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[VHFcontesting] Limited Roving - Worth the Effort?

To: k4gun@comcast.net
Subject: [VHFcontesting] Limited Roving - Worth the Effort?
From: James Duffey <JamesDuffey@comcast.net>
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 15:11:56 -0600
List-post: <vhfcontesting@contesting.com">mailto:vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Steve - You wrote:

        2.  I should have done a LOT of calling on 6 meters this June.  I did  
a lot of S&P and caught a lot of grids, but for         some reason, I didn't  
select a frequency and just call for any length of time.  Looking  
back, I realize that this was a         mistake.  I kept going back to 2  
meters after I had worked all the 6 meter stations I could hear.  I  
think I really  limited my score due to this.

This is good advice for any contest. You can get a higher rate CQing  
than S&Ping. When the CQ rates drop, S&P, when those rates drop CQ. If  
I am making a contact S&Ping every 2 minutes, then I can CQ without an  
answer for that long before I am doign worse than S&P.

        3.  I shut off my APRS on Sunday afternoon.  It was obvious that the  
multi-ops were not using it to track me and all it      did was cause  
noise at certain places on the band.  If there was evidence that  
people actually used it, I would leave  on.  I agree that single ops  
being able to use this would change roving for the better.

I guess you know that you can shut it off when parked. The internet  
server will then just serve your last position until you turn it on  
again. If you are parked, there is no need to turn it on. When moving  
you can increase the time between when the APRS sends to say 5 minutes  
to decrease interference.

        4.  The limited and traditional rover categories should be limited to  
no more than 10 or 20 contacts with any single  other rover.  Its flat  
out ridiculous to allow a limited rover to have 100 contacts with  
another rover.  The             predictable result is that one headed out with 
a  
grid circling pack in CA and I'm sure his score will be astronomical.   
        haven't done the math, but if he went with 3 other rovers into the 15  
grids they ventured into, I'm sure he could win         the category without  
ever attempting to contact an outside person.  This issue needs  
addressed.

It used to be an unlimited number of contacts, so 100 is better. It  
probably is a good compromise.

        5.  My future roves are not going to concentrate on rarish grids.  As  
you illustrate, it isn't worth the time and     effort.  My future  
efforts will be to concentrate on higher ground, closer to population  
centers.  I want to be in the   beam path of the base stations that are  
looking for contacts.  In my case, that means leaving FM26 and 27 and  
instead,        towards New York and New Jersey.  I want to be between the  
Washington DC stations and the New England stations as much     as  
possible.

Everybody needs to formulate their own strategy. I think that one of  
the purposes of roving is to activate rare grids and if you forsake  
that for more contacts, you may be more competitive in the contest,  
but you are not giving other competitors access to rare grids, one  
reason many contest. You pays your money and you takes your choices.

        6.  I think we rovers need to develop some protocols for frequency  
use.  I don't know how successful this will be, but     if we could all  
agree on looking for rovers at some pre-determined section of the  
band, I think we would all be better    off.  I know some guys have  
their listening frequency and that's great for them.  They could still  
have that and it        would still  be useful.  If however, we could keep  
the big guns off... say 144.220 to 144.240 and reserve it for rover      
calling, I think we could improve things.

This does take the skill out of searching out and finding contacts.  
Kind of like the DX window. I suspect that the good ops will find  
rovers no matter where they are, all a rover window will do is let  
those stations that don't want to work too hard for contacts make  
them. Out here, most of my contacts are  made on the calling  
frequency, or on the Colorado 2M frequency, 144.22. When things get  
busy, I qsy up a bit to let others use the calling frequency.

There have been suggestions to limit one contest, say the June contest  
to only 4 bands, or 2. This would avoid the off times while everyone  
is QSYing to the microwaves. There are other problems with this  
proposal, but it wold concentrate activityon 6 and 2. Or whatever few  
bands the contest has.  - Duffey
--
KK6MC
James Duffey
Cedar Crest NM





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