TYPES OF ROVING
There are two main categories of "rover"; "shoot and scoot" is characterized by a series of portable operations from a sequence of locations, and "run and gun" is "mobile-in-motion" operation:

"Shoot and scoot" is a military term used to describe the operational situation in which an artillery unit would set up and fire from a position for awhile and then pack it all up and move to a new location and fire from there. The "shoot 'n' scoot" mode rover is a station moving amongst a series of advantageous terrain locations, stopping at each, raising one or more towers with directional, high-gain antennas, and operating for a time before packing up and moving to the next point of terrain advantage, sort of like a series of mini-field days. The emphasis in shoot 'n' scoot roving is to maximize the number of contacts achieved.

"Run and gun" is a term used by the military to describe firing one's weapon while moving, applicable to individual soldiers firing while running, and up echelon to weapon systems like tanks firing while in motion. In like manner, the "run 'n' gun" mode rover is a station operating "mobile in motion" for all but an occasional few minutes here and there, NEVER changing antenna configuration at any time during the contest from that used while in motion. The emphasis in run 'n' gun roving is to maximize the number of grids activated and, therefore, the number of unique grid combinations achieved.

Note that shoot 'n' scoot roving involves radical changes in antenna systems and configuration between that used while in motion and that used while stopped on some terrain vantage point or other. Note that it is not uncommon for these rovers to operate ONLY while stopped; no operation while moving between stops. Run 'n' gun rovers never change antenna configuration, from contest start to contest end. Neither type of roving is better or worse than the other; they are simply different. On any rove, as determined by the characteristics of one's chosen route, a rover might employ either one or a combination of both.

ROVING PARAMETERS
The characteristics of a roving route which impact the chosen roving mode are terrain, vegetation, infrastructure (existing roads and traffic patterns), population density and distribution, climate and weather, and area-specific propagation.

Terrain: In general, a roving route can be described in terms of mountains, hills, rolling terrain or flat, open spaces. Clearly, any significant rove is going to involve a combination of these characteristics. It's easy to visualize the effect of mountains as one drives almost any interstate in the eastern time zone (north of Florida), looking up hundreds of feet to the top of surrounding terrain while winding along a mountainside through some river valley or other. The same is evident if driving through the Rocky Mountain ranges or the Sierra Nevada mountains. Continuing with an amazing grasp of the obvious, (a little humor here), hills are like mountains except much smaller, rolling terrain is the situation where the road varies up and down in elevation, blocking antennas from the desired propagation path in the low spots, and flat, open spaces is where one has pretty much 360 degrees of being able to see the horizon off in the distance. At left is a picture of this last situation, taken in Texas but often encountered in, while not limited to, the middle third of CONUS, and affectionately known as "Miles and miles of miles and miles."

Note that the term "mountaintop" used herein actually refers to any point of terrain advantage. This includes everything from actual mountaintops, like Pike's Peak or Mt Washington, etc., to much less prominent locations such as bridges which exhibit a "height above average terrain" advantage. Examples include the bridge over the Delaware river on Interstate 295 in southern New Jersey, or the bridge over the Mississippi River on Interstate 10 in Louisiana; even getting off at an interstate exit and operating from a shoulder of the associated overpass can provide enough advantage to make the difference between completing a contact and not!

Vegetation: The vegetation of primarily concern to rovers is trees. There are other forms of vegetation, e.g. dense hedgerows, large bushes, and the like, but trees are the hindrance most commonly encountered by roving stations within CONUS. There are areas of the country, like much of the eastern timezone, in which the size and density of trees simply prevents radio communication above 432MHz. There are other portions of the country in which trees are not a problem. Most of the western half of the central timezone and eastern part of the mountain timezone are like this. It should be relatively easy to determine which of the pictures below was taken in Texas, as opposed to the other, taken in Tennessee!

