[VHFcontesting] Roving Rare Grids

[Bruce Herrick]

For the most part, this is just the opposite of what I have experienced as a freelance rover on the Front Range of CO.  Everyone is looking for the rovers at the start, knowing that the locals will be there later.  But not too much later...I used to end Sunday in DM78, where there are a lot of VHfers.  Yet, often I would not make a single Q local to me.  When I reversed course and started in that area, they'd all be looking for me.  Sunday afternoon/evening was time for family, household chores, and football.  Last weekend, at K1WHS, I was surprised at the number of rovers who stuck it out to the bitter end.  Thanks, guys, we sure needed those grids.  I think different "rhythms" exist in different areas.  In some parts of the country, no one will move very far off the calling frequencies.  In other areas, calling on the calling freqs will net you either silence or some frequency cop telling you to move.

Bruce WW1M

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>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
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