[MiQP-Mail] Rover category

Fri Apr 25 17:24:09 EDT 2008

It's just splitting hairs (or mobiles) for that matter.  MARAC only
allows it for mobiles on a 2 county line.  Ask MARAC what it counts for
if you are 600' away from a 4 county corner or 60' from the road center
that constitutes the county line.  It is my opinion (which counts for
less with each passing day) that the entire station: operator, power
source, rig, and antenna should reside in the QTH of interest.  Since a
line has zero width mathematically it would be impossible to split these
items into two counties equally.

I want to see as much activity as everyone else and I would love the
chance to clean sweep all the counties but I found the ILQP county
definition a bit too liberal.  Almost as silly as playing 7 card stud
with 2s,3s,9s, one eyed jacks, and kings with the axe wild.  

N8SS

________________________________

From: Chasey, David A [mailto:wn9nbt at purdue.edu] 
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 4:47 PM
To: miqp-mail at miqp.org
Cc: Morse, Earl (E.A.)
Subject: RE: [MiQP-Mail] Rover category

Earl,

   In last year's INQP, I set up on the St Joe County and Elkhart County
line and operated from a van in a church parking lot.   The attached
picture (which may not go through to the list) was taken on a recon
trip, not the actual day of the contest, but it illustrates where I was
parked during the contest.    The road in front of the van is the county
line road which by GPS and sight went through the middle of the van.
The county line road dead ended in a T intersection where the church was
located.     I put up a dipole antenna with one end tied to a tree in St
Joe County, the other end tied to a tree in Elkhart County and it was
pretty well centered on the line.

If I can't be in two counties at one time, which county would I have
been in?

Also, your comment "It isn't allowed by any awards programs i.e. DXCC,
WAS and County Hunters" is inaccurate.  We are only talking about county
lines here.   County lines are meaningless for DXCC and WAS.   The MARAC
county hunters award does in fact specifically allow 2 county contacts.
See http://www.marac.org/Awards.pdf where the following is written on
page 7 & 8....

County Line Contacts

A stationary mobile may operate on a County Line and contacts with the
mobile can be used as credit for both counties. Some part of the vehicle
used for the mobile contact must be located in each county on the County
Line.

Only one County Line at a time can be run for MARAC Awards. If the
mobile is operating from the intersection of three or more USA Counties,
only two counties at a time may be counted for the same contact.

I personally find it fun to track down unique operating locations such
as county lines and operate from them where allowed.    I'm far from a
great operator, but I'm there to have fun and perhaps my operating
skills and dealing with pileups will improve over time.

All of that said, I really enjoy the MiQP, as well as the INQP, ILQP,
and OQP that I operate "in state" from.   I appreciate all of the hard
work that all of the committees do, and am not criticizing them in any
way.

73.

...Dave - N9FN

________________________________

From: miqp-mail-bounces at miqp.org [mailto:miqp-mail-bounces at miqp.org] On
Behalf Of Morse, Earl (E.A.)
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 3:18 PM
To: MiQP-Mail at miqp.org
Subject: Re: [MiQP-Mail] Rover category

Hank, 

Definitely talking two issues here. 

Rover category and  how close to the county line do you have to be to be
in the county. 

The Rover category may be a viable category especially if you could show
that it would increase activity.  I know I worked N9NE in almost every
county he parked in last weekend.  Partly because he was in the UP where
we had good propagation and partly because he spent more than 30 minutes
in each county.  If you could show a half dozen rover operations that
would be good for a couple hundred or so QSOs from each of 4 counties
then  it would make a good case for the category.  Basically, activity
begets more activity but adding categories just waters down the activity
you already have.  I would look at the EOC category.  Almost every
county has a Red Cross station or EOC station or both, however I don't
think that the EOC category generated as much activity amongst the
non-contest community as we were hoping.  Maybe the logs submitted will
prove me wrong.

I have a problem with multiple counties though.  You can't operate from
two places simultaneously.  It isn't allowed by any awards programs i.e.
DXCC, WAS and County Hunters.  Close only counts in horsehoes, hand
grenades, and nuclear weapons but not in ham radio QTH entities.  I have
worked the Illinois QSO party and found it silly to work one QSO for 4
multipliers.  At least that's what they were implying.  I would reply
with QSL, YOU ARE  59 MI 59 MI 59 MI 59 MI and log the 4 QSOs.  Their
game, their rules.  Basically, it seemed that these stations just wanted
to be a little more special than your run of the mill IL stations in
hopes it would generate the pileups they needed to stroke their egos.
>From what I heard from some of those stations, they needed a lot more
practice on those pile ups too.  

Anyway, it's the Michigan QSO party and you just can't be any more
special than being in Michigan, whichever county/counties you are in.
Pick a category and make your plans to operate it as best you can.

N8SS 

>I won't push for the rover category, because the circular reasoning
that 
>we don't have many of these may be a result of the fact that we don't 
>have the category.  But, we'll never know until we'd allow the category

>and push it.  I have no idea of whether this would turn out to be 
>popular or not.  I've scouted the four county corner point of Clare, 
>Isabella, Mecosta, and Isabella, which is a very isolated area, and 
>would be amenable to a fixed operation within 600' of that corner.  
>Similarly, Kent, Montcalm, and Newago, and Ionia are three county areas

>with possibilities. 
> 
>Maybe we need a portable category?  The Illinois QSO party had over 20 
>portable stations in 2007 in single, two, three and four county 
>operation.  Some 16 operators were cited as coming from out of state to

>operate either as mobiles or portables.  Their portable category allows

>a station to set up in a single county, or at a 2, 3 or four county 
>intersection.   The number of individual counties activated by these 
>portable stations was 39 in 2007.  Most of these stations operated for 
>the full 8 hours of their contest.  Many of the counties covered would 
>not otherwise be covered by fixed stations. 

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