[VHFcontesting] APRS and Contesting

[Bruce Richardson]

Hi Steve and all:

I'm enjoying these Rover rule discussions. Within the Central
Division, we have a separate reflector for interested parties to
discuss these issues from a Central Div perspective.  Both rovers
and fixed stations have had thoughtful postings.

Steve, it was good to see you and your Rovermobile at the CSVHFS
conference in San Antonio. I'm going to incorporate some ideas I
gleaned from your set-up into my own.

As to APRS, I've generally been "for" it--particularly initially.
But I've had a fixed station in my area (re)bring to my attention
the idea of "competition" and working hard.

This one particular operator is one of the best in the region in
finding me on my roves. Why? Because he tries. He keeps his rotor
warm with frequent rotation and same for his VFO dial.  For that
extra work, he finds me just about everywhere I go.  But there is
one or more stations in the region who have very capable stations
who don't "find" me.  (I'll admit I could go looking for them, but
within our region, we've seen some good things from rovers
sticking to "pre-announced" frequencies off of the calling freqs.)
They lament after the contest, "gee, I missed you in some of your
grids". But I was there on my pre-announced freq cq'ing my lungs
out swinging the beams in many different directions. I think I
could be found :-) .

So, under the competition idea, APRS will "change" the playing
field.  Note I didn't say good or bad.  The rover gets more
activity and the aggressive rover-seeking fixed station loses some
advantage.  I'll admit that when I'm cq'ing my lungs out and not
being found, I wonder why I went.  But I wait a few minutes and
eventually activity picks up again.  Also, as rovers include more
microwave bands which, generally, require more time (fiddle
factor) per QSO, the rover disappears off of their pre-announced
rover freq for longer and longer periods which makes the rover
un-findable.  When I'm off on a high band and I hear stations
calling on "my" freq, I feel bad that I can't let them know that
I'll be right back but I can't let go of the dish at that moment
in the wind :-) .

So, in general, I'm "for" APRS (not just HamIM) but we need to
understand that it will change the playing field for fixed
stations. As long as we go into it eyes wide-open, I think it's
worth a try. If it changes things for the worse, we can always
delete it a few years later.

Just got off the local 2m simplex ragchew freq and discussed the
APRS topic with a prominent Twin Cities fixed station.  He'd just
as soon not go down this road because of the competition idea,
rovers in this region stay to their pre-announced schedules and
freqs pretty well, and most of all, he finds that even well
announced rovers are often busy off of "their" freqs working the
high bands so APRS would just have fixed stations calling to a
rover who couldn't anwer right then.

I'm so glad to have an input this time around--unlike the Rover
rule changes in the early to mid-90's.

Keep the discussion going!

73
Bruce Richardson W9FZ