         

While roving on I-95 in Maryland, there is no problem making contacts on 50 through 222MHz, but there is a definite decrease in 432MHz performance, and 1296MHz is virtually impossible, even to mountaintop stations running respectable power and high gain antennas. The trees densely packed along both sides of the road absorb more and more energy as frequency increases; communication on frequencies above the 70cM band is virtually impossible. I-95 in Maryland sports relatively flat (rolling at worst) terrain, but is lined by densely-packed trees, all at least 60 feet tall. If surrounded by trees, one must find a way to raise one's antennas above the treetops to operate successfully at frequencies above 432MHz. This illustrates why tree size is such a concern to shoot 'n' scoot rovers; they must be concerned how tall their towers must be to clear trees at their selected operating locations. It also matters whether the trees are diciduous or coniferous and what time of year it is; trees with no leaves do not absorb nearly as much RF as their "clothed" cousins!

There are those portions of CONUS which do not present a vegetation problem; the Maryland I-95 example is in direct contrast to most of the western portion of the central time zone where most of the trees one can find are in little groups well off the road, planted around houses as wind-breaks; see the left-hand edge of the picture at right - this is an unusual example because, usually, the trees hide the buildings from view.

Roads, Infrastructure and Traffic: Roads and highways vary from those, as in New Jersey, which wind through the countryside following old Indian trails, to the arrow-straight miles and miles of miles and miles of roads in the American great plains. In between, one finds those which follow the dictates of terrain, as with the interstates which traverse the Appalachians, Ozarks, Catskills or any other mountain range, like I-70 west of Denver in the Rocky Mountains, etc. In Eastern Tennessee, for example, if driving up I-75 north, one has a pretty good indication what the lay of the land does. It goes up and up and up then down and down and down. Unfortunately, the majority of interstates are routed primarily in and through valleys, as are many of the secondary roads. Roads with tall mountains on both sides and thick roadside foliage 50 feet high or more are the rule rather than the exception. As the picture to the right shows, this does not present the most favorable operating conditions for any mobile-in-motion VHF station, to say the least.

One will also encounter man-made hindrances to propagation, like those hilltops where the roadbed has been cut out and travels through the resulting man-made gully for anywhere from several 10's of feet to significant fractions of a mile. Anyone who has mobiled through a metropolitan area has traveled roads sandwiched between concrete walls much taller than the height of the antennas (at right). There are also concerns about construction and the delays this could potentially cause either type of rover. As tree height is important to the shoot 'n' scoot rover because of antenna height concerns, type and positioning of roads is important to the run 'n' gun rover. To maximize number of grids activated, one must maximize selection of roads going North-South which are as close to even-numbered longitude lines as possible. Without going into too much detail at this point, travel along North-South grid square boundaries is a good thing for run 'n' gun roving to maximize number of grids activated for minimum miles driven. Fortunately, many roads like this exist in the great plains, and the speed limits on these roads, one of which is shown at right, is often at least 70mph, which helps if the goal is to cover as much ground as possible. Note that the road in the picture to the rigtt, has no shoulder, yet it sports a 70mph speed limit complete with a great radio horizon!

The Indian trail roads, on the other hand, have low speed limits and are generally to be avoided. It's a fact, though, that many accesses to the desirable mountaintops do, exhibit many of the characteristics of Indian trails, even if relatively new. These often are simply a fact of roving life.

Roads between shoot 'n' scoot locations can be vastly different or border on non-existent. At many shoot 'n' scoot locations, there's a steep incline that’s either gravel, or blacktop that’s in bad need of repair. If it's gravel, as shown at left, the turns will often exhibit "washboard" and there is no way to go over this type of road except very slowly. Additionally, as shown at right, there are situations in which the last few 100 feet or more of "road" are not much more than a trail. Not all rovers have the requisite road clearance to traverse such terrain. Sometimes it's necessary to travel such roads to reach that "ideal" location with the 360 degree view of the radio horizon. Take care - getting stuck wreaks havoc on any schedule!

