Gus said (in part):
And IIRC, contacts made on SKED don't count either, for contests or
awards.
You have clearly never operated a microwave contest. For all practical purposes, all contacts are made using a lower frequency co-ordination frequency or network. When you are operating in a mode where the dishes at both ends of the path need to be pointed within a half degree of peak, and are often at best able to get signals that are only a dB or two above ESP level - and of course you need to be on the same frequency, it would be almost impossible for two stations to make any contacts with co-ordination via some means. The contacts are legitmately made on the microwave frequencies, but getting the dishes pointed is done at lower frequencies. BTW, I point out that the dishes are often not pointed at each other, but rather something to bounce off of (such as a mountain, clouds or airplanes).
Here is the Southwest US, a normally private linked UHF radio system that covers most of the southwest opens the system for the microwave contest operators for both weekends of the 10GHz and up contests. It's really quite amazing to hear what they do, but there is no way they could make the contacts that they do without co-ordinating them.
Jim - K6CCC