[VHFcontesting] Lunchbox caravans

[w8zn at comcast.net]

I promised myself I was not going to post on this thread but my fingers have a mind of their own. 



It really is quite simple. IF the folks doing the grid circling set out with 10mw rigs, small antennas, plan to go only to 4 corner grid intersections and only plan on working members of the "group" and will not try to tune around and find others, then the ARRL better grow a set of gonads and just say NO, you can not blatently operate contrary to the spirit and intent of the rules. It doesn't matter, club, class, whatever, you can't do it, period. IF they are going out and trying to work others, and there is just no one else to work but themselves, then you really can't fault them. I'm not judging, just stating what is right and wrong. 



And,  like N6NB, if he is the one building the gear, I have had a small amount of experience helping rovers - ND3F, W3IY (SK), K3QII (SK), W1RT, KC3WD, K9SP/N9SP, N3UW, KT4ER, W3RST, WF1L.....any of these calls show up in your logs? For over 10 years I've been helping rovers get going, not only to help K8GP but to increase activity to everyone, and all the rovers will tell you I constantly nag them to look for others before moving to the next grid. Check W2SZ's log (if you could), I'll bet you will find ND3F and W1RT in their log. It's because they heard SZ and tried to work them, news flash, that's what it's all about. 



Rovers are a VERY IMPORTANT addition to VHF contesting. There are many grids that have no activity in them and rovers are the ones that make our mountaintop operation a lot more fun and "new". Y ou never know where or when a new rover will pop up. Having roved myself many times, it is HARD work, at $4 per gallon of gas it is expensive (glad the price has dropped!), most of these folks travel 500+ miles, my personal record is just over 1000 miles in a weekend but my guess is some of the "hard core" midwesterners probably beat that easily. The point here is, lets not PISS OFF the folks that help all us fixed stations stay awake Sunday afternoon while others watch football. The ARRL did that when they changed the original multiplier scoring because, once again, someone took advantage of the rules and instead of the ARRL having a set and telling the person their log is only going to be used as a checklog, they felt a knee-jerk rule change was needed. 



Rules are in place and the ARRL can apply them as they see fit, it's not a democracy with them, it's a dictatorship!! It doesn't take a 200 IQ to look at a log and see if there is grid circling, or captive rovering, if it's there, just deal with it. If it pisses the person off and they don't come back, have you really lost anything? 



Back in the early 80's, everyone west of West Virginia complained the east coast had an advantage and sections were replaced with grids, now it appears to be resurfacing. Unfortunately, it will NEVER be equal. There are more people in the east than west, there are more VHF stations, but whether in the east or west, there is NO ROOM for operating outside the spirit and intent of the rules. 



There is some analysis of logs that need to be looked at after the contest and let's say if all the folks in a 500 mile circle have 20% of their score by rovers, that's a baseline. So what if someone pops up in that 500 mile circle with a 70% rover rate, wouldn't you think hummmmmm, now how is this? In the midwest where I came from, since the fixed station population is less, rovers may make up for a higher percentage but it's the same for everyone. So has the influx of the "toolbox" rovers caused a huge increase in the scores of fixed stations in their area? If so, then they are helping. If they are not helping, then sorry, they shouldn't be allow to have their scores counted. 



So you can purpose rule changes and by some miracle the suggestions of the CAC are actually adopted, if there is no enfocrement or no one cares as long as they can show big numbers of bogus microwave contacts to the FCC, none of this makes much difference. The ball is CLEARLY in the ARRL's court and only they can affect change. I'm not backing anyone's views or disagreeing, it's just the way it is. 



Terry - W8ZN