[UK-CONTEST] Time to ditch the signal report?

[Stewart Rolfe]

All this fussing about 59(9) or 'correct' signal reports seems irrelevant to me.....
The point of a contest exchange is to copy correctly certain data - callsign, a serial number, locator or whatever. A signal report tells nothing pertinent to the contest situation, and on HF with perhaps 3 or 4 signals in your passband is impossible to judge per signal anyway; hence the customary '599 - agn ur serial??' situation much ridiculed by non-contesters.
So why don't the contest organisers bite the bullet and get rid of compulsory reports? Sending 599 for each contact flies in the face of the contest ethos where the idea is to avoid all redundant information which the 599 most definitely is. It works in the Sprints despite the occasional plea from some that
 the 599 is useful as a cue for the following 'important' information.
I think everyone if arguing about the wrong thing......
73,
Stewart, GW0ETF