[VHFcontesting] Club strategies: Round-tabling

[Ev Tupis]

Round-tabling. The Packrats, the Rochester VHF Group and others, I'd bet, did it.  It is the non-Rover equivalent of Grid Circling.

There are slight variations, but generally, all club members meet on a specific frequency on a specific band at a specific time and a methodical club roll-call is initiated.  Everyone works everyone else, then moves to the next band.  Sound familiar?  Note however...when they're all done (it doesn't take that long), they go in search of other stations to work/log.  Why? Because it increases the club's score.

Sadly, if done in the Great Plains...the contest would run for all of 20-minutes as a roll-call was initiated and everyone worked everyone else.  What to do then?  Participants are incented to build stations to communicate beyond their normal range: better antennas, higher power, new modes (meteor scatter or EME), etc.

The point is...non-rovers are incented to meet the contest's stated objective: "Object: To work AS MANY amateur stations in AS MANY 2 degrees by 1 degrees grid squares as possible using authorized amateur frequencies and ALL authorized modes of emission." (caps mine)

Rovers are incented differently, therefore some act differently, resulting in the turmoil.

Ev, W2EV