[VHFcontesting] Roving Rare Grids

[Rick R]

Experience has shown the "rhythm" of VHF contesting. Everyone starts out on 6 &/or 2m and your local stations are the strongest, so you wind up working them first. Last night at our club meeting, WA3NUF validated this, showing that almost 40% of VHF contest QSOs were made in the first 4 hours of the event.
Many rovers know by experience  that if they are in a "rare" grid, having driven many miles to get there and set up to be ready at the starting bell, that few if any of the fixed stations will be looking for them, as they are too busy working all the "locals" on 6&2, and will not take the time to "run the bands" then either. But if they are there on Sunday afternoon, when things slow down, they'll find plenty of folks looking for them. Yes, it's a dilemma for rovers, who would like to spend driving time outside of the contest hours, but the facts still remain that for the first several hours of the contest, the action is mainly local, save for some 6m Es. And if there is 6m Es,  no-one is going to break their run to go up to the higher bands. 
My strategy as a rover has been most successful when I start in grids close to the ham population centers and then go to more distant grids on Sunday, saving the long ride home for after the contest.  Rick, K1DS