(Wayne, N6NB, asked me to post the following for him. John, N6MU)
Some of the comments about roving posted here have
been more passionate than factual. I'd like to
present a few facts about our roving expeditions.
In January, 2003, I retired after 37 years as a
university professor and became more active in
VHF contesting than I'd been in 25 years. Since
then I've competed in six contests as a rover.
In the process, I built three 10-band stations.
**During those six contests N6NB/R activated 52
different grid squares from coast to coast. I
also operated in many others en route.
**The logs for those six contests contain 590
different call signs. N6NB/R worked many of those
590 stations numerous times on several bands while
in several grids, providing many people with
multipliers they might have otherwise missed.
**N6TR listed our June, 2004 scores here but
didn't include the totals by band. We had
53 multipliers on 50 MHz in that contest, far
more than any other rover (the W3IY/ON4IY team
had 33, for example). One of the main reasons
we roved up the Texas Panhandle, across western
Oklahoma and Kansas and into Nebraska was because
a lot of major cities are one sporadic E hop away
from those rare grids. The strategy worked, as
did our allegedly "small" antennas and "low" power
(375 watts out on six).
**Some have accused us--and the W2SZ/1 multioperator
group--of wanting to win. Of course we do, as does
almost everyone who competes in sports or just about
anything else. The W2SZ gang has been willing to do
the strategic planning and hard work that it takes
to win for decades. So have the Mt. Airy Packrats
and the Rochester VHF Group in the club competition.
And so have I as a single operator and now as a
rover. 30 years ago I found a way to win VHF
contests in California, something that had not
been done before. Later I built a second contest
station in a van, complete with a tower trailer,
and won two contests on Mt. Equinox, VT, 3,000
miles from home. Yes, we want to win.
Otherwise we wouldn't go to this trouble.
**Some have said that only three stations are
upsetting the applecart by "grid circling," and
that it could be stopped without changing the
rules by using a "you-know-it-when-you-see-it"
test to turn our logs into check logs. Aside
from the inherent problem of arbitrarily
enforcing unwritten rules, there's the problem
that not everyone seems to "know it when they
see it." At least seven of the top 10 rovers
in January, 2004 were traveling with another
rover. Other rovers have "grid circled" in
the northeast corridor, upstate New York, the
upper midwest, the southwest, the Pacific
northwest and California. Many rovers would
not be willing to travel to faraway, rare grid
squares at all if they had to operate alone,
forfeiting the multipliers that they hand out
to others.
Roving has become one of the key attractions of
VHF contesting. It appeals to people who wouldn't
otherwise operate a VHF contest (or couldn't, due
to antenna restrictions). The ARRL Board, with
advice from the new VHF contest committee, could
certainly restrict roving, but that would only
hurt VHF contest activity when it is already
declining.
There is a summary of the convoluted history of
the rover rules at www.n6nb.com <http://www.n6nb.com> .
73,
Wayne Overbeck, N6NB
Former Chairman, ARRL Contest Advisory Committee,
and ARRL Southwestern Division Vice Director
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