[VHFcontesting] A Brief History of (Captive) Roving

[W2fca at cs.com]

In a message dated 5/3/03 21:56:57 Eastern Daylight Time, w2ev at arrl.net 
writes:
<< Ok...fess up.  Who on this list has had a rover refuse to QSO them?  Then 
fess
 up as to why -- truthfully.  My bets are that (if it HAS happened) it's 
because
 your station on the band that you wanted to work them on was too piddly weak 
to
 waste time with...they're on a schedule, after all).  Remember...THEY have a
 strategy, too.  It's not all about you. >>

Actually, I've had it happen a few times, usually because they will have a 
sked coming up in 10 minutes or so.  Once the guy wouldn't even try saying I 
couldn' hear him and wouldn't hear me on 903 and 1296. I've got 4 X 33 el 
loopers on 903 and 4 X 45 el on 1296 with 65 watts on each. The dude was 
about 12 miles from me. If I can work K8GP to the west and K1WHS to the east 
I probably would have heard him and he probably would have heard me. 
It seems the problem is operating style. When I worked Dave in the Jan 03 
contest, he showed up in one grid, hung out there for a while worked all he 
could, then went to his next stop. Same as VE3OIL - he stayed in each grid 
for 3-4 hours or so and in fact gave me several new grids on the higher 
bands. The other style is - show up at 11:45, work main station at 11:55, hit 
road at 12:00 to go 40 miles away for next sked at 12:45.
Personally, I don't care because if they aren't working me as a SO they 
aren't working others. But, if you're trying to maximize your effect for the 
main station you just don't have the time to work others.

Frank
W2FCA