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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