[VHFcontesting] Limited Roving - Worth the Effort?

Sun Jul 6 08:31:36 EDT 2008

Hello Joe,

Thanks for the warning-hi, and thanks for your comments, which I found very
interesting. 

Here's my take as a fixed station. I am relatively new to vhf contesting
(but I have done HF contesting for decades) and I have done non-turnkey
Dxpeditions, so I appreciate the effort required of a rover.

Before every contest, I watch with interest the announcement by rovers of
their plans. 
I examine the lists of their plans collected on websites.
I record the callsigns and starting grids of rovers on my contest
bandplanning sheet. 
Especially at the start of the contest I deliberately beam in those
directions and hunt for the rovers. 
Throughout the contest I do a lot of tuning of the band.
I listen extra carefully to the frequencies where some rovers say they will
cq and hang out on.

My 2M Results:
I believe my station is reasonably capable. e.g. on 2M I have a high stacked
array and low noise Elecraft transverter.
For the last 6 or so contests, only once have I heard and worked a rover at
his starting grid.
I have never heard a rover Cqing near the rover "hangout" frequencies.
In each contest, I usually only work 1 or 2 rovers in a non-adjacent grid.
This past June, I worked 29 grids, but only had 2 contacts with rovers
farther out. 
The only time I heard a famous big time rover was when he was mobiling home
at the end of the contest and was in my grid.
I occasionally find a rover while he is in qso and about to go thru the
bands with someone. Rarely does he hear my call before he moves off to do
it. I mark the freq and keep checking for his return, but usually do not
hear him there again. 

I am struck by how few of the announced rovers I work. So what do you think
is happening?

Certainly we are all subject to band conditions. Most of the big gun fixed
stations more than 200 miles away are not audible here all the time. Either
the band fades out or our antennas are not at each other. Being on top of a
hill somewhere does not guarantee BBC like signal strength everywhere
throughout the contest.

A rover will be a lot harder to catch than a fixed station sometime in the
contest. For a fixed station, sooner or later our antennas will be aligned
when the band is good between us. For a rover parked in one location for an
hour or two, who is twirling his antenna around the compass a few times,
trying different bands, doing S&P, and then moving on, will be a lot harder
to catch. 

This past June, 6M E's likely sucked the rovers off of spending much time on
2M. 

Other thoughts?

We do this for enjoyment, and I always delight in working a station signing
/R wherever he is. 
Hope to work you sometime.

73,
Chet, N8RA

-----Original Message-----
From: vhfcontesting-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:vhfcontesting-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Shupienis, Joseph
Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2008 1:28 AM
To: vhfcontesting at contesting.com
Subject: [VHFcontesting] Limited Roving - Worth the Effort?

WARNING! LONG-WINDED RANTING FOLLOWS! WARNING!

Rovers expend a lot of resources to put "relatively rare" grids on the air
for everyone to enjoy. The enjoyment we get is to work as many stations as
we can from those rare-ish grids. It's a bit of a let-down to use up $60 of
gas to go to a nice mountaintop in a much-wanted grid, only to make a grand
total of 11 Qs, even though I can hear lots of stations working the big
boys. Then, after working only the big signals, it seems the multitude turn
their beams away, never to be heard again until I reach the next grid and
the cycle of frustration begins anew.

Of course I can work the big guns with ease, but it seems that no one else
besides them bothers to look for weak signals in the "weak signal" part of
the band. Sometimes it seems that the only signals that get people's
attention are those directly on the calling frequencies that jump out of the
speaker, run up, and slap the operator in the face! And after they have
worked all 10 of those in the first hour or so, it seems a lot of ops turn
off their radios for the rest of the contest to go watch some ballgame on TV
and drink beer. No matter which grid I start in, it is always the most
productive. So I guess I should start at the most wanted grid, huh?

I can call CQ on 144.210 or .180 for hours with nary an answer, and then
someone 200 miles away stumbles across me and honestly (I hope) informs me
that I'm S7 or 10 over S9 on his S-meter. Then they profusely thank me for
the grid multiplier from FN11 or FN01, or wherever I am, and we walk up the
bands. Then it's back to my "run" frequency for more fruitless CQing (if
someone else who's S9+30 hasn't jumped on it the second I went to 432 -- and
that same someone "can't hear" me when I try to work him!)

I don't get it.

If I can easily hear another station who is running the same power level I
am, why can't they seem hear me? I've had to resort to strictly S&P, and can
usually work everyone I can hear, and can work them again on the other
bands. So I know I can be heard. It's just getting kind of frustrating to
realize that maybe a lot of people don't know I exist, or just don't want to
bother looking for me. 

But then if they accidentally find me, they profusely thank me for the new
multipliers I give them and ask where I'm going next.

And then, of course, at the next grids I'll never hear from them again,
unless it's their half-hour ragchew with one of their buddies. Why is it
that they are both S9 plus on my receiver, but when they say their fond
farewells and 73s and 88s and get back to contesting, neither one can hear
me call them, and then turn their beams away and tune off frequency?

I don't get it. 

Then I see rover scores from other rovers who claimed to work the same grids
I work from. I have yet to hear a single one of them on the air. And their
scores are usually 50-100 times my pathetic numbers. They must have rates of
100-200 QPH... somehow...

I don't get it.

I would like to add 222 to my lineup. I've tried to save up for it, but so
far I've wasted all the money on $4.00/gallon gas to make, what? 1,000
points?

There are many good contesters out there. I have worked every one I can
hear, and handed out as many multipliers as I can to every station that is
willing to make the effort to work me. It just seems that lately, more
stations are "getting away" and must be looking for easier stations to work
than my weak rover signals (and weak bank account) allow.

Oh wait -- I think I'm starting to get it now... Nobody told them I'm there
or that they might have to listen carefully to dig out my piddly, weak,
little signal...

- RANTING COMPLETE -

Thanks for listening, I feel better getting that off my chest.

See you on 6 and 2 in the CQ WW VHF test!

73 de Joe W3BC

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