[NLRS] 2009 August UHF Contest Results - Rovermania VI

[w0zq at aol.com]

Hello NLRS Land.

Hope this note  finds you in good health, good spirits, and with a good 
snow shovel.  Merry  Christmas to all.

The January QST includes the results from last  summers 2009 UHF contest - 
aka Rovermania VI !   The League's website  has the QST article posted for 
members only and it appears the web article and  database will be released 
soon.   A tip of the hat to John, K9JK, for  another fine write-up.

I am very happy to announce that the efforts  to save this contest, and to 
perhaps even grow it, have been very  successful.  In terms of logs 
received, 2003 was the low water mark with  just 140 logs.  You may recall there was 
a lot of voices talking about  discontinuing this contest - some of those 
voices coming from the HF-biased part  of our hobby and those concerned with 
administration costs.  What is the  value of sponsoring a UHF contest is no 
one shows up? - a fair  question.   Now zoom forward six years.  After six 
years of  regional promotion, and aided by some recent contest rule changes, 
2009 saw 244  log received, and every year since the low water mark in 2003 
(except for 2007)  we have seen an increase.  Nice.

Locally, as just about  everyone who has a warm nose knows, the NLRS put on 
a big push for Rovermania  VI.  Our goal was to 1) promote activity with 
the goal of 200+ logs, 2)  promote roving, 3) activate our new club call, and 
4) go for the club gavel in  the new club competition.   So how did we do?

1.   Promote Activity.  As discussed already, activity was way up.  Check  
out JK's excellent write-up and the data tables that show band activity and  
number of bands by participants - all the numbers for 2009 are up!  Its  
significant to note that the NLRS submitted 31 logs .... pretty good 
considering  that five more op's were tied up with the W0AUS multi so that is really 
35  op's.  The Badger Contesters kicked in another 16 and SMC another 9 - 
the  Upper Midwest was well represented.

2.  Promote Roving.   As JK's article states, "Roving goes viral".   67 of 
the 244 contest  logs were rovers, or 27% !   That is huge.   

3.  Club Call - W0AUS.   The W0AUS crew of N0KP,  K0TAR, WA0RSE, N0HJZ, and 
KA0RYT, operating atop Buck Hill with portable  equipment and antennas FD 
style they scored 528,660 points to storm to the top  and to take the # 1 
spot in the nation for the Multi-operator class.  In  doing so they also 
established a new Dakota Division record to boot.    Nice show guys and I think 
you did Bob very proud !   Who was to know  that temperatures were to dip to 
being so cold in August - blankets in August  ?

4.  Club Gavel.  The NLRS with 31 logs and a club score  of 1,502,667 
points came in second to the Southern California Contest Club  (SCCC) with 11 
logs and a score of 2,793,978.  The SCCC accomplished this  on the power of 6 
rovers, 1 limited rover, and 1 unlimited rover pack roving  together running 
with N6NB's tool box rover stations that he recently wrote  about in the 
2009 MUD proceedings.   There has been a lot of  discussion about the merits of 
pack roving as demonstrated by the SCCC - and I  think we will see a lot 
more discussion on this topic not only from this  contest, but also when the 
September VHF results are released.   While  we didn't win the gavel, it took 
an operating style that is unique to just one  group to beat us, and heck, 
we did come in 2nd out of 10 clubs.   

So in the end, we accomplished most of our goals - what a great  contest.  
Some other notes to comment on.  Mike, KM0T, once again was  the # 1 SOHP 
station in the nation - once again from his most favored of all UHF  locations 
- NW Iowa, EN13.  This is the 6th consecutive year for Mike to  win, .... 
wow !   In the SOLP category, K2DRH was # 1, KC9BQA # 3, and  W0UC # 5.  In 
the rover category, looking past the SCCC pack rovers, W0ZQ/R  was # 7, 
W9FZ/R was #8, and KC0IYT/R was # 10.  Bruce, W9FZ/R, had a great  score 
considering that he was operating with two less microwave bands than I had  - nice 
job Bruce.   In the Limited Rover class we see WA0VPJ/R  finishing # 4, 
K9JK/R # 5, and N0EDV/R #8.   Nice job by all.   

What will 2010 and Rovermania VII bring ?   Looking  outside at the snow 
stacking up, its hard to think about August with its heat,  humidity and 
mosquitos, but it will be here.  Winter is a great time to  warm up the soldering 
iron and to work on the new  transverter.

Again, Merry Christmas everyone.

73,  Jon
W0ZQ