[CQ-Contest] Evolution of the ARRL DX Exchange

[Pete Smith]

What's up with the dramatic increase in the number of messages with no 
paragraph breaks and weird strings (“ooo”) in place of normal 
punctuation, and even apostrophes?  It makes messages dreadfully hard to 
read, and frankly leads me often to ignore what may be useful views or 
information.  An example is below.

73, Pete N4ZR


At 06:22 PM 2/22/2008, W6UM at aol.com wrote:
>   The changes in the ARRL DX Contest exchange over the  years have been 
> with the intent of making it more enjoyable and accessible for  all, 
> especially for the DX stations.  Many years ago the exchange sent by both 
> W/VE and DX was  RST+ a 3-digit arbitrary number. The arbitrary number 
> was self-selected, not a  serial number, and thus remained constant 
> during the contest. The exchange was  then changed for both W/VE and DX 
> to RST+ a 3-digit number, where the number was  the power input in watts. 
> One big reason for the change was to enable getting a  valid contest 
> exchange from a not-in-the-contest DX station wandering onto the  band 
> during the contest. It was much easier just to ask for his power than 
> to  explain the business about an arbitrary number. One memorable 
> incident during this time occurred when an  unaware EA6, much needed by 
> all as a new multiplier, came on 15 meters and  created a pileup 
> answering his initial CQ. The first W he worked asked for his  power, and 
> the EA held down his key to read the meter and give an accurate  reply. 
> Apparently his power supply couldn’t take the duty factor, and his 
> signal  wavered for a while and then quit entirely. W4KFC, among the 
> hopefuls waiting on  frequency, then went on and said “ I guess that 
> makes his power  000”. With the widespread use of electronic keyers 
> instead of  bugs, it was not possible to send long dashes for zeros, so 
> many stations began  using alphanumeric representations to indicate their 
> power. KH6IJ used to send  “ooo”, three dashes at a time. RST values 
> sent for a while were reasonably  representative. For many years “ 
> 579” was the standard, but the macho desire to  give and receive bigger 
> numbers has led to the point that “5NN” is now the  defacto preamble 
> for what follows. Most signals now are not S9, and many are not  T9 
> either. The contest exchange was finally changed to its present  format, 
> RST + state/province for W/VE and RST + power for DX. This 
> definitely  makes the contest more interesting and enjoyable for the DX 
> stations. For them  also, having some choice of an alphanumeric 
> representation of their power allows  some degree of creativity. A unique 
> power value serves as an identifier, which  helps in the instances when 
> the DX station sends his call rarely but sends his  power with each QSO. 
> The way a station decides to indicate his power on cw can  be similar to 
> his choice of phonetics on ssb: whatever works best and requires  the 
> fewest repeats. In ’08 and previously, DX stations with very similar 
> calls  purposefully chose different power indicators to help minimize 
> confusion. There  are many different ways to indicate “1KW”. It 
> appears the ARRL log robot will accept a wide variety of alphanumeric 
> combinations for power, even with  different numbers of digits. Thus far, 
> four digits seems to be  sufficient
. Bassed on DX activity, the rules 
> and the required exchange  do not seem to be seriously limiting 
> participation. Any changes considered  should only to be to make it 
> better for them, not for us. Chas.,  W6UM **************Ideas to please 
> picky eaters. Watch video on AOL 
> Living. 
> (http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/ 
> 2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598) 
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