRL 160 in this regard. And it's not even
> an official contest.
>
> Apparently, the movers and shakers of the contesting world all read this
> reflector... maybe they will be persuaded to make contests such as these
> more sensible to future contesters like my son.
>
> If you are not in favor of replacing '5NN' with something arguably more
> 'useful', why not?
>
> If you are in favor of keeping the RST as part of the exchange, how would
> you feel about a contester who got on the ARRL 160 and actually started
> sending realistic RST reports like '439', '569', and so forth? My guess is
> that that would irk most contesters-- but don't let me put words in your
> mouth. (I presume this only because it seems that for any issue raised here,
> consensus always dictates the best practice during a contest, and the
> sending of realistic signal reports seems to me to be so far out of the norm
> that it would disrupt the flow in the same way that many other idiosyncratic
> operating procedures, additions, omissions, etc., have been deemed to do the
> same in recent posts.)
>
> Thanks very much for reading.
>
> Al  W6LX
> 5NN LAX
>
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