[VHFcontesting] A Note From N6NB/R

[N6MU1@aol.com]

(Wayne, N6NB, asked me to post the following for him.   John, N6MU)

Some of the comments about roving posted here have 
been more passionate than factual.  I'd like to 
present a few facts about our roving expeditions.

In January, 2003, I retired after 37 years as a 
university professor and became more active in 
VHF contesting than I'd been in 25 years.  Since 
then I've competed in six contests as a rover.  
In the process, I built three 10-band stations.

**During those six contests N6NB/R activated 52 
different grid squares from coast to coast.  I 
also operated in many others en route.

**The logs for those six contests contain 590 
different call signs.  N6NB/R worked many of those 
590 stations numerous times on several bands while 
in several grids, providing many people with 
multipliers they might have otherwise missed.

**N6TR listed our June, 2004 scores here but 
didn't include the totals by band.  We had 
53 multipliers on 50 MHz in that contest, far 
more than any other rover (the W3IY/ON4IY team 
had 33, for example).  One of the main reasons 
we roved up the Texas Panhandle, across western 
Oklahoma and Kansas and into Nebraska was because 
a lot of major cities are one sporadic E hop away 
from those rare grids.  The strategy worked, as 
did our allegedly "small" antennas and "low" power 
(375 watts out on six).

**Some have accused us--and the W2SZ/1 multioperator 
group--of wanting to win.  Of course we do, as does 
almost everyone who competes in sports or just about 
anything else.  The W2SZ gang has been willing to do 
the strategic planning and hard work that it takes 
to win for decades.  So have the Mt. Airy Packrats 
and the Rochester VHF Group in the club competition.  
And so have I as a single operator and now as a 
rover.  30 years ago I found a way to win VHF 
contests in California, something that had not 
been done before.  Later I built a second contest 
station in a van, complete with a tower trailer, 
and won two contests on Mt. Equinox, VT, 3,000 
miles from home.  Yes, we want to win.  
Otherwise we wouldn't go to this trouble.

**Some have said that only three stations are 
upsetting the applecart by "grid circling," and 
that it could be stopped without changing the 
rules by using a "you-know-it-when-you-see-it" 
test to turn our logs into check logs.  Aside 
from the inherent problem of arbitrarily 
enforcing unwritten rules, there's the problem 
that not everyone seems to "know it when they 
see it."  At least seven of the top 10 rovers 
in January, 2004 were traveling with another 
rover.  Other rovers have "grid circled" in 
the northeast corridor, upstate New York, the 
upper midwest, the southwest, the Pacific 
northwest and California.  Many rovers would 
not be willing to travel to faraway, rare grid 
squares at all if they had to operate alone, 
forfeiting the multipliers that they hand out 
to others.

Roving has become one of the key attractions of 
VHF contesting.  It appeals to people who wouldn't 
otherwise operate a VHF contest (or couldn't, due 
to antenna restrictions).  The ARRL Board, with 
advice from the new VHF contest committee, could 
certainly restrict roving, but that would only 
hurt VHF contest activity when it is already 
declining.

There is a summary of the convoluted history of 
the rover rules at www.n6nb.com <http://www.n6nb.com> . 

73,

Wayne Overbeck, N6NB
Former Chairman, ARRL Contest Advisory Committee,
and ARRL Southwestern Division Vice Director