There are also considerations of traffic density; we all have roadways we know to avoid at certain times because traffic is so heavy that delays are inevitable. I-35 from 30 miles north of Austin, Texas, southward to San Antonio, between 1000 and 2200 local any Sunday is an excellent example, as is the Washington, D.C. beltway any rush hour. Generally speaking, since most long contests are on weekends, rush hour through metropolitan areas is not a concern; some of the sprint contests might feel the impact, however, since 1900L start times can still be seeing the effects of rush hour in some areas. Also, extra care is needed if traveling an area where the bars close at 0200 local Sunday Morning (Saturday night), and you're pushing to get to that next grid or mountaintop!

Population density / distribution: The population of CONUS is approximately 291.5 million, distributed as shown in the map below. According to ARRL figures, of the roughly 660K licensed hams in the US, about one third are totally inactive, one third are really active, and another third get on the air sporadically (a little Es lingo there), perhaps for contests and such. Further, about one third of the last two thirds are in any way VHF active. This means, VERY optimistically, that there could be as many as 146,000 hams, nationwide, on the air for at least a portion of any given major VHF contest. This is less than one half of one percent of the general population. The map below depicts the general distribution of population within CONUS. Note that there are just three clearly defined areas of high population density on the west coast.
Starting from about 97 degrees west longitude and moving eastward, population density picks up and it can be seen that the eastern third of the nation sports the most major population centers. Further, the northeast quadrant is actually the dominant area for general population density. Note that each dot on the map represents 30,000 people. Based on the figures and estimates above, the VHF contesting dilemma, for both fixed and roving stations, can be shown. Assuming uniform VHF-active ham distribution throughout the general population (a BIG stretch), this means, VERY optimistically, that there could be as many as 15 hams who might be on for a portion of a VHF contest anywhere one might find 30K population. In most cases, however, this is much more than reality. While all these numbers are estimates, and some of the assumptions are questionable, it should be evident that there aren't very many folks on VHF except perhaps in major population centers. In Lubbock, TX, for example, with a population of almost 200K, there may be as many as eight hams on during any given VHF contest, and often most or all are operating at the W5LCC club station. In fact, the area of Omaha, NE, Sunday morning at 0630 local during the September, 2000 ARRL VHF QSO party, with a population of over 725K, not counting all the suburbs outside the actual city limits, there was NOBODY on the air! This rather bleak picture is an excellent illustration of why many fixed stations find rovers such a valuable asset during contests!

Even if the most optimistic of all the above assumptions and estimates were to be true, it is a fact that in nearly two-thirds of CONUS, one would run out of folks to contact well before one would run out of contest. An aspect of roving in these portion of the country is that as one runs out of stations to contact, one moves on to another area with more, new stations to log.

An additional aspect of population density is that there are significant areas of CONUS in which almost everyone goes to bed by 2230-2300 local on Saturday night. For the run 'n' gun rover, this can cost up to eight hours of no contacts, severely limiting final grid count. In September, 2000, ND2X arranged with VHF amateurs along the route to stay up during the wee hours of Saturday night to give contacts from approximately 2300L to 0600L Sunday morning, at which time they became too far away to hear. It turns out that the assumption that there would be activity in the Omaha, NE area at that time of the morning was erroneous; if there is a next time, arrangements will be made for at least 2230L Saturday night to 0730L Sunday morning!!

Climate and Weather: Heat, cold, precipitation, wind and almost any other meteorological factor one can imagine impact roving and choice of roving routes. Many mountaintops are not accessible in the winter; forget Pike's Peak most years from early October through late April, for example, because the snow prevents access to the top of the mountain. Mt Washington can be a challenge because of wind from time-to-time, even without precipitation. Ice and snow are clearly potential show stoppers in the winter months for anywhere above the Mason-Dixon line (roughly 39° 43' 22" N) or at higher elevations. Many times this limits travel to interstates and other major routes which are well and quickly cleared of snow or kept relatively clear of ice with chemicals. In the best situations, it can slow travel significantly. Then there is fog....

