[VHFcontesting] Common rover frequency

[James Duffey]

Chet - You wrote-

"Further, I find it very interesting to read how the rovers say they  
are calling CQ. I tune A LOT, often in between my CQ's, and it is  
quite unusual for me to come across a rover calling CQ. And I do  
deliberately turn toward the grids and freq.'s that they have  
announced, hoping to find them (it is a treat to get a rover contact)  
but almost never seem to hear anyone there. Perhaps that is due to  
them only being in one spot an hour or two, their going off to run the  
bands or S&P, or our beams only toward each other a short amount of  
that time, not like the fixed stations that I will eventually  
encounter sometime or other over the weekend."

Well to a rover, calling a CQ a lot is a relative thing, particularly  
if you are a stop and setup rover and don't operate in motion. The  
time a rover spends CQing is really pretty limited.

Say a stop and setup rover typically spends an hour driving for each  
grid he activates. He will typically spend an hour at each stop. If he  
doesn't operate in motion, then 50% of the time he is not on the air  
and hence not calling CQ. So you won't hear him call CQ half the time  
because he isn't on the air half the time.

When he stops to work a site he typically spends 5 minutes setting up  
and 5 minutes preparing to travel. Out of the hour or so spent at the  
stop setting up 10 minutes is gone to setting up and tearing down.

When he does get on, he usually tunes the band and works the loud  
stations, passing them up through the bands. Depending on the number  
of bands and signal strengths, this can take several minutes per  
station. Usually during this exercise he has picked up a few stations  
that heard him work the loud ones and he passes those stations through  
the bands.

By now 15 or 20 minutes or more may have passed and the rover has not  
called CQ. He now calls CQ, gets a few takers and moves those through  
the bands. This band passing further dilutes the time spent CQing.  
Finally he is calling CQ and gets no response. He switches strategy  
and goes back to search and pounce, working a few more stations,  
perhaps passing them through the bands. By now the better part of the  
hour has gone by and the rover calls CQ some more. Either the time to  
move to a new grid comes, or he spends 10 or 15 minutes calling CQ  
with no response, hears no new stations when he tunes and decides to  
move on.

If there is E-skip, the rover can usually run stations by calling CQ;  
unfortunately the strong E-skip stations are usually louder than even  
the moderately strong ones he would work normally. We don't get  
tropoducting out her, but I suspect that further detracts from the  
time spent calling CQ.

A rover is served up with a new band at each stop and to be most  
effective he must spend more time in S&P mode than a fixed station  
would.

All this is good motivation for a rover to have a driver and work  
while in motion. It is also good motivation to have antennas that can  
be setup and taken down easily. Roving is no different than any other  
form of Ham Radio contesting, time spent operating is the key to  
success. - Duffey
--
KK6MC
James Duffey
Cedar Crest NM