It seems like we always look at the "captive" rover question from the
standpoint of the "mother ship".
It seems to me that each of these captive rovers are manned by one or more
people. You would think that these people were enjoying themselves, or
they would not waste a weekend driving around to work one particular
team. Who are we to say that they should not be allowed to do this?
If a big local VHF multi-op offered to loan me a truck full of gear to
drive around to hilltops and work them on the bands from DC to light, I
might do it just for the experience. As long as I can work whomever I
please, I would feel I was operating ethically.
The fact that many rovers are running low power, particularly on the
microwave bands, most likely simply reflects the difficulty of generating
significant power on those bands. The fact that they are operating from
the region near W2SZ is not nefarious, but simply logical in that the QSOs
are possible.
Captive rovers may not be fair, but they're not against the
rules. Personally, operating from Michigan I'd gladly trade captive rovers
for the higher population density of VHF+ ops the NE region enjoys.
K8CC
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