Rover activity in the September contest was very healthy, having grown to 82
this year from a Hurricane Ike induced low of 52 in 2008. All of this growth
was in the Limited Rover Category. This seems to indicate that the Limited
Rover Category is attracting new participants to roving, and to the September
VHF contest as a whole, or at least getting inactive rovers going again. This
is what was intended when the category was initiated. Of the 112 increase in
entrants to this years contest over 2008, 31 came from rovers. The Classic
Rover category stayed strong, only slightly dropping in activity from 2008. I,
and others feared that the Limited Rover category would siphon off participants
from the Rover category. This does not appear to be happening in significant
numbers in the September contest, although with only 2 data points, it is bold
to talk trends. The Unlimited Rover category remains a disappointment, with
only 3 entrants, the same as last year.
The September 2009 contest had the highest rover participation, both in terms
of numbers and percentage of participation, of any September contest since
roving was added in 1991. In the fall at least, roving is alive and well.
The Southern California Contest Club rovers concentrated their activity in the
Classic Rover class to maximize their contribution to the SCCC club entry. As a
result, the SCCC won their club category handily. There appear to me to be
several other strategies to significant;y increase club scores with coordinated
rover activity, so I expect to see other clubs developing their own coordinated
rover strategy to increase club scores in future contests. This participation
in the Classic Rover class left the Limited Rover category as the VUAC
envisioned it, that is with no grid circling entries, and KO4MA/r racked up an
impressive score in the Limited Rover Class without the help of Es.
It is disappointing to see the low participation in the Unlimited Rover
category. The pack rovers have not moved up to this class, in part due to the
fact that scores in this class do not count for club scores, and in part due to
the perceived lack of competition in this class, which is of course a Catch-22
situation. Activity in this class has been for reasons, still valid, other
than those envisioned when the class was started. Although this category
probably has the most wide open rules of any class in contesting, these rules
have to a large extent not been utilized by contesters. Perhaps it is a bit
much to expect to divide an active roving group of 80 to 100 contesters into 3
viable groups. After a while you lose critical mass in one or more of the
categories. That may be the case for the Unlimited Rover category.
Below is a table of Rover activity in the September VHF QSO Party going back to
1991, the year that roving was added as a category.
Table - Rover Activity in the ARRL September VHF QSO Party 1991 to 2009.
Year Rover LR UR All R All % Rover
2009 33 47 3 83 594 14.0
2008 36 13 3 52 482 10.8 LR, UR added
2007 66 66 561 11.8
2006 72 72 531 13.6
2005 64 64 629 10.2
2004 68 68 558 12.2
2003 69 69 520 13.3
2002 62 62 535 11.6
2001 51 51 553 9.2
2000 65 65 583 11.1
1999 63 63 606 10.4
1998 58 58 617 9.4
1997 68 68 751 9.1
1996 54 54 700 7.7 Rules Change
1995 46 46 686 6.7 Rules Change
1994 57 57 687 8.3
1993 62 61 621 9.8
1992 43 46 591 7.8
1991 30 30 415 7.2 First Rover Class
LR - Limited Rover
UR - Unlimited Rover
This data came from the ARRL Online Scores database back to 2002, the K5TR
database for entry totals back to 1995, and the ARRL PDFs of QST articles for
the other data. In some cases the total number of entries or number of rover
entries were not explicitly stated in the write ups, so I counted the line
scores by hand. As a result, there may be a slight difference of the total data
that I counted to the actual totals. I am open to others doing their own count.
:^)=
Overall, rover participation in this contest has been fairly healthy since
1997, the year that rover activity began to recover from the two sets of rule
changes implemented to moderate the impact of grid circling entries. Rover
activity in the last decade has been healthy, and with the exception of the
decreases in 2001 and 2008, and the big increase in 2009, has been fairly
constant. Lets hope that activity continues to rise, or at the very least, not
drop off.
Of course with the small sample sizes, errors can be large in projecting trends
and conclusions based on these numbers are certainly not iron clad. But it is
fun to try.
I will try to do a similar analysis for the January Contest when the scores are
posted. - Duffey
--
KK6MC
James Duffey
Cedar Crest NM
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