Swinley Forest 21 January 2012

| January 21, 2012

The 2012 season started with a return to the splendid Swinley Forest at Bracknell. Jillian M0JIN planned a 7 transmitter course using 144 MHz

144 MHz 7 Transmitters – 10 starters – Time limit 150min – >4.95km.

PlaceNameCallTimeClassFoxesSequence
1Andrew SoltysikG4KWQ78.5M407/72,6,4,1,5,3,7
2Steve StoneRS19321791.59M607/73,5,1,4,6,2,7
3Michael DunbarM6MDD99.41M407/73,5,1,4,6,2,7
4Vlad Boev2E0VLB113.2M507/73,5,1,4,6,7,2
5David WilliamsM3WDD122.08M507/75,3,1,4,6,7,2
6Stuart TylerG1ZAR146.13M407/73,5,1,4,6,2,7
7Svetoslav StoyanovInd97.27M406/73,5,1,2,4,6
8Hristian StoyanovInd102.32M216/73,5,1,2,4,6
9David HealeG6HGE145.09M406/72,7,6,4,1,3
10Robert VickersG3ORI141.21M705/73,5,1,4,6

144 MHz 5 Transmitters – 10 starters – Time limit 150min – >4.18km

PlaceNameCallTimeClassFoxesSequence
1Bob TitteringtonG3ORY115.28M705/53,1,4,2,6
2Ken JonesM0AET115.49M605/52,6,4,1,3
3Terence HoskingInd131.29M405/53,1,4,6,2
4Mike PembertonG4DDL137.37M605/51,6,4,3,2
5David DeaneG3ZOI143.56M604/52,6,4,1
6Daniel GregoryInd146.18M211/51
7Richard + Mo Chipperfield2E1EVK194.04 (OT)W60+M211/53
8Terry Chipperfield + Fred DayG3VFC209.24 (OT)M601/53,5

Notes:

  1. There is something about Swinley Forest that is hard to pin down. In a nutshell, the place just seems to come and ‘bite’ you. It was not the distance that was excessive but there was something