[NLRS] Rovers & The Survey

[John P. Toscano]

N0HJZ@aol.com wrote:

> Bruce brought up a point about the rovers and "grid circling."  I don't want
> to revisit this subject in full but I don't think there will ever be a rule
> that would totally outlaw this tactic.  We have rovers in our own area that
> do a fair bit of grid circling and run up big mult totals while running
> minimal stations.  No matter what the rule is, someone can exploit it for a
> bunch of points.
> 
> I think a simple statement that says "no grid circling is allowed" would go a
> long way toward the spirit of the rule.  People know when they are grid
> circling and so will the ARRL.

I understand that "abuse" of the lack of prohibition on grid circling
has been blamed for a change in rules that has caused several people
to give up on serious roving.  That is highly unfortunate.  In fact,
ANYTHING that drives people away from participation is a bad thing.
It seems that the League is getting serious about finding ways to
attract people back and attract new participants, which is definitely
a step in the right direction.

I also have no desire to start a "flame war" or bring back bad
memories for those of you who have been involved in VHF contesting
longer than me.  I was only licensed in December 1996.  I entered my
first contest in September 1997, and I was so enthralled by the
experience that my "soapbox" description of the experience was used
to fill about half of the first page of the article in the January 1998
QST!  That, plus a 21st place finish in the state hooked me for
good.  (First-place Division finishes in June 2000 and January 2001
also helped to keep me interested!)  The change in rover rules
preceeded my involvement.

BUT, having been a mostly unsuccessful rover a few times now, I can
certainly see why a rover would want to have some assurance that a
long drive out to a distant set of grids is rewarded with more than a
few QSO's on a couple of bands.  There's also some sense of enhanced
safety if a major problem occurs far from home but you know that a
friend who can probably bail you out is a mic click away in the same
or next grid.

On the other hand, if I was to go out with another rover, I would
never consider JUST doing the grid circle routine.  How boring, no
challenge at all.  Why bother, except if you were the type of person
who wanted to see how high a score you could run up with as little
effort as possible.  Not my idea of fun.  But it's also not my idea of
maximum fun to prepare for a week, assemble a 7-band station completely
from scratch, drive hundreds of miles to a set of semi-rare grids, and
find no one listening in that direction.  A few "guaranteed" QSO's
might have eased the pain a bit.  I'm not complaining, mind you, it
was my own mistakes that caused me to fare so poorly.  But you get the
idea why grid circling exists.

Also, we should keep in mind that the whole grid square scoring system
is somewhat artificial.  No one seems to blink an eye about advocating
that a rover head for a grid "corner" so that they can work four
unique locations by making only 3 moves of 100 meters each.  Should we
eliminate that possibility also?  I don't think so, but it's not that
far a stretch from the grid circling thing.  I guess the absurdity of
it all has hit me strongest when a politely curious passerby asks me
what I'm doing, and he or she immediately accepts the idea of a radio
competition, but they can't quite comprehend why I'm doing it out on
the side of the road next to their cornfield.  "What's so magical
about THIS spot?"  Simply a mapmaker's artifact.

Is there a better way?  If any of you have ideas, you most certainly
should express them to the League.

> Give the League your two cents on contesting/awards/VHF activity and let's
> see if our voice gets heard.

This much, I think we ALL can agree on!  If we don't voice our
opinions, whatever they are, we have no cause to complain about the
way things are.  Let's all make a concerted effort to get those
questionnaires filled out and mailed in, with lots of extra comments.

73
ex-KB0ZEV, off to a bad (contesting) start as W0JT