If roving through the southernmost states from June through September, inclusive, air conditioning is an absolute imperative, not only to keep the operator from dripping all over the equipment, but to keep the equipment within permissible operating temperature limits. This is especially the case during daylight hours with sun loading on the vehicle, but if the temperature is 85 degrees or more at 2230 local, as it often is in San Antonio and points south during the summer, it's important at night, too. Generally speaking, the best month for roves covering a wide area is September; generally not to hot, not too cold, it's more or less between the hottest of the summer and the coldest of the winter, and weather impact can generally be minimal. There are always exceptions; "your mileage may vary!"

Special "area-specific" propagation: As the story goes, "There I was, on my way to Southeast VHF conference at the end of April, 2003, working into Florida from the mobile on three bands from 144MHz to 432MHz, traveling 72mph on I-30 through EM23 in northeast Texas." It was the start of that year's spring tropo season which graces the southeast US every spring. Propagation across Lake Michigan, with the population centers surrounding the lakeshores, the California-Hawaii VHF ducting which has been so well documented, and the fair possibility of Aurora in the far northern states are all examples of area-specific propagation. OK, so San Antonio had Aurora, once, in August of 1987, but it's not something which is at all likely. There are also "north-south" ducts along the east coast, inland as much as 20 miles from the Atlantic ocean and, in the midwest, something called "cornfield tropo" - this last is a temperature inversion caused by evaporative cooling above fields of mature corn and other grains and can extend propagation a surprising distance! It's not that these modes don't occur anywhere except as mentioned, it's that some areas exhibit periodic tendencies to perform. Aurora is present almost any evening from the far northern states, and spring tropo in southeast CONUS is pretty reliable, late April through early June. In the case of SE spring tropo, it is always hoped that it will extend into June far enough to support the ARRL contest; sometimes it does. What fun!

ROVING IN GENERAL
The four main functions of roving are driving, navigating, operating and logging. For the Shoot 'n' scoot rover, operating includes functions similar to field day, like raising/lowering antennas, operating generators, etc.

Driving: Note that the first function on the list is "driving" - do this properly or die! This is not a threat, it's a statement of what could very easily happen if a rover doesn't do it right! Whether traveling between stops or on a full effort mobile-in-motion rove, keeping the rubber between the lines and the shiny side up is paramount! Piquing the ire of local gendarmes is also to be avoided; nothing ruins a roving budget more needlessly than a stiff traffic fine. Perhaps more importantly, time spent with law enforcement folks can ruin a schedule, as well - HI!

All the standard "going on a trip" preparations apply to roving. The vehicle must be mechanically sound, all fluids should have been checked and, where applicable, changed or topped off. Tires must be in good condition with good tread and proper air pressure. The success of the rove is dependent more on the vehicle than any other single factor. To illustrate, on the ND2X 35 grid effort in September of 2000, 43 miles west of Grand Forks, North Dakota, the ND2X run 'n' gun rover ceased to rove. The engine temperature was rising to unacceptable levels. This is bad enough for a gasoline engine, but it can be the death knell for a diesel! Only 9 grids had been activated to that point, and it was still relatively early on Saturday. KD5ABM was driving for us, as a "non-operator", and his background as a diesel mechanic proved invaluable. He was able to determine the cause, a thermostat stuck "closed" and, thankfully, that's a "roadside fixable" problem. It did cost over three hours for diagnosis and to let the engine cool sufficiently. The top cooling system hose was then removed from the thermostat housing and a long screwdriver was used to jam the thermostat open permanently. There were no further cooling problems for the rest of the trip! It didn't stop the rove - it DID, however, cost the time required to activate as many as three additional grids! Had it been the fan clutch or water pump, ND2X would have had to drop out of the contest instead of merely missing out on three grids at the end of the contest because contest time expired. What a disappointment dropping out would have been!

Navigating: Knowing where one is going is imperative. This begins with a serious map study. All aspects of road and infrastructure parameters must be considered. There are differences in routing for the two roving modes.

