When are we going to get rid of signal reports in contests (and on dxpeditions)? A station asks you to repeat your call five times and still gives you 59 when it is plainly obvious that the "real"report is nothing like that. Wasting breath, wasting time and telling lies - hardly good operating practice!
I tried to give out correct reports in this weekend contest and got remarks like "cmon give me S9" and "you mean S9."
Lets just drop the requirement for signal reports unless a station specifically asks for one.
Off soapbox, need to take my medication!
Wayne VK4WDM
Hear, hear.
I remember having to give them in the late 50s during local 6m scrambles.
A total w#!k.
Nev
Actually sometimes the call for repeats is justified. You get a popular callsign being deluged by DXers and until you are 'in the clear' while the other callers pause, it is hard to get callsigns and reports and numbers across accurately. Crowded frequencies don't help either.
The '5 by 9' is a fairly standard contest exchange as it takes too long to gaze at the S-meter then translate that into a signal report whilst paying more attention to the on-screen logging to make sure you are uttering the correct sequential number after it. When your logging rate is 3-4 per minute, there is no time to waste...
That 59-effect happens even during VK-based VHF/UHF contests, RD, JMMFD etc, let alone the international CQ WPX SSB on this weekend.
Having to lie and give BS reports is one of the reasons I never indulge in contests.
Why not drop the requirement altogether. It is meaningless. Just say signals OK.
Nev
(25-03-2018, 08:08 AM)VK4ADC Wrote: [ -> ]Actually sometimes the call for repeats is justified. You get a popular callsign being deluged by DXers and until you are 'in the clear' while the other callers pause, it is hard to get callsigns and reports and numbers across accurately. Crowded frequencies don't help either.
The '5 by 9' is a fairly standard contest exchange as it takes too long to gaze at the S-meter then translate that into a signal report whilst paying more attention to the on-screen logging to make sure you are uttering the correct sequential number after it. When your logging rate is 3-4 per minute, there is no time to waste...
That 59-effect happens even during VK-based VHF/UHF contests, RD, JMMFD etc, let alone the international CQ WPX SSB on this weekend.
"Actually sometimes the call for repeats is justified."
I am definitely not arguing against asking for repeats, they are often very necessary. Its the silliness of having to give a signal report all the time that irks me. If a station is struggling for contacts I would rather him him/her "you are weak here, about S3" rather that an obligatory S9.
Wayne VK4WDM
Aha! the old signal report trickaroo...
Actually the ARRL do not require a signal report for a valid dxcc contact.
They require "the exchange of previously unknown information"
So when i am working a bloke in e.g scotland, i can tell him i had walnuts for breakfast and he tells me that the battery on his mercedes just died, we have a valid contact and qso exchange for dxcc arrl purposes.
I got this info from the horses mouth in arrl a few years ago.
I use 100% paper logbooks, [have 49 of them] so its easy to write "mercedes battery just died"
Some contests may actually require a numerical report? i dont actually enter contests, just snoop for new ones etc and i give "real" reports.
However i always give a genuine "guess meter" report and it is amazing that in 99% of cases the bloke at the other end thinks he is 59... his ears are tuned to 59 or 599.
Sometimes i will tell him he is 50uV if he is 9 on the guess meter...
Good fun all round
vk6ro
e&oe
Given the topic of this thread "Signal reports in Contests a waste of time!", I started to consider what my next contest log might look like if we drop the '59'/signal report component......
VK3XYZ, you are Ok001, thanks for VeryPoor002
VK5BBB, you are NBG002, acknowledging CantReadYou021, please repeat ad infinitum until I get your exchange
VK1QQQ, thanks for Crap025, you are JustNoise003
.......
How am I going to put those reports in logging software with very narrow data fields ???
Your solution ??
(from someone who HAS done quite a bit of contesting in recent years & is second in the 2017 WIA Contest Champion list)
gnal reports in Contests a waste of time!"
(27-03-2018, 09:05 AM)VK4ADC Wrote: [ -> ]Your solution ??
gnal reports in Contests a waste of time!"
OK I like contests - All contests have an exchange that needs to be copied but the signal report usually does not matter. Eg the RD, the years licenced or the John Moyle, a serial number.
The report tends to be a precursor to the information you need - so hearing the 59 or the 5NN you are ready for the important exchange. Does it really matter that the report incoming is accurate? Possibly but the practice of the standard 59(9) goes back to the 1950s it is one of those peculiarities of the hobby.
During rag chew reports make up an important part of proceedings but in the contest world they are not, I must agree with Doug that getting them in the log is a big difference- Until you have operated one of the first class contest stations you really have no idea how big the pileups can be - A few years back I operated VK7ZE on 15M into EU on SSB and even as an experienced operator the pileup was that intense it took anything up to 30 seconds to be able to pull out a callsign. While you can hear the pileup on a vertical you don't hear the mayhem that an additional 30db (location + antenna) will produce...