[NLRS] Rovermania: Reaching out to others to generate growth

[Todd Sprinkmann]

Hi Gerald,

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I'm sorry that your rover experiences with "running the bands" have you 
wishing
for the single band days you speak of.  I only got started in contesting two 
years
ago so my concern is with how the game is played today.  And while I do take
contesting very seriously, it's only because I get a thrill out of it.  At 
no other time
are our bands so alive and full of possibilities.  It's like a big party to 
me and
despite my limitations with electronics, I am very interested in meeting all 
the
guests who cared enough to come to the party.

I cannot imagine contests without rovers.  If anyone has the ambition to 
attach
an ungodly amount of antennas to a vehicle, wedge rigs and cables and 
transverters
into cramped quarters, AND, then drive for hour after hour trying to give 
out
multiple bands from multiple grids, hey, that amateur station operator has 
my
very best wishes.  A rover can stir up so much more activity and enthusiasm 
than
a single fixed station can.  Some rovers rove just because of the sheer love 
of
radio and contesting.  Some rovers put hundreds of contacts in our logs, 
instead
of not being able to operate from their apartment, their lousy 
antenna-restricted
QTH, etc.  Whatever a rover's motivation is, I try to remember three things:
1)  Rovers want to work as many stations on as many bands as is possible.
2)  Rovers have a much tougher task than fixed stations do.
3)  Rovers need us to try and understand how we can best work with them.

With this in mind, I want to reply specifically to some of your comments 
below.

> On Fri, 2005-06-17 at 09:19 -0700, Todd Sprinkmann wrote:
>>>  Gerald,
>>>
>>>   I know what you mean about the too-quick QSY.  But I can say 
>>> first-hand
>>> that W9FZ was great at calling QRZ several times before he QSY'ed.  I 
>>> was
>>> able to work him on all my bands in 7 of the 8 grids he roved in, with 
>>> no
>>> difficulty at all.  Only reason I missed him in EN64 was that I slept in 
>>> too
>>> late Sat. AM.

Gerald replied:
> I've not worked FZ often if at all. EN64 is a long path from the SW
> corner of EN32.

Todd's new reply:
>>>> I didn't know you are in the SW corner of EN32.  That would have made
FZ's June rover path tough for you, until he got to EN45 toward the end
of the contest.  But he wasn't exactly a chip shot for me a lot of the time 
either.
And I can assure you that he clearly called QRZ multiple times before he 
would
QSY from 144.240 (or his other bands, for that matter)
>>>> And from your location in SW EN32, I would love to be around for one
of N0DQS' roves.  What a great equipped rover station Gene has.  I know
because I've stumbled into him before during the wee hours of the morning.
Running into Gene at 6 AM (last Sept.) and having to work at moving thru
4 bands with him out in EN23 over about 15 minutes is a peak contest
moment.  As was the added bonus of running into KA0PQW a bit later.  Is it
possible that N0DQS being out there meant that Matt and I swept 4 bands?  Or
maybe it's that Gene heard either Matt or me and knew to look our way?  I 
don't
really care which way it was, but I know that this is one great example of 
how a
rover just being out there makes certain good things far more possible.

>>> Todd's earlier reply:
>>>   It also helps if you can have more than one rig.  I would stay parked 
>>> on
>>> Bruce's freq's of 222.140 and 432.140, just in case I missed him on 
>>> 144.240.
>>> Often I would hear him lightly on either 222 or 432, and I'd be even 
>>> more
>>> aware of where he was going.  And I was hearing him on 222 and 432 well 
>>> into
>>> N and NW Wisconsin.

Gerald's reply:
> I had two rigs, one on 6 and 222 and the other on 2 and 432 with rapid
> band change, and was often successful in following a pair of stations
> from band to band, but a polite tail end call waiting until they
> completed their contact was apparently never heard as they had hit the
> bandswitch the instant the last one of them lifted the PTT button.
> Perhaps I should be less polite and tail end in the middle, but unhappy
> folks can remember who made them unhappy and hear even less well. ;<)

Todd's new reply:
>>>> I think you made a good point at the end of your paragraph there.  Like
anyone else, rovers are only human and they are more likely to respond to 
honey.
I like to do this by contacting them early in their rove, and establishing 
that as much
as possible, I'm going to try and be one of their regulars.  I also try to 
give them a
quick signal report if they're calling CQ and not getting any takers.  We 
all love to
know our rigs aren't broken. :)
  Or ask them how the rove is going in general.  Alert them if they missed 
someone
off the back of their beam.  Alert others to the rover's presence. I let 
some Illinois
multi-ops know that W9FZ was begging in some tough N. WIS grids.  They
swung their beams north and voila!  More happiness and good feelings all 
around.
I do this with cooperative local fixed stations as well.  W9GA is great 
about this.
I'm talking about hearing a weak, distant, unexpected station and then 
alerting some
locals out of the corner of my beam, as it were, that there's a good station 
out there
to be worked.  This is what I was trying to accomplish with a lot of the 
NLRS'ers
listening Bruce's way at the end of his rove in EN45.  Not to step on Bruce 
or to
have anyone miss a Q with him, but to smoothly multi-task a little.
  As a result of this, I find that if I hear a rover out of the corner of my 
ear about to
QSY, a quick, "BQA!" will ensure a snappy 10 second QSO before they are on
to the next band.  And if I did find that a rover was QSY'ing at warp speed, 
I would
gently urge them to perhaps take a few extra moments to call QRZ when I
ran into them the next time.  Despite this, sometimes connections are 
missed, and if
you were in my shack, you'd probably see some frustration on my part, as 
well, LOL!

Todd's earlier reply:
>>>   A good rover or two in a direction that two population centers can 
>>> hear at
>>> the same time can be a huge asset.  All the fixed stations have to do is 
>>> be
>>> a little nimble with the VFO and the beam and you can really start 
>>> racking
>>> up Q's, with both the rover, and with the fixed stations (who have to 
>>> slide
>>> back and forth a little bit off the rover)  We've done this down here 
>>> with
>>> rovers like K0PG and K9ILT, as well as K9JK.  Sure it can get hectic, 
>>> but
>>> hey, considering we listen to dead air most of the time, I CRAVE the
>>> activity that contests bring.
>
Gerald's reply:
> But if you can only start a string of band contacts with a rover or
> fixed station by making contact first on 144.210+/-, that means the 2m
> station needs to be the big rig, and you can't park on 432.100 +/- and
> make contacts because too many don't pause for other contacts but zip
> off to another band. That's my complaint. I have VHF contest
> certificates from years in the past for SINGLE band operations, but
> can't make the contacts on single bands anymore. Rapid bandswitching is
> the culprit.

Todd's new reply:
>>>> I agree that most strings of band contacts occur from 144.  But I try 
>>>> to be
aware of what the rovers other freqs are in case I miss on 144 for some 
reason.  I
don't mind swinging my beam to tighten up on them on 222 or 432, if need be, 
and
I don't think they mind the quick "BQA!" on the other bands, because we both
know we want to work each other.  And failing that technique, I just wait 
for them
to come back to their 2 meter frequency.

>>>> I hope that my experience as a relative newcomer can be of use.  V/UHF
contesting in this part of the world (IMO) is on a definite upswing and I 
thank
everyone who has helped make it better.  Let's all keep thinking of ways to 
move
it in a positive direction.
>>
>>   73,
>>   Todd  KC9BQA
>
> -- 
> 73, Jerry, K0CQ
> Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer
> All content copyright, Dr. Gerald N. Johnson