[NLRS] CQs in the contest - "the rover effect"

Sat Jan 25 18:54:03 EST 2014

Hi Bill. Hope you're keeping warm up there!

Your post brings up several thoughts that may or may not be relevant to your
situation:

*         As you may recall from one of my previous Aurora presentations,
being out in the sticks (EN26) I've had a tough time keeping up with local
obstructions (trees) and increased distance to other VHF/UHF stations (with
fewer nearby stations). As such my tower has "grown" over the years to
maintain my competitiveness. An unanticipated consequence has been that the
amount of interference to the neighbor's TVs and interference from their
appliances have been significantly reduced. Yes, antenna direction still
makes a difference but, overall the mutual interference is much more
tolerable. 

*         I've also had to move to higher gain (longer/stacked) antennas
with narrower beamwidths. This and the elimination of analog TV channel 2
have probably also helped in the reduction of TVI and improved weak signal
performance.

*         Running SOLP during contests certainly reduces TVI but, I'm giving
up some ability to attract longer distance and/or stations with poorer
sensitivity. Somehow you have to make up the overall ERP.

*         While roving last week, we noticed the "rover effect". That is, as
we traveled around the countryside (San Antonio, Austin, DFW, and southern
OK.) stopping at good sites our CQs resulted in mini pile-ups from fixed
stations that apparently were just monitoring the calling frequencies and
were unaware of each other. The more interesting effect was that while we
were running the bands and after we departed the area the otherwise silent
fixed stations continued working each other with more stations discovering
the activity and joining in the action. This tapered off after a while and
everyone went into their "silent monitoring mode".

*         Some of the "big gun" stations are also capable of stimulating
widespread activity as they rotate through 360' but, once they've been
worked the other stations lapse into their "silent monitoring mode". Rovers
are unique in that they can be worked from each grid square visited.

Message: Activity breeds activity, passive monitoring may not be as
effective. However, everyone's situation is different.

73, Jim

K0MHC/rover

"SOME ASSEMBLY (AND BATTERIES) REQUIRED"

-----Original Message-----
From: nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Bill Davis
Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2014 12:38 PM
To: NLRS Reflector
Subject: [NLRS] CQs in the contest

   I monitor 144.200 and 50.125 during all contests. I watch the 2m
panadapter that covers 144.170-144.260 and the K3 linked panadapter that
looks +/-20KHz of my operation frequency.

  I do call CQ on occasion, but try to operate in silence as much as I can
to reduce interference to my unreasonable neighbor. The Sept contest was
MOST unpleasant. I try to be a "good neighbor" over a "contester".

  As noted before ... heard little from Paul this contest for what ever
reason. I heard Ron the most on 200. As others have noted.. CW and SSB. . I
heard Ron work a "bunch" of EN34 and EN35 stations that I would not hear a
whisper from. Ron used other frequencies during the contest, MUCH improved
over previous contests.

  I heard K9MU and K2DRH briefy on 200 on Sunday only. Heard ZQ once and
K0SIX a couple of times, mainly on Sunday. Heard Wally W0PHD Sunday late on
200 CW while beamed south. Given the difficult path to Wally 164miles away,
it is unreal how I hear him looking at MSP. Don't recall for sure, but I
think I may have worked N0AKC on  200... too long ago already. Only heard
Charlie twice.

  The issue here is that all stations are weak except for W0GHZ and Ron. The
gear is good enough that no one "wipes the band out", just the frequency of
use.

  The panadapter allows signals to be seen that can hardly be heard. I watch
the rover frequencies "constantly" looking for them or stations calling
them. I will call short QRZ / CQ on the rover freqs hoping to attract them
or others monitoring for them. (If no activity has been seen for a while)

  Conditions to the SE in general were down... the antenna looks 80% of the
time toward the Chippewa valley or MSP. I watch for W0PHD, NT0V and VE3KRP
on Sat eve, Sun AM and eve. I will always be calling CQ or a directed call
for then on 144.200  only. In the weeds... 200 is the only place a station
will be heard. NT0V has panadapters ... but you have to be watching the
panadapter to see the sig. It is not very rewarding in the weeds MANY hrs
watching,FEW "blips".

  After Sept ... I thought perhaps the only hope was for individual stations
to assume a specific posted freq of operation. For that to work .. LOTS of
tuning is required of full time watching. Effective use of 200 is far
simpler. I heard several call on 200 indicating freq of operation before
QSY... then you know conditions to that station, the fact that they are ON
and the freq of operation. It WORKS when 200 is available for "calls".

Respectfully  Bill  K0AWU 

______________________________________________________________

NLRS mailing list

Home:  <http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/nlrs>
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/nlrs

Help:  <http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm> http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm

Post:  <mailto:NLRS at mailman.qth.net> mailto:NLRS at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by:  <http://www.qsl.net> http://www.qsl.net

Please help support this email list:  <http://www.qsl.net/donate.html>
http://www.qsl.net/donate.html