[NLRS] Grid Circling

[Steven H Sawyers (na0ia)]

Yes - grid square dancing will let you run up a big score in hurry. But so 
will living on the east coast and mountain topping a big multi-op station. 
A pack of rovers takes the same number of operators and more equipment than 
a similarly equipped multi-op station. You use whatever you have to improve 
your score.

Out here in the hinterlands of Iowa, we don't have enough operators to keep 
anyone busy during a contest if 6 and 2 are not open.  We have a local 
channel 2 TV station, so 6 is a good way to make enemies of your otherwise 
friendly neighbors. So we don't do it from home, except maybe late at 
night. Even then our stations have to have long boom yagis on the tower to 
reach anyone that we can't work with a rubber duck antenna. So most of us 
have resorted to organized roving including grid dancing to increase 
activity and kill the boredom.

I made a presentation on all of this at the CSVHF conference called "The 
Art of the Rover" a few years ago. I discussed equipment selection, antenna 
selection, mobile operating, and specialized log sheets for normal contacts 
and grid dancing. As a systems engineer, I can attest that multi band Rover 
Station Design is a lot more than just grabbing the Multi-band HT and 
throwing the mag mount on the roof. Although that is a good way to stir up 
the locals on a Sunday contest afternoon.

We only have about 6 operators in the area for bands C, F and above. We 
will send a pack of rovers (3-5) to our local grid square, then work our 
way north to Minneapolis, then over to Wisconsin and finally home. When we 
do it, we really add to the contest excitement in the areas we visit.

Our operating style is Run and Gun. This is especially appropriate in Iowa 
and Minnesota in January. At 10 below, we don't want to get of the vehicle 
that much. As I documented in the presentation, we have very organized grid 
dances. But we are always willing to work anyone outside group. Our 
internal rule is to work everyone else first then grid dance before we 
leave. The outsiders are the ones that make the difference in our 
individual rover score within the group, so the more outsiders we work the 
better we do in our internal club competition which is friendly - we will 
pass a contact from one rover to the next - but we still want bragging 
rights at the next Microwave Lunch.  On a grid dance, we will have both 
operators logging - one doing the grid dancers and one doing the outside 
contacts. It takes some concentration, coordination, and a little 
organization to log 6 to 10 contacts a minute. We try to have the driver 
monitoring the 6 and 2 meter calling frequencies during the grid dance 
while the operator runs the high bands.

Steve