What an event, the Radio-O set up seemed to survive quite well. However
happenings were occuring all over the place.
The main event registration was in trouble. The inverter for the battery
to drive the computer systems blew it's 30A fuse. That car fuse got
replaced by a 40A which survived, but the inverter then smoked and blew
flames out the back of itself. So we turned that off and declared it
dead. No power and a queue building to register and emit hire collect.
Back to paper and one laptop on batteries, whilst someone went for a
generator. They came back with another inverter, less capacity than the
previous one 120W v 300W, and that too was destroyed.
Generator on and laptop alive and network working. Deal with all the
paper notes and registration, also people were returning to download. There
were a couple of E-card things to sort out but the results were still
posted before 18:00 on Sunday.
What else?: Well Ian Buxton of TVOC ran into a sharp branch and impaled
it into his thigh, he came back to first aid with it still stuck in him.
He got transported to the John Radcliffe who have sorted him out.
The first aid tent blew across the field as we were packing up.
The major concern beforehand was the car park entrance, which did seem
to hold up remarkably well considering the number of cars.
So what of Radio-O?:
Two events back to back. First the 80m Sprint then the 2m Classic.
The idea of back to back was partially to get people further into the
area as the main wood is on the far South side of the separating fields.
Also that people would dribble into the 2m Classic so they wouldn't have
to hang around for too long in an exposed field. That seemed to work.
Vlad went off at 11:55, last two at 12:15, so four slots and 20 minutes
to set off the 2m. Not too much waiting around. I was only at that start
for 40 odd minutes.
The Sprint:
It sort of worked, but probably could have been better, and caused one
or two some headaches. I thought of using Dave Deane's small foxoring
transmitters which have a range of 100m - 200m if you're lucky. I
didn't realise you could put longer whips on them to extend the
distance. However I also used all 10, in two groups of 5, all on the
same frequency. Trying to balance having them close enough so that you could go from
one Tx to the next Tx, against having similar Tx's (A=1,F=1) far enough apart
so they didn't interfere with each other. I didn't get to try them out
until the day before the event. A couple were moved from their original
siting.
Using two different frequencies is a better option. Also, it would have been better to
have a Tx at the finish, rather than letting you work out where you
were on the map and hoping you'd get to the crossroads.
Actually I was going to give you a bearing from the last control to the
finish, but I'd lost my compass the day before setting out the 2m
transmitters. either at control Tx1 or Tx4, I was half way to Tx6 when I
realised it had gone, so I hoped someone might find it on Sunday. Thanks
you Andrew for finding it at Tx1.
The Classic: With the start nearly 2km from the car park we could send you into the main wood with those lovely valleys. Tx3 & Tx6 where intended to be hidden from the start by the shape of the land. Not sure how well that worked, I was concerned about putting the Tx6 too far into the quarry. Tx4 up on the top was intended to tempt you over there, to seem close, before going to Tx3 & TX6. I don't think anyone was fooled.
Results:
Thanks to Dave Deane who has processed the results and generated the maps
and splits. As to which order people shold be ranked in, that's up for
some debate.
This is where I've been thorough enough in the organising, and let
things be a bit lax.
What was the time limit ?
Well it was 120 minutes, did every one know. Some people were
reminded at the start other weren't.
How many controls to punch ?
Start, Txs (4/6), Beacon, Finish.
This was on the instruction in the morning, but I don't think everyone read
them, also Dave Deane thought I had not taken an ibutton stake for the beacon so
didn't visit it.
Then David Heale had a entertaining start, with cold hand, watches,
ibuttons, which led to him not being quite sure what the seconds were,
but came in 8 seconds over the 120 minute limit.
Only David Heale and Jillian punched the beacon.
Both David Heale and Vlad were over time.
So if you were to obey all the instructions. Time limit and punches,
then Jillian is the only person on any course to get all the punches and
be within time.
Congratulations.
Quite a lengthy event in the end, walking, sprint, classic. Dave Deane reported 9.6km on his tracker, and that was the short classic. There will be a couple of extra km for the long. Vlad will have even more as he enjoyed the forest and has probably seen more of it than even I have.
Thanks to all who collected the transmitters back in at the end of the day, that was very much appreciated. I'd been at the site since 7:00am in the morning and had been cold, freezing, warm ... Thankfully I have some friends in Stokenchurch by 40 J5, thier coffee was fantanstic.
Hope you enjoyed yourselves. Any comments appreciated.
Robin