What's up with the dramatic increase in the number of messages with no
paragraph breaks and weird strings (â??oooâ??) in place of normal
punctuation, and even apostrophes? It makes messages dreadfully hard to
read, and frankly leads me often to ignore what may be useful views or
information. An example is below.
73, Pete N4ZR
At 06:22 PM 2/22/2008, W6UM@aol.com wrote:
> The changes in the ARRL DX Contest exchange over the years have been
> with the intent of making it more enjoyable and accessible for all,
> especially for the DX stations. Many years ago the exchange sent by both
> W/VE and DX was RST+ a 3-digit arbitrary number. The arbitrary number
> was self-selected, not a serial number, and thus remained constant
> during the contest. The exchange was then changed for both W/VE and DX
> to RST+ a 3-digit number, where the number was the power input in watts.
> One big reason for the change was to enable getting a valid contest
> exchange from a not-in-the-contest DX station wandering onto the band
> during the contest. It was much easier just to ask for his power than
> to explain the business about an arbitrary number. One memorable
> incident during this time occurred when an unaware EA6, much needed by
> all as a new multiplier, came on 15 meters and created a pileup
> answering his initial CQ. The first W he worked asked for his power, and
> the EA held down his key to read the meter and give an accurate reply.
> Apparently his power supply couldnâ??t take the duty factor, and his
> signal wavered for a while and then quit entirely. W4KFC, among the
> hopefuls waiting on frequency, then went on and said â?? I guess that
> makes his power 000â??. With the widespread use of electronic keyers
> instead of bugs, it was not possible to send long dashes for zeros, so
> many stations began using alphanumeric representations to indicate their
> power. KH6IJ used to send â??oooâ??, three dashes at a time. RST values
> sent for a while were reasonably representative. For many years â??
> 579â?? was the standard, but the macho desire to give and receive bigger
> numbers has led to the point that â??5NNâ?? is now the defacto preamble
> for what follows. Most signals now are not S9, and many are not T9
> either. The contest exchange was finally changed to its present format,
> RST + state/province for W/VE and RST + power for DX. This
> definitely makes the contest more interesting and enjoyable for the DX
> stations. For them also, having some choice of an alphanumeric
> representation of their power allows some degree of creativity. A unique
> power value serves as an identifier, which helps in the instances when
> the DX station sends his call rarely but sends his power with each QSO.
> The way a station decides to indicate his power on cw can be similar to
> his choice of phonetics on ssb: whatever works best and requires the
> fewest repeats. In â??08 and previously, DX stations with very similar
> calls purposefully chose different power indicators to help minimize
> confusion. There are many different ways to indicate â??1KWâ??. It
> appears the ARRL log robot will accept a wide variety of alphanumeric
> combinations for power, even with different numbers of digits. Thus far,
> four digits seems to be sufficient?. Bassed on DX activity, the rules
> and the required exchange do not seem to be seriously limiting
> participation. Any changes considered should only to be to make it
> better for them, not for us. Chas., W6UM **************Ideas to please
> picky eaters. Watch video on AOL
> Living.
> (http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/
>
> 2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)
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