MAP STUDIES: While the old standby, the Rand-McNally road atlas (or equivalent) is indispensable to both preparatory map studies and the travel itself, software aids exist to help in both aspects of navigating. ND2X likes the DeLorme products of "Topo" and "Street Atlas". A tremendous amount of detail is available for a given route or site, and the ability to zoom in for closer inspection with the option to have lat-lon grid lines present on any map make the DeLorme products particularly attractive. These programs also work well with GPS data if a GPS receiver is interfaced with the computer in use. When in motion, it is simple to determine vehicle location and the relationship at any given time to the next planned turn or stop, by watching the progress on a laptop computer. Additionally, the exact location of maidenhead grid boundaries can be seen at a glance. DeLorme also has an inexpensive GPS receiver designed specifically for their mapping applications and laptops; their latest version interfaces via a USB port. These are not the only products available, but this is what theis author uses and, therefore, what is discussed. It is a certainty that other sources can provide this capability, depending on personal preference.

For shoot 'n' scoot rovers, it is necessary to identify locations at which 5 to 6 hours of parking and operating would be possible without stirring up any park personnel or park rangers who might happen on the scene, etc. Most often, "site surveys", i.e. short day trips to investigate potential contest operating locations are required. Any point of terrain advantage, from actual mountaintops to the afore-mentioned interstate overpasses qualifies. Each location is rated according to the coverage which it provides. It must be determined what directions to what grids are possible from a given location. One location might be great on certain bands but not so good on others. Another location might be excellent in certain directions but blocked by heavy, RF-absorbing vegetation in other directions. Sides of mountains can provide superlative coverage except, of course for the directions blocked by the mountain itself. Some locations precluded parking within 50 feet of the roadway. Each has good points and bad points, and each must be evaluated against what is required of that particular spot during a given contest. Additionally, routing between operating locations must be chosen carefully; the shortest route, in terms of time, if not distance, between two points must be selected to minimize the amount of time lost to travel. Here, again, if possible, running the course once or twice before doing it during the contest can be a major help in avoiding the unexpected during a rove. Construction delays and the like all contribute to ruining otherwise beautiful plans!

For run 'n' gun rovers, running the course beforehand may be impossible, as it was for the 35 grid run 'n' gun effort. In this case, hams living along or near the chosen route are consulted for "on the scene" reports. When planning a multiple grid effort, selection of north-south roads close to even longitude lines are important. This, in terms of distance driven, effectively gives "two for the price of one" as the route provides access to grids on both sides of the even longitude line as north-south travel is accomplished. If the number of grids activated is large enough, SOME east-west travel is unavoidable; there are only 23 grids from Brownsville, TX north to the Canadian border. For a rove to activate more than 23 grids, then, travel from one even longitude line to another is unavoidable. As in north-south travel, and east-west route should be chosen as close to a "whole number" latitude line as possible to be as close to the demarcation (latitude) line between grids as possible. Grids are just under 70 miles distance north-to-south, but vary from over 124 miles wide at Brownsville, TX (EL16) to about 91 miles wide at the Canadian border (EN18) . This shows east-west travel between even longitude lines should occur as close to the northernmost point of the chosen roving route as practical. Climate and weather also impact route planning. As noted, snow can be a complete show-stopper. High temperatures tax both operator and equipment. High dew-points can mean fog, and no matter what mode of roving one employs, fog is a bad thing! It not only interferes with navigation but, and most importantly, it impacts the first function of roving, driving. Safety must be first!!

To illustrate run 'n' gun rove planning, the routing for the September, 2000 ND2X 35 grid effort is shown at left. Starting in west Minnesota, note the travel northward along the 96 degree longitude line and southward along the 98 degree longitude line. The only "pure" "east-west" travel was at the northern-most point of the route, minimizing the number of miles traveled. Note this east-west travel was along 48 degrees latitude. There are two points of interest; one, in white is a short stop made in EN28. The other, in red, is where ND2X/R had to stop due to elevated diesel engine temperature.

