[VHFcontesting] rover /r

[Roger Rehr W3SZ]

Hi Alan,

The /R serves a number of purposes:

1.  It alerts other stations that the /R may be going to other grids. 
This can be watched for / queried.

2.  It alerts fixed stations that they need to pay attention to this 
station as it may be in a rare grid.

3.  It alerts fixed stations that the station in question may not be 
available for very long.

4.  It makes writing software that correctly allocates dupes or valid 
contacts for both rovers and fixed stations much easier.

5. VHF contests allow a station to submit both a fixed entry e.g. from 
home and a rover entry.  Its hard to have this work without providing a 
simple on-the-air discriminator, such as "/R".

I find having the rover sign "/R" extraordinarily useful and consider 
its use to be a major "plus".  I pay special attention when I hear the 
"/R" as I am tuning the band.  I am sure there are many other positives 
for using it.  But these pop immediately to mind.

Eliminating the "/R" would not be wise.

73,

Roger Rehr W3SZ


On 8/9/2016 1:25 PM, Alan Larson wrote:
>    Ok, I'll confess.  One rule I don't understand is:  Rovers MUST sign
> "rover" on Pone and /R on CW and digital modes after their call sign.
>
>    I don't see the benefit.  If a station shows up in a new grid, I should
> know I can work him again, but I don't see a reason why he should be
> required to include that information as a modifier of his call sign.
>
>    The rule change in the UHF contest to allow a rover to exist in a single
> grid is good, it corrects a basic flaw of the previous rules.  (What if
> someone is roving, signing /r, but never makes it out of the starting grid?)
>
>          Alan
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