[VHFcontesting] Lubch box roving

[Shupienis, Joseph]

I can't stay quiet any longer.

I started roving a couple years ago because:

  1. I spend my weekends at a QTH that is 300' below average terrain but in a "rare" grid
  2. I have always liked hilltopping, and contests give me a chance to actually talk to people!
  3. I have a mobile radio that does SSB and CW on 3 VHF and UHF bands
  4. I enjoy designing and building antennas, and rover antennas pose "interesting" challenges
  5. I am fairly competitive, and like anyone, hope to be recognized for achievement
  7. I can rove to several "rare" grids with few native active hams, and even fewer weak signal enthusiasts. I like handing out those grids and enjoy hearing the appreciation for the new multipliers.
  8. I enjoy identifying and trying out good, new VHF sites
  9. I get a real thrill struggling to complete a 300-400+ mile 432 QSO, especially with only 35 watts and a homebrew beam at 15 feet!

My first roving efforts were pretty pathetic, but soon became more organized. I started to get noticed, and it was a real kick to have the big guns looking for me! I've received section awards a couple of times, and am proud of what was accomplished with only 3 bands and no amplifiers.

Unfortunately, there is no chance I can ever "win" a contest when I have to compete with a bunch of sponsored, pre-packaged, appliance stations that could probably be operated by a monkey.

It irritates the crap out of me to look at all the money I spend to make a marginal improvement in my rover capabilities, and know that it is all for nothing, while someone who can't even spell VHF is given -- yes GIVEN -- a pre-built, 10 band station and goes out on their first trip and makes 100x my score.

Especially when their best DX was never more than a few yards. No 300-mile Qs for THEM!

What discourages me the most is that I have spent all I can afford and still have a 3-band peanut whistle. I'd be delighted if someone with a colossal bank account (and hopefully not an ego to match) would hand ME a pre-packaged, debugged, idiot-proof, 10-band V/U/SHF station-in-a-box. As long as I could use it to actually participate in the contest, and not be obligated to the group circle.

To add insult to injury, when the contest results are published, the appliance operators displace the rest of us from the top-n listings. If I only had to compete with other rovers who rove the way I do, in the words of Terry Malloy "I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum."

As it is now, I'm only listed on page 174, or suffer the ultimate humiliation of "Visit the website for full results."

Severe winter weather wiped out all my contesting plans in January. If I rove at all in June, it may well be my last rove. After all, why waste all that time and money, only to be a lose before I even start?

I guess it could be summed up as: I HAVE TO WORK HARD for every QSO by doing it the old-fashioned way, and try to work every station I can hear, and actively seek out DX -- and I lose the contest. The winner BUYS the contest by equipping a bunch of people who really don't give a hoot about VHF weak signal work.

If that's really the way it is -- that the Rover contest is for sale -- then screw it. I'm done. I will happily go back and operate again at one of the "East Coast Monopoly Stations."

73 de Joe, W3BC