[VHFcontesting] "Captive Rover" talking point, debunked

[Eric Smith]

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:46:01 -0400
 John Hawkinson <jhawk at MIT.EDU> wrote:
> This point seems worth reiterating:
> 
> Eric Smith <kb7dqh at donobi.net> wrote on Tue, 16 Aug 2005
> at 01:44:05 -0700 in <web-114960606 at donobi.com>:
> 
> > Anyway, getting the gear set up, pointed, running
> properly,
> > etc... eats up time.  I could have kept an additional
> two
> > or three ops busy on the lower bands while I was
> working
> > the microwave stuff... and activated more grids during
> the
> > allotted time, giving out more points to more
> operators...
> > but the rules limit the number of people I can have as
> part
> > of my rover station.  
> 
> Would a rule change here, to permit more operators for a
> rover
> station, significantly help to reduce the incidence of
> rovers
> who appear to be captive?
> 
> (To know this, I guess one needs better information as to
> how severe
> the captive rover problem really is, and what the numbers
> are like
> (among other things). We have lots of anecdotal evidence,
> of course,
> but few hard numbers...)
> 
> There are some obvious forms such a rule change could
> take:
> 
> .	Add a multiop rover category with unlimited operators.
> 
> .	Retain a single rover category and permit three or four
> operators,
> 	rather than only one or two.
> 
> Thoughts? Would such a rule experiment adversely impact
> anyone?
> 
> --jhawk at mit.edu
>   John Hawkinson
>   KB1CGZ
> _______________________________________________

Such a station would have no choice but to work as many
other stations as possible...

A possible operational scenario would look something like
this:
 One operator on 6 meters, one op for two, one for 222/432,
and one for 903 and 1296, and the driver can dig out the
microwaves when the gang gets to a mountaintop or other
microwave-capable location, and run the 2304+ stuff...  If
this were a "captive", the "mother station", being
stationary or mobile, would be worked thru 10 GC in a
matter of two minutes or so, if the multiop rover rig were
equipped with microwave gear requiring no setup time (mine
currently isn't, but that is likely to change:-)
 Otherwise, the lower band stations would have to "wait
around or call CQ" while the microwave op got the gear out,
fired up, and pointed at whoever could be worked.  Nice
thing here, is there are 6 bands that coordination could
take place on... 4 simultaneously in my setup... so pretty
much whoever wanted to work this multiop rover thru
microwaves could make a sked and get a contact in the log,
if there was a path. If there weren't a direct path, (so
often the case in this tree and mountain infested region)
indirect paths could be experimented with, and the time
taken to do this would not be considered wasted.  

More fuel for the fire...
Eric
KB7DQH