[NLRS] Rovermania Postmortum- response

[James Froemke]

Hi Jon. I'll throw in my 2 cents worth even though I didn't make it to the
starting line in August.

1) The August Rovermania did a lot to stimulate additional rover (and
probably fixed station) participation. Can a sustainable process be put in
place to accomplish the same for all 4 ARRL contests during the year? Is
there a way to spread the workload around?

2) Rovermania was effective in bringing some law and order to the wild west
so far as rovers are concerned. Published schedules, assigned calling
frequencies and suggested operating procedures helped everyone be more
effective. Would this "discipline" catch on with newbe rovers in the future.

3) Publishing of "suggested" operating sites within the desired grids would
help with time management and increase the amount of operating time (versus
non productive driving around hunting for good operating sites). Perhaps the
NLRS reflector could be a good repository for known operating locations
within the NLRS coverage area?  (This is my hot button!)

4) Future rovermania efforts could place more emphasis on activating "rare"
grids (within the NLRS coverage area) versus just circling around the Twin
Cities area to maximize the number of Qs from adjacent grids. It takes more
work and can be more frustrating to activate the rare grids unless there is
an organized effort (such as rovermania) to provide encouragement and
support. What's the maximum number of grids (within the NLRS coverage area)
ever activated during a contest?

5) Perhaps more of the big gun stations from the outlying areas (outside of
the NLRS coverage area) could be encouraged to "participate from afar" in
the NLRS driven events. Rovermania is just one way to increase
participation. Additional stations East and South (and don't forget the
Canadians) of the NLRS coverage area could help  generate additional Qs if
they were informed of the NLRS driven events and have timely access to the
planning information (even though they don't subscribe to the NLRS
reflector). Would an e-mail distribution list of known big gun stations
outside of the NLRS coverage area help in getting them on board with
attachments sent to them before the big events?

6) Don't forget the potential "limited" rovers who could add to the field IF
they felt comfortable with just a few bands in their vehicle. Sometimes all
of the rover specs that are published before a contest can have the
unintended consequence of discouraging modest rover configurations. What's
the maximum number of rovers (within the NLRS coverage area) that have been
in the field for any contest?


Thanks again for all of your effort. You've made a big difference!

73, Jim
K0MHC/RV
Ft. Myers Beach, FL