[CQ-Contest] Dumbing-Down Contests?

[Paul O'Kane]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Notarius W3WN" <wn3vaw at verizon.net>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>

Snip

> The problem here is not the contest rules.  It is not
> the contest exchange.

Snip

> I reiterate:  It ain't broke.  Don't fix it.

It is broke!  It has been broken for over 20 years - since
computer logging became the norm.

CT, the first major contest logger, had no provision for
logging RST Sent as anything other than 59(9).  Since then,
the mindless exchange of 59(9) has become redundant.

Secondly, in ARRL DX, once you've had one QSO with a station,
the software knows, and pre-fills, the exchange.  In CQWW, 
it knows the exchange once you enter a prefix.  So, why
exchange it again - or at all?

Yes, I know - "it's in the rules".  Many contesters, not
unreasonably, think the rules in some major contests are
long overdue for an update.

The simplest way to keep contesters honest, and avoid
mindless repetition, is to introduce serials where they
don't already exist.  Just think, they could even replace
RST.

If things never change, they will never get better.  Why
not recognise that logging software has changed contesting,
and update the rules to reflect 21st century reality?  

I don't know of any loggers that can pre-fill serials,
even though most of them seem to get RST right.

73,
Paul EI5DI