No no no! Don't send your Easterly rovers to Denver. We need 'em her
in SoCal to increase activity as well as to make roving safer! Maybe
N6NB is right... maybe it is better to rove in packs. Below is my
experience from the September 2006 VHF party.
I drove with antennas installed from Mojave to 58 to
15. Stopped on an overpass near Edwards AFB just as I crossed into
DM15. That was a good site. That is where the concerned citizen/Moron
from Boron started following me, unbeknownst to me until I reached the
top of the hill just south of Kramer Junction at 11pm. I cut my
operation short from that location in DM14 because I was feely creepy.
This 60-ish guy in a cream colored Chrysler mini-van followed me to
the truck stop at 395/15. Oh, we drove 55 the whole way. I thought he
would lose interest and pass. Actually I thought he was a shy ham
checking out my antennas. At the truck stop, I pulled up and parked at
the entrance to the store and dismantled my antenna stack. With my
back to his vehicle, he drove up within 10 feet of me and snapped a
digital image of the back of my truck then sped off. While he was
taking the picture, I got a good look at him. He really fit the
demographic of your typical ham. I was expecting him to comment on my
antennas and start up a conversation. I went inside for awhile and
bought some coffee. When I came out, he was apparently still gone.
As I made the left turn at the stoplight onto the 10 South onramp he
appeared in my rear-view mirror. Now I know why they call it rear-
view. It’s where the asses appear. I pulled over. He pulled over and
kept his distance. I proceeded down Cajon Pass at 55 mph with the
Moron from Boron riding tail-gunner to all of the cars behind us
wanting to go 95mph+.
At the bottom I took the 215 as I always do. It was 1:00am. I took the
exit at the bottom that leads to the CHP office. The MfB followed the
three blocks that it took to get there. He remained in his vehicle, on
the street, as I parked mine in the lot and found the office doors
locked. He saw me call 911 on my cell and remained in sight. A minute
later a CHP arrived and the MfB left.
I explained the story to the officer and he told me that he understood
what I was doing, since he is a ham himself. But he proferred that the
MfB was probably just a concerned citizen/patriot with too much time
on his hands. He also stressed that we were only a day away from the
5th anniversary of 9/11.
He did check with dispatch if any citizens had called in concerning
suspicious behaviour regarding my vehicle. Sure enough, about the same
time that I had placed my 911 call, another call had come in regarding
a suspicious white truck with antennas parked near Edwards AFB. The
caller had followed me and watched me dismantle the gear. The officer
and I chatted awhile about radio then I left at 1:30am.
-- <w0eea@sbbco.net> wrote:
Hi,
I just read some interesting comments from a ham out East who
is going to give up roving because there are too many fixed
stations on the air from formerly rare grids and too many
rovers now operating out there. He should move to Colorado.
Within 2 grids (adjacent grids to DM79 and those touching
adjacent grids to DM79) there were several grids that have
been activated in the past by rovers that were not activated
in the September contest. Of the active grids, DN80, DM89,
DM88, DM87, DM77, and EM08 were worked here in September
only because of rovers. DM99 was not worked in Sept but
was worked in June only because of a rover. DN90 has only
been worked from W0EEA once (Sept 2000 only on 2M) and begs
for a rover.
As can be seen from the above, in the Denver area rovers are
essential to VHF and up contesting. The only way over half
of the local map is active in any given contest is if rovers
are there to activate those areas. The other obvious point
to be made is that rovers here need lots of gain and good
locations to make up for the vast changes in elevation from
the front range to many of the locations mentioned above.
DN80 and DM87 are grids that fall off the edges of the local
map, DM87, DM97, and DN90 more so. Rovers activating such
grids face difficult challanges to work even adjacent grids
let alone DX.
My thanks to those who have risen to these challenges and
roved here in the Denver area in the past. If you want to
try some real old time roving in the future, come to
Denver. We'll be listening for you.
73,
Jim
w0eea@w0eea.com
www.w0eea.com
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