[VHFcontesting] VHF Contest Rules Revisions - Part III

Scott Pederson spederson at yahoo.com
Wed Apr 30 14:03:00 EDT 2003


Howdy all, Here's my thoughts on the subject -  If a Multi-Op station wants to "Sponsor a Rover" by providing them with assistance - Extra bands / rigs / antennas, and that rover goes out and covers lots of grids and makes a lot of contacts, GREAT! If the Rover station ONLY works the Multi-Op station and few or no others, BAD. I believe that stipulating in the rules that "Captive Rovers" are subject to disqualification or having the QSOs removed from the logs would be sufficient deterrent.  This would be pretty easy to spot - Rover log has only one station worked from many different grids.  Even if the Rover did not submit their logs, with Robots we could easily reverse-engineer their log from all of the other logs submitted.  I'm sure this rule was implemented some time ago because of a specific exploit or loophole in the rules.  I believe having a stipulation in the rules is sufficient to prevent this from happening again, while helping encourage activity on the band. I am one who purchased an Icom 706MkIIg (ABD) and decided to give Rovering a try (Restrictive covenents prevent big station at home).  I've rovered in South Texas a few times now, and have met many nice folks on the band, some of who have offered to loan me equipment for contests. In addition, I've been slowly working on improving the equipment I own, and adding new equipment for my Rover efforts. Personally, I would love to add some new bands to my rover operation - it would help me increase my score and provide additional bands for the stations I do work.  Unfortunately, I'm not hugely rich and can't always afford (in both time and money) to assemble an awesome Rover station.  I'm slowly working on it, but Hams helping other Hams is part of what it's all about.  In addition, this would not mean I would ignore all other stations simply so I could provide all my contacts to one station.  This would not be in the spirit of the contest. I think anything we could do to encourage more Rover activity would be a great help. 73,Scott - KI5DR 


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