The first stop was required because the available north-south roads took us north from EN17 into EN18 a very few miles from the 96 degree longitude line. A quick drive east into EN28 for a 15 operating stop on the shoulder of the road was required to activate EN28. A few more, similar, short stops were made south of EN12 & 22 to activate 18 grids south of those shown. The route went south past Omaha, to Topeka, and down I-35 into south central Texas. The second stop, for an engine cooling problem was, according to the nearby road sign, 43 miles west of Grand Forks, ND. There was nothing there except the road and several small lakes. It took approximately 3.5 hours to diagnose a stuck thermostat, cool the engine sufficiently to remove the upper coolant hose and use a long screwdriver to make the thermostat permanently UNstuck! This ruined the tentative schedule, and some folks who were listening for ND2X/R almost left frequency before they heard the mobile lurching out of the nightime ether. This delay also prevented activation of another three or four grids before contest end.

Operating: This aspect of roving is primarily driven by personal preference. Equipment is configured to best support individual likes and dislikes, as well as roving mode employed. In like manner, division of responsibility is a matter of personal preference. ND2X likes to drive and operate the radios while someone else logs and navigates. Even so, on the ND2X 35-grid effort, driving was broken out to isolate the driver from all radio operations, while navigating, operating and logging were shared by the two "real" operators. N4FLM on the other hand, does not operate at all between his selected operating locations. Not that he couldn't, but he chooses not to for safety's sake. Some shoot 'n' scoot rovers DO operate between operating locations but often only on 6M, 2M and 135cM, especially in the foliage-limited areas with bad propagation at higher frequencies.

There is currently (2001 through this writing, Jan2006 ) a major problem regarding run 'n' gun rover operations: At this time, ARRL contest management is adamant that drivers, even if they never touch anything other than the vehicle (no radios, antennas, logs, etc.), count as operators for a roving station. This creates a safety issue since rules allow only two operators for a roving station. In September 2000, ARRL said drivers did NOT count as operators if they only drove and were involved with no functions other than those associated solely with the vehicle. With three people in the vehicle for the contest, two operators (oldsters K5UHF and ND2X) and one driver as described (youngster KD5ABM), in hindsight ND2X/R was very fortunate to have driven on the order of 1600 miles during the 33 hour contest without a traffic incident! To illustrate further, over-the-road truckers are allowed only so many driving hours before they must take a mandatory number of consecutive hours off. These rules are in place to mitigate the number of accidents resulting from driver fatigue. Roving hams are no less at risk due to fatigue during or after a 33-hour contest. Just ask W3HMS after HIS VHF contest roving-related accident in 2004. This rule and its current interpretation virtually eliminates the possibility of another high grid count run 'n' gun effort simply because suicide is not a good way to end a contest! This is a shame, because a 40-grid rove is otherwise feasible, barring mechanical failure or construction delays!!

Logging: Record-keeping during a contest, or ANY operation, has two primary approaches. Either one uses pencil and paper, or one employs a computer-based logging program. Someone with a 'photographic memory" might not have to log at all during a contest, preferring instead to reconstruct the contest from memory. It is suspected that this is a relatively rare occurance! ND2X lost a few thousand points in September 2000 because the computer logging program in use "blew up" after 31 grids activated, and a significant number of QSO records were lost. This shortfall has been corrected for the program used at that time, and there are myriad other programs from which to choose; do an internet search ("VHF logging software", "ham radio logging software", "amateur radio logging software", etc.) and see! "You pays yer money and takes yer choice!"

Run 'n' gun rovers must find a means to log while driving, navigating, operating, or whatever. This means having two folks engaged at all times (driver plus operator-logger, or driver-operator plus logger) or, if only a driver-operator is in the vehicle, finding some means to record all data for after-action transcription. Shoot 'n' scoot rovers do not have this restriction when operating at a portable location. Except for the single-man rover with recorder, logging can be computer-based or use paper and pencil. Much of the modern logging software keeps track of duplicates, automatically records time, date and grid for each contact (GPS connection), and even produces after action logs in cabrillo format. Some also "automatically" email results to ARRL once connected to the internet after the contest! What a deal!