[VHFcontesting] A Brief History of (Captive) Roving

[Ev Tupis (W2EV)]

1. There was a time when there was little activity above 1296 MHz.
2. Multi-Ops _Elmered_ rovers into the higher bands for obvious reasons.
   NOTE: Isn't this EXACTLY what needs to be done to "save the VHF contests"?
         Let's not be hyprcritical. ;-)
3. Rovers thanked them by making sure that the multi-ops got logged from
   every visited grid on every available band.
   NOTE: Not to the exclusion of others...but with a special effort to make
         sure the multi-op that Elmered them got taken care of.

I don't call that captive, I call it gratitude.

The term "captive rover" was coined by the people that got 'miffed' (read this
sentence over and over until you understand it).

Why do people operate contests as Rovers? (get ready, you've seen this before)
o It's fun  (duh!)
o There's a reward
  The question is, what is the reward?  Ask the Rovers...don't ass-u-me.

I have never heard the term "captive rover" used by anyone other than those that
somehow missed working a Rover in a grid they needed (by the way...have I
mentioned the power of BEACONet.25's CU2QSO strategy yet?).

Ev, W2EV

PS...How do you get a fleet of "captive rovers"?  Easy... ELMER THEM!  Save the
VHF Contest while you're at it.  How can you go wrong?  It's a Two-fer-One Sale!