CODE Rover Activities
Roving is the act of running a portable VHF/UHF station, often in a contest.
For ARRL and similar contests, points are awarded for contacting other
stations, and
points multipliers are awarded for each "grid" worked. Since many grids do
not have permanent VHF/UHF/Microwave amateur stations, contest organizers
often provide a modest benefit in the form of additional multipliers to
stations that "go mobile" and operate from multiple grids.
We think operating in contests as a rover is a lot of fun, and it helps get
around the fact that our homes are not ideal VHF/UHF/Microwave locations!
Keeping several bands worth of radios and antennas working while bouncing
around in rural areas can be quite a challenge... but it keeps us from
getting bored!
The picture on our QSL card, above, was taken by WD0FHG in DM89, during the
August ARRL UHF contest in 1999. Click on the image to see a bigger version.
Have duct tape, will rove!
Contest Diary
2000
1999
1998
Rover Resources
Equipment Vendors
Here are a few of the places we've bought equipment for our roving operations.
- Down East Microwave
We like DEM! Their transverters are good mojo, and they're very
supportive. They also sell antennas from Directive Systems and others,
and they make a bunch of neat widgets for interfacing transverters.
- Directive Systems
We've bought some K1FO yagis from these folks, and are completely
satisfied.
- Olde Antenna Lab
Dave's a neat guy, and he makes nice antennas. Our 6m antenna and our
2m omni came from Olde.
- eBay
The premier online auction site. Be careful here, but from time to
time we've found good deals on gear in the ham radio and test
equipment categories.
Other Information
- ARRL Contest Information
- Cedar Rapids Microwave Society
These guys get much of the credit for our getting started in roving.
Rod K0DAS and friends hosted a rover session at the 1998 Central States
VHF Society meeting in Kansas City that gave us a bunch of ideas and
the confidence that we could "just do it"...
Bdale Garbee,
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