Interesting reading about other parts of the country. Let me
tell you about what happens in Minnesota and a bit of
Wisconsin. Imagine a city like Minneapolis/St Paul. There
are a few fixed stations on for a contest and then there are
active rovers out in many directions. First off, getting OFF
of .200 has been key or else the fixed stations can't hear
the rover. Next, one common frequency really wouldn't work
well because fixed stations would be trying to work rovers
in different directions and stomp all over each other.
What has worked for us is to spread the rovers out on about
10kc spacing. Every rover understands that they don't "own"
the frequency but it sure helps the fixed stations find
them. 144.230, 144.240, and 144.250 are common as well as
.150, .160 and .170. Sure in some contests, we go to 5 Khz
spacing but prefer the 10 khz for QRM reduction. Some
rovers make one long "announce" transmission on .200 when
they get to a new location and then QSY up to "their" freq
hoping to be found.
I sure like this system of operation. The rovers seem to
like it and the fixed stations seem to like it. Fixed
stations report that they have to tune from .150 to .250
often to be competitive (that sounds like a good thing to
me). My personal view is that, as a rover, if I go back
down to .200, I undermine the discipline and success we seem
to be having.
Let me just say that I wish rovers and fixed stations did
this in more areas. When I get to the edge of my traditional
area, I have trouble drumming up any business off of .200.
73
Bruce Richardson W9FZ/R (but KB9C/R this weekend)
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