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Radio Society of Great Britain 80m competition
Looking at the map, it was a safe bet to get some distance down the eastern
side of the area during the initial cycle. I deliberately stopped to plot a
bearing on Fox 1 in the middle of the open ground between the start car and
the fence by the start flag, but this turned out to be the worst bearing of
the event, causing me to estimate its location on the lakeside southwest
from the start. This error caused me to lose some time later on. Signal
strength persuaded me that 3 and 4 were well south, 2 was stronger and to
the west but probably best left until I was heading back to the finish,
whereas the strong 5 lay to the east and was quickly found (although the
flag was largely concealed by the vegetation until I was on top of it).
Leaving 5, I was still unsure whether I would take 3 or 4 next since my
initial bearings had been very close together, and both were now giving
similar bearings to the west, albeit 3 was stronger than 4. I found I was
going too far down the main track and needed to get to the west side of the
out-of-bounds areas, but a high wall confronted me and I needed to backtrack
a bit to get round it. When 3 came up, it was obviously within range and
running in a straight line brought the flag into view shortly after the end
of the transmission.
I was now confident that 4 was by the ruined castle, but searching the
likely looking wood to the south failed reveal it until the signal came up.
Recalling that I had placed 1 by the lakeside southwest from the start, not
far from the buildings and big car park, I headed to that point - although I
was now puzzled about the possible site of 2, which also seemed to be near
to those buildings, but was difficult to reconcile with the published 600m
exclusion zone from the start. Once in my selected search area, comparative
signal strengths and bearings made it clear that 1 was much further north
than estimated, whereas 2 was much closer and to my east, so I made a change
of plan and ran 2 to ground on the next transmission.
It was not easy running 1 to earth, because it was close to the road and to
power lines. It was probably re-radiation from these which had given me
such a bad first bearing. However, a vague bearing along the power line got
me to the approximate site and when the signal went off, I was unhappy at
the prospect of a "headless chicken" search in such a lot of undergrowth.
For once, luck was on the side of this particular headless chicken when the
flag appeared magically, and all I had to do was head for home with a full
bag of foxes.
It was great to have been part of this historic event, the first in the
north of England, and I have to thank the guys from Oldham Amateur Radio
Club (with the valuable support of SELOC) for having the courage to start
from scratch, and succeed so convincingly in putting on an event which
provided so much enjoyment for a good field of participants, novice and
"expert" alike.
Robert Vickers G3ORI
(Stourbridge ARS and Harlequins OC)
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