Re check digits and other "unenforced rules"...
To understand why the ARRL doesn't enforce the
check digit "rule", put yourself in their position.
Some contest newbie submits his score with the
wrong check, say 99. So he sent 99 throughout
the whole contest. As the ARRL, do you really
want to disqualify the guy for something that
gave him no advantage? No, you don't because
that would discourage him from contesting in
the future. So they don't. Since there is
little to be gained from changing check and
it's actually harmful to the submittor (due
to check databases being in use), the ARRL
decides just to require a two digit number
to be sent. They keep calling it check,
because that's more interesting than
a pair of random digits.
It's really pretty simple, and practical.
The ARRL is more interested in encouraging
participation than enforcing rules that
don't affect the outcome. Is that really
a suprise. Would you do it any differently?
How do I know that is what the ARRL is doing?
I don't for sure, but I do know that I was
told to submit a log where I sent incorrect
information. I had sent "M" instead of "U"
for an entire Sweepstakes contest, and they
told me to just submit the log with the
"M" in the QSOs, but claim U status. The
rationale was as above. (I was single-op
assisted. There was no other operator.)
73,
Tom
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