The "Common Rover Frequency" topic needs a change of title. There's a lot
of things being written that just don't make any sense. I've looked at the
scores from Chicago and MN and several other areas of the country. Despite
what is claimed, there isn't so much rover activity that a rover calling
frequency could not be used, unless there is something dramaticly different
going on that I haven't learned yet.
To illustrate this, let's go over what is typical when pulling up to a spot
for a rover. First comes the S&P. Start at 144.150 and turn the dial up,
stopping each time a calling station is found. Rotate the truck a few times
and make sure you've found them all. During this, you'll find at least one
"big gun" who is taking up a huge amount of bandwidth. Make a note of where
they are, because you'll need to know this later.
Once you've run 2 meters, you might want to do the same thing on 6 meters.
You might stumble into a nice opening. You'll often find a stray caller as
well who is not calling on 2 meters.
Next, go back to 2 and find a spot to call. In the past, I've tried setting
up 5kc away from a reasonably big signal station. That might be an error.
A guy running 1500 watts into a long boom yagi is probably blowing out the
front ends in every radio within 50 miles for a good 10kc up and down.
Anybody in that area will not be able to hear you.
Start calling. If you're lucky, you'll be found and run the bands a few
times. Do this several times. When people stop finding you, its time to
again S&P for any station that was beaming away from you before. Now, try
calling again. Nothing? OK... time to move. Pull down the antenna and get
driving to the next grid.
I've done this as a Limited Rover for 3 contests now. Do you know how many
rovers I've found here in the Northeast corridor? Less than 30 total rover
contacts for all bands. The rover to rover contact is rare at best. We're
always on the move. When there is nothing heard for a few minutes, it time
to move. Otherwise, you're wasting time.
I started this discussion to get opinions about having a single frequency
for those times when a rover is stopped and calling. There have been a lot
of good comments and the suggestion that 144.260 would be appropriate.
However, 144.260 is a microwave coordination frequency. I can imagine that
stations wishing to use it for its intended purpose wouldn't be too pleased
with a rover calling there for 5 to 10 minutes at a time.
Any other opinions on this? Think about how you actually operate. Don't
tell me rovers get spaced out from .150 to .300 when there are only 3 rovers
who ever submit logs in your state. It doesn't happen. Even if it did, its
not like they are on the air the entire time or that they don't S&P.
There's plenty of room on 2 meters. I'm trying to figure out a way for
rovers to make the most of that room.
73
Steve
K4GUN/R
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