Guys,
I don't post very often, but I am a full bore contester and I see a bit of
misunderstanding on a couple of fronts in this discussion (which probably
needs to be ended immediately AFTER my post ;-) )
The RST does still count and CAN be sent accurately in contests. A
contester needs to copy it correctly if he doesn't want to lose that contact
(assuming the person contacted sends in his log with the "real" RST that
happens NOT to be 599). I usually get about .1% of my contest contacts that
attempt to give an RST and I want to copy them accurately. In reality, MOST
participants simply use "5NN" for brevity sake, but a "real" RST is still
found in many contest rules and is as important as the serial number (or
whatever is required for a particular contest). You should know that there
is an active debate in the contest world about whether rules should be
changed to eliminate RST reporting since a) in practice, it has become
meaningless and b) there are some folks who think RST is derived from their
S-meter.and therefore a bit inaccurate anyway. If the contest sponsors side
with the "eliminate RST" crowd, then you may see a simple serial number or
exchange without RST (like Sweepstakes has). However, the other side of
that argument is that if RST was dropped, past records would be less
meaningful if the exchange suddenly was cut in half and theoretically almost
twice the QSOs could be made. In the meantime, copying what is sent is
still required to win and you can't just put your station on "autopilot" and
expect to compete. You must be an extremely active participant to compete,
but each individual in a contest has his own goals.
When I want to get a real RST, I don't do it during a contest when the point
of a contest is to crank out as many contacts as possible; I look for a nice
casual QSO that is not rushed and I can switch antennas or spin the power
dial to get an honest report. The art of a QSO is not gone and shouldn't
lamented as having died, but the contest period is generally not a good
climate for a casual QSO and extensive RST evaluation. A responsible
contester will know his "R" and "T" before the contest and the "S" is
implied by his rate meter in the logging software.
That's my entire 2 cents for 2009. ;-)
Bob K5WA (NK5Q for 2 hours in WPX CW)
"I live for rate"
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Jun 01, 2009; 10:20pm
