[VHFcontesting] September 2009 Rover Activity

[James Duffey]

Rover activity in the September contest was very healthy, having grown to 82 this year from a Hurricane Ike induced low of 52 in 2008. All of this growth was in the Limited Rover Category. This seems to indicate that the Limited Rover Category is attracting new participants to roving, and to the September VHF contest as a whole, or at least getting inactive rovers going again. This is what was intended when the category was initiated. Of the 112 increase in entrants to this years contest over 2008, 31 came from rovers. The Classic Rover category stayed strong, only slightly dropping in activity from 2008. I, and others feared that the Limited Rover category would siphon off participants from the Rover category. This does not appear to be happening in significant numbers in the September contest, although with only 2 data points, it is bold to talk trends. The Unlimited Rover category remains a disappointment, with only 3 entrants, the same as last year.
 
The September 2009 contest had the highest rover participation, both in terms of numbers and percentage of participation, of any September contest since roving was added in 1991. In the fall at least, roving is alive and well.

The Southern California Contest Club rovers concentrated their activity in the Classic Rover class to maximize their contribution to the SCCC club entry. As a result, the SCCC won their club category handily. There appear to me to be several other strategies to significant;y increase club scores with coordinated rover activity, so I expect to see other clubs developing their own coordinated rover strategy to increase club scores in future contests.  This participation in the Classic Rover class left the Limited Rover category as the VUAC envisioned it, that is with no grid circling entries, and KO4MA/r racked up an impressive score in the Limited Rover Class without the help of Es. 

It is disappointing to see the low participation in the Unlimited Rover category. The pack rovers have not moved up to this class, in part due to the fact that scores in this class do not count for club scores, and in part due to the perceived lack of competition in this class, which is of course a Catch-22 situation.   Activity in this class has been for reasons, still valid, other than those envisioned when the class was started. Although this category probably has the most wide open rules of any class in contesting, these rules have to a large extent not been utilized by contesters. Perhaps it is a bit much to expect to divide an active roving group of 80 to 100 contesters into 3 viable groups. After a while you lose critical mass in one or more of the categories. That may be the case for the Unlimited Rover category.

Below is a table of Rover activity in the September VHF QSO Party going back to 1991, the year that roving was added as a category. 

Table - Rover Activity in the ARRL September VHF QSO Party 1991 to 2009.  
						
Year	Rover	LR	UR	All R	All	% Rover	
2009	33	47	3	83	594	14.0
2008	36	13	3	52	482	10.8 LR, UR added
2007	66			66	561	11.8
2006	72			72	531	13.6
2005	64			64	629	10.2
2004	68			68	558	12.2
2003	69			69	520	13.3
2002	62			62	535	11.6
2001	51			51	553	9.2
2000	65			65	583	11.1
1999	63			63	606	10.4
1998	58			58	617	9.4
1997	68			68	751	9.1 
1996	54			54	700	7.7  Rules Change
1995	46			46	686	6.7  Rules Change
1994	57			57	687	8.3
1993	62			61	621	9.8 
1992	43			46	591	7.8
1991	30			30	415	7.2  First Rover Class						

LR - Limited Rover
UR - Unlimited Rover

This data came from the ARRL Online Scores database back to 2002, the K5TR database for entry totals back to 1995, and the ARRL PDFs of QST articles for the other data. In some cases the total number of entries or number of rover entries were not explicitly stated in the write ups, so I counted the line scores by hand. As a result, there may be a slight difference of the total data that I counted to the actual totals. I am open to others doing their own count. :^)=

Overall, rover participation in this contest has been fairly healthy since 1997, the year that rover activity began to recover from the two sets of rule changes implemented to moderate the impact of grid circling entries. Rover activity in the last decade has been healthy, and with the exception of the decreases in 2001 and 2008, and the big increase in 2009, has been fairly constant. Lets hope that activity continues to rise, or at the very least, not drop off.

Of course with the small sample sizes, errors can be large in projecting trends and conclusions based on these numbers are certainly not iron clad. But it is fun to try. 

I will try to do a similar analysis for the January Contest when the scores are posted. - Duffey
--
KK6MC
James Duffey
Cedar Crest NM