[NLRS] RE: Rovermania Postmortum

[Matt Burt - KF0Q]

RoverMania  2004 comments - aftermath

It seems so easy to say something bad about things – have been telling my
teenage son that for a few years now -  “ why not find a couple of good things
to say”?
So in that spirit you can find my posted soapbox comments for the most part
positive vs whining – I feel that negative comments do not belong there.  If
you haven’t had a chance pse see the comments at the contest soapbox – the
League actually reads some of this stuff and often uses this information for
the contest write-up in QST.  If we want more people / participation lets do a
good job, tell the story and gain some intrest!
Negative comments however; can provide some insight to others that may change
things the next time around.   And since Jon asked 
I will explain RoverMania
from my perspective; both positive and negative points.

What worked?
1)  Rover map, schedules etc. both posted and linked on NLRS.org.   For those
who I sent out messages to prior to the contest ex: N0URW and N0GZ – it was
well worth the time.  My “heads-up” message provided a link to the RoverMania
page at NLRS.org – which really helped!
2)  Rovers picking their own routes
3)  Attempting early on to get as many bands on the air as possible – offering
equipment to other stations to accomplish this.  I think those of us fortunate
enough to have a spare band lying around should make sure that another station
could use it and that the hook-up is simple.
4)  10 grids max – was just right for me.  This provided a “cushion” of time
where I could get caught up and be right on sched for Sunday.  Had I tried to
push a couple more grids out – it could have been ugly.

What didn’t work?
1)  Fixed station frequency – I only worked KM0T close in – with so many
directions Mike had to point it was no wonder!  I missed Mike (and W0GHZ) in
many grids.  This resulted in many lost q’s.  Not sure what I could have done
to solve this – did Mike want to work me?  How about Gary?  Of course they did
– it just turned out that part of the rover pack headed north when I headed
east!  I tried fixed frequencies that were posted many times and nothing.  The
fixed guys were busy working rovers or others on different band/s.  Tough to be
2 places at once!  We need to take a look at this and come up with a plan where
the rovers in far away grids can get the attention of a fixed station. 
2)  Distant stations that didn’t know what was up – I worked several stations
that had no idea what we were up to.  Many of them figured it out part way into
the contest – which was great.  These guys are not on our reflector - we need
to do a better job of communicating our routes to some of the less active bunch
in the far away grids.  I managed to hook up with KB0PE in St Louis – he was
quite workable from where I was in Iowa – was a complete surprise to him that
anyone was in EN23!
3)  Missing rovers!  Was thrilled to work KB0THN/R, K0NY/R, W0ZQ/R, N0HJZ/R, and
W0AMT/R at all.  The reality is that I only caught them in maybe a couple of
grids (‘HJZ 3 grids I think).  More R/R qso’s would have helped. 
4)  Rovers not being where/when the schedule says.  On Sunday AM I looked all
over for one of the rover teams and found out that they pulled the switch
early!  I believe that it would have helped tremendously to have the rover
teams stay with the schedule as much as possible – that doesn’t mean just doing
the grids as posted in order but actually resetting the clock if things go
better than expected.  It is almost impossible to get information (on changes)
during the contest.  Besides – think about the (missing) grid combinations. 
After all the multipliers are truly the key to high scores.  Take that away and
the RoverMania concept has considerably less impact.
5)  Rovers with one operator/driver.  Gosh was I tired!  It was quite a
challenge to drive that much and think straight!  A few hour rest would have
been better.
6)  Not testing equipment prior to the contest.  My biggest enemy is time. 
Tested all bands in the driveway at KM0T’s everything was fine – only 10Ghz
didn’t work after that.  Found a simple problem with the xverter way after the
contest.  My new rover setup worked – wasn’t that efficient however.  Next time
I need to have a “dry run” before heading out on a 700+ mile journey with a new
setup.
7)  Not sure how to address this but turns out my rover calling freq (222.050)
was the location of a big birdee for N0GZ.  Had no idea that would happen.  
8)  With regard to no.7 – had trouble with the choice of freq for K0NY/R,
KB0THN/R and myself.  Many times at the start of the contest I was spinning
from one point (my .050) way up to .160 for Clare and Jim.  Of course hindsight
tells me that I should have placed these freq’s into memory (where available)
and just hit the recall key  -  To be honest we should have both been on .160. 
That way everyone can work everyone.  It was a great idea to have rover calling
frequencies – don’t get me wrong -  it just turned out that it was not very
efficient.  I never had the pile-ups either that I expected - perhaps if we
extrapolate the UHF test into the June test it would work.  I just think that a
more “regional” rover calling freq would work better.  For the UHF test the
traffic on the band is typically low enough that I do not foresee a problem
with combining a couple of teams per freq.


That’s about all I can think of.  In retrospect RoverMania was a success.  I
really wish that I had more time to prepare – it would have helped with q’s on
5.7 and 10G for sure.  I also wish that more folks would have found me Saturday
nite in EN33,32 – think the only qso with an NLRS station there was with KA0PQW
 - (tnx Matt!).  Can remember the June test where I had a pile-up when I got
there!   Can we learn from this experience? You bet!  I would like to see what
could happen next time out – after all the propagation for this years’ test was
about average – think how it could be with better execution and some
enhancement! 

73,
Matt
KF0Q