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

[dave at g4buo.com]

As Dave knows, I sometimes give him 559 reports in RSGB 80m contests.

It can be instructive when you hear a really bad signal (typically when
beaming east) where the operator has deliberately introduced some AC or
other nastiness into the TX signal to make it wide. Send them a report of
595 and wait for the pause while they try and figure out what you just
sent them.

I would like to see a situation where contest checking software would
recognise when stations were getting a lot of bad tone reports, and
penalise the stations concerned. But I\'m not holding my breath.

On a crowded HF band in a major contest it is perfectly possible for a
station to be 59 when he calls you and gives his callsign, but very hard
to copy when he gives the serial number due to adjacent QRM, including the
nast signal mentioned above.

I support having meaningful exchanges in HF contests, typically serial
number, and feel it is a shame that the zone number in the CQ contests is
very nearly meaningless. But that\'s the way it is and it doesn\'t stop
the CQWW contests from being a lot of fun, and a great test of operator
skill. I invite the VHF operators who doubt this statement to give it a
try and see how they get on.

For my part, I\'ll be on my once a year foray above 30MHz in VHF FD the
weekend after next, but for me the main enjoyment of the weekend will be
the consumption of large quantities of beer on the Friday evening. Each to
his own!

73, Dave G4BUO

> Although RST may be redundant in contests, you must take into
> consideration that many of us (most) also use QSOs made in contests to
> chase various awards. Although it seems RST is not needed for DXCC
> claims the same cannot be said for many other awards. What are we going
> to do for QSLs for these QSOs, simply leave the RST boxes blank? And if
> we are going to abandon it for contest QSOs, what about all the
> DXpedition pileup QSOs where the report is all that is actually
> exchanged - perhaps we just send our callsign, the other station
> repeats it and says \'R\' or \'TU\' and you have to respond with similar...
>
> No, a report is an integral part of what is considered as a QSO and
> should NOT be dropped. (and that is one of the reasons why I do NOT
> enter the RSGB sprints, when I work somebody I want a report,
> meaningful or not).
>
> 73 Dave G3YMC
>
> On 28 Jun 2012 at 8:51, Stewart Rolfe wrote:
>
>> 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......
>
>
> http://www.davesergeant.com
>
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