[VHFcontesting] Inconspicuous Rover?

[James Duffey]

W3ZZ wrote:
"...you should make your rover as inconspicuous as possible."

Inconspicuous rover will join down escalator, objective opinion, and  
original copy as oxymorons. Unless you keep everything inside the  
rover vehicle it is nearly impossible to be inconspicuous. Case in  
point: In July 2008, I started in EN00 at my father in law's QTH to  
rove in the July 2008 CQ contest. I stopped for gas on the way out of  
town. I did the same thing in this September's VHF contest, stopping  
at the same gas station. As I was checking out, the cashier commented,  
"You were here last year weren't you? So a rover in conspicuous and  
memorable. I had not been back with or without the rover in the  
ensuing 14 months, but he remembered me.

In the June contest I dropped by the Grand Canyon on my rove to visit  
the WA7JTM limited multi setup. As we drove into the booth to pay the  
fee, the ranger said "You are ham radio operators right?" My wife, who  
was driving said yes, and the ranger said "There are some more in the  
camp ground" and gave us directions.

I have never been hassled by law enforcement officers in my roves,  
although on two occasions they have slowed down to take a closer look  
at me. In September and June, people figure I am a storm chaser. I  
always get a kick out of talking to people about what I am doing and  
promoting ham radio a bit. For some reason the motorcyclists seem most  
interested. When parked people always want to know if we drive with  
those antennas like that. Yes we do and usually only hit something  
every 3 or 4 roves.

Now I suppose a lot of this is geographically related and there is a  
lot of public land out here where people tend to leave you alone. And  
there are a lot of county roads in the midwest and west where you can  
park in the road and not bother anyone. I have operated for several  
hours at some sites and not seen anything but cattle. They expect to  
be fed when a vehicle pulls up and come running a long ways to see a  
rover. - Duffey
--
KK6MC
James Duffey
Cedar Crest NM