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Radio Society of Great Britain Short Course Competition
TX #2 fired up as I reached the junction of the three rides with the forest road some 200m from the start. Steve and Phil Seabrook were standing there. I again used the 'estimation' method to draw an arrow on my map for TX #2. It wasn't much different from the direction of TX #1. Steve and Phil opted to take the left fork here and I though 'if the TX is on that first hill then they will beat me to it but if it is near the second hill then they are faced with the barrier of rhododendrons on the map'.
Soon after carrying on along the forest road, TX #3 fired up and I took the time to plot a decent bearing on this. I moved up the road a bit while checking the bearing and made sure I actually measured it when the signal seemed least diffuse in its direction of arrival. This is a sign of less multi path propagation. The bearing was west of south, so I immediately decided that TX #3 was probably going to the the last one to find at the end of a big clockwise loop.
I was only about 80m further on down the road when TX #4 came on and I used the estimation technique for the third time to scribble an arrow on the map. This showed TX #4 to be over to the east.
Since I did not need TX #5, I tottered on until TX #1 came on for the second time as I was just short of the sharp right bend in the forest road. The bearing to TX #1 was now about 80 degrees left, so I was almost level with it. I was not greatly enthused at venturing into the rhodos since you could be in there all week hunting around! I wandered in through obvious gaps and the hill appeared on the right. As I came round the corner of some rhodos, I spotted a training kite. What a stroke of luck - it was TX #1 and I had stumbled onto it about 30 seconds before it fired up for the third time. I very rarely seem to get these lucky breaks but it sure started the day well for me.
Leaving TX #1 (now transmitting again) to the north east tracking the bottom of the hillside, I paused in sight of the big ride that cuts the area in two. Jillian caught me up as I was using the last of the slope of the hill to get a decent bearing on TX #2 and to plot that. The ground ahead was low lying and I didn't want to have to rely on bearings taken low down and perhaps in thick forest as well. Dave G3ZOI was padding up the big ride heading north west at this point. I couldn't decide if TX #2 was in the five sided block of forest or in the block beyond that on the edge of the map. I took the ride running eastwards and when TX #4 fired up (I was only interested in 2 and 4 by now) it was 30 degrees right of the ride I was on and I judged it to be in the runnable block of forest on the east side of the map.
Then I turned into the five sided block of forest and got as far as the east-west path that leads to the lake. I judged this a good place to take another bearing since I could move freely east or west if the TX turned out to be in this forest block. This bearing was north, so I decided to head for the ride dividing the five sided block from the one to its north.
There was a bit of a wait on the ride until TX #2 fired up again and it was definitely north; so I charged down the bearing trying to run it down while it was still transmitting. It went off when I was about 10 metres from it - phew! A second one in the bag.
I had a pretty good idea of where TX #4 was by now and I tottered round the rides until I was at the NW corner of the block I thought it was in when it came on the air. I got a diagonal bearing across the forest block and followed this looking carefully around and behind me as I progressed. I was virtually next to it when it came on again and I was on it in seconds.
The only one left now was TX #3 and all I knew about it was the bearing I had plotted as I left the start, plus the boundary of the 400m circle around the start. This made the trapezoidal section of runnable woodland south of the start, the prime spot to look.
It was a long way around the rides towards the location of TX #3. I met Terry and Mo on the way. They were busy taking bearings from the ride. TX #3 came on a bit earlier than I would have liked. I was just at the point where the 400m start circle crossed the ride. At the ride crossing, I got a bearing on the TX just before it went off and headed into the wood. I caught up with Ken M0AET at this point and we crossed the wood together, coming out onto the ride at the far side by the marsh without having seen the transmitter. A short wait there and then it transmitted again and it was further on down the original bearing. As I went into the next forest block, the bearing seemed to get more diffuse - a sign of multipath propagation and a lack of a direct path. Seeing that I was so close now, this was a bit of a surprise but the ground dropped sharply in front and I deduced it must be down there somewhere. The TX went off before I could reach the edge of the drop and Ken and I wandered about looking for it without success for four minutes. Another transmission, a brief charge and there it was behind a big rhodo bush.
I exited onto the big ride that ran NNE to SSW, retuned to the beacon and set off for the finish as fast as I could (which wasn't terribly fast by this time).
Bob Titterington
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