[WernherVonTrapp]

Ahhh, OK, now I'm clear in the "contacts" issue. Yes, I have "no contact updates" checked off. Still, I do get some, but for the most part, I ignore them unless I'm especially close to the contact location. There are so many elements involved in obtaining a successful intercept, not the least of which is a change of course by the contact. Most of the time, you only end up wasting fuel. I have suceeded on a few occasions though.
I've never use the contact updates feature because my experience with most of them has proven to be futile. Try using one of the mods. They fix a lot of the stock's buggy features.