[UK-CONTEST] Progressing in Contesting

[Bob Henderson]

Surely the clue is in the title of these events.  Several definitions of the 
word can be found but I prefer the following....

Contest...A struggle between rivals.

And so it should be but with behaviour bounded by a requirement to adhere to 
the conditions of one's license and the rules of the event.

Contest reflectors are forever overflowing with suggestions that behaviour 
should be further bounded by a panoply of constraints, inter alia..

Both calls should be sent by both stations for a qso to be valid.
Accurate reports should be exchanged because a default 5nn is worthless.
No part of the exchange should be speeded up as this constitutes poor 
operating practice.
Cut numbers should never be used.
Only cut numbers for 9 and 0 should be allowed

etc etc etc

I love these folks.  They bound their own activity with a bunch of arbitrary 
constraints and then take to the reflectors to bleat about others not 
following suit.

So long as a contestant complies with the requirements of his license and 
the rules of the event the rest is up to his own judgement and discretion. 
For example...

A decision on whether to send EEN or not might reasonably be based on 
whether it is likely to be interpreted accurately in a high enough number of 
cases to make an advantage out of its use compared to the alternatives of 
599 or 5NN.  Assuming, of course, there is any benefit in it being received 
accurately in the first place.

A decision on whether to speed up a required element of an exchange which 
conveys no intelligence, might reasonably be made upon time saved versus 
confusion caused.

The above are examples not prescriptions.  Thank goodness we have some 
discretion over how we target our objective.

Long live the tradition of contesting and long may it remain a struggle 
between rivals.  Once it ceases to be so, then what is it?

Bob, 5B4AGN, P3F