[VHFcontesting] APRS and Contesting

[Stephen Hicks, N5AC]

Bruce,

Yes, I just had a conversation also with an HF contester about this.  He
presented some of the same concerns -- as a fixed station if you want to do
well you need to be an iron butt and keep your seat in the seat and find
rovers.  The problem we're having is that out of 20 fixed stations, I've
generally had 2-3 doing this while the others just believe it's not worth
the time.  Some would say "well, that's their choice and they shouldn't win
the contest if they don't want to put in the effort."  This point is really
not lost on me -- I do understand it.  Having said that, activity begets
activity and if ARPS keeps folks in the seat more because they find
contesting "easier," I say go for it.  The HF'er I was talking to suggested
a limited category for those that do not want to track folks on APRS and
want to compete on their skills to track a rover.  I thought this was a
great idea!

73,
Steve, N5AC

-----Original Message-----
From: vhfcontesting-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:vhfcontesting-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Bruce Richardson
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 12:03
To: vhfcontesting at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] APRS and Contesting

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

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