[VHFcontesting] Why so few New England rovers?

[James Duffey]

Sean - You wrote:

>> I've been looking at what it would take to put together a Rover up here in
>> Massachusetts. I've noticed there aren't many out there in this area. Is
>> there a reason beyond lack of interest? The mountains in New England make
>> things tough, but also give great vantages.
>> 
>> I'm still trying to figure out things like power and mounting antennas, but
>> before I go spending money or building things I just wanted to know if we
>> had no rovers in the area because of some limitations I was unaware of.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Sean WA1TE
>> 

Living in New Mexico, I don’t pretend to know much about roving in New England. But I do know about roving in general and what is required for success. 

As a rover, you need a lot of stations to work at each grid you move to. This requires Multi-Multi stations, Multi-limited stations, serious SOHP stations and serious SOLP stations who are on most, if not all of the contest. I think that there are a lot of those in New England. So the stage is set for a successful rove. Why aren’t there more rovers in New England? I can only guess; It is hard work to rove, particularly in congested areas, it is not cheap to rove, one can easily get burned out roving, activity can be low in contests not occurring in the month of June, and there are others. 

I think that the most important thing in roving is planning operating locations. Start the contest near a major VHF/UHF population center, preferably a location that is close to a grid boundary or 4 grid convergence. That way you can give lots of fixed stations a grid quickly, move to a different grid quickly, give them more grids, and then move to other grids you can get to without spending a lot of time traveling. That usually means north to south. Planning a route and distributing it to active stations will help a lot, as well as running an APRS pinger or something like RoverStatus so that stations know where you are when. 

I wouldn’t let all this discourage you. I don’t know your situation, but if you are planning a rove, I suggest you start with what you have. If you have one of those DC to Daylight rigs, like an IC-706, start with it. Antennas are straightforward, If you don’t have any, I recommend the WA5VJB easy Yagis as they have good performance and are easily built. If you have a trailer hitch and roof rack, you can mount a mast on the trailer hitch and support it with a cross member on the roof rack. In most states 13”6” is the maximum height allowed for vehicles and you should use as much of that as you are comfortable with. 

The key to success in VHF contesting in general and roving in particular, is to be loud on two. If 6 isn’t open, 2M is where most QSOes start. QSY the stations from there. You should be able to pick up a 150 Watt 2M amp for $1/watt. It  will be a big help if you are not running much power on two. After you are loud on two, I suggest investing in 222MHz. There isn’t a lot of 222MHz activity and if you are equipped with 222MHz, you will be desirable. Stations will look for you. It will help.

Start with what you have, improve on it if you like roving. If yoiu can find a rover in your area, try to contact him and pick his or her brain. 

If you have any other questions, let me know. I hope others have suggestions. Oh yes, it helps to have a driver or second op. Operating in motion helps a lot. 

Now, tell me about those mountains in MA. I live at 6900 ft asl. :^)=. - Duffey KK6MC