[VHFcontesting] captive rovers

[George Fremin III]

Based on some of the comments I have seen posted on this subject
recently (and in the past) it is clear to me that many do not
understand the issue of captive rovers.

I am going to make an attempt at an example of why I think this sort
of activity is not in the spirit of the contest and how it can be used
to make a very big score.

In the June 2003 VHF contest my station was in the limited multi-op
category.  Our score looked like this:

Band	QSOs	Points	Mults	
50	1128	1128	254	
144	130	130	35	
222	22	44	15	
432	34	68	16	
903		0		
1.2		0		
2.4		0		
3.4		0		
5.6		0		
10		0		
				
Totals	1314	1370	320	
				
Total score	438,400		
				
I do not yet have any bands above 432 Mhz but I would like to add them
as money and time permit.

If my station were geared up for all the bands up through 10 Ghz and
we were also build up one rover that could get on those 10 bands we
could work the rover in 9 grids - this would assure we got all 9 grids
as mults on all 10 bands and also got 9 contacts on those 10 bands we
would also get 90 more contacts.  If this rover did not work anyone
else this would be 90 contacts that no one else could get - it would
also be many mults that those folks would not get either since most of
these grids are not active on many bands.

So the rover would go to these grids:

	DM91 EM01 EM11 
	DM90 EM00 EM10
	DL99 EL09 EL19

My station is in EM00.				
		
Our score would now look like this:
		
				
Band	QSOs	Points	Mults	
50	1138	1138	254	
144	139	139	35	
222	31	62	15	
432	43	86	16	
903	9	27	9	
1.2	9	27	9	
2.4	9	36	9	
3.4	9	36	9	
5.6	9	36	9	
10	9	36	9	
				
Totals	1405	1623	374	
				
Total score	607,002		
				
		
Quite a big increase in score for working just one station and the best
part is that this rover does not work anyone else on these bands so our 
competitors will not get any of these 90 contacts nor most of the mults.		
				
Now if we get four more rover setups to go to those same 9 girds with 10 bands each
we can produce a score like this:

Band	QSOs	Points	Mults	
50	1173	1173	254	
144	175	175	35	
222	67	134	15	
432	79	158	16	
903	45	135	9	
1.2	45	135	9	
2.4	45	180	9	
3.4	45	180	9	
5.6	45	180	9	
10	45	180	9	
				
Totals	1764	2630	374	
				
Total score	983,620		

I think it is worth pointing out that this increase is from only 4
additional rovers and without working any new multipliers.

The striking thing to me is that it does not take too many contacts to
to increase the score a large amount.

Now lets take this one step further - we will build up some
transverters that are of a simple design that work on 2.4, 3.4 and 5.6
Ghz.  We will also build up some tri band dishes.  These setups will
only require a 2m FM HT as an IF.  They will not put out very much
power.

Lets build 5 of these and recruit 5 more operators that have cars and
2m handheld radios.  We will then give them directions to the four
locations that are at the grid corner that is about 10 miles from my
QTH.  We will work them on these three band plus 146 and 440 since
each of them have dual band FM mobiles in their cars.  So we get to
work five rovers in four grids for 20 more contacts per band.

This will take our score to: 1,095,820

Now do this five more times so our score would now be this: 1,208,020

As you can see the contest becomes a race to see how many guys you can
get on to work just you on these high point value bands.

Maybe now you will understand why this might be a problem.

If there were a group out there that had been doing this
in vhf contests for years what would you think of their efforts?






-- 
George Fremin III - K5TR
geoiii at kkn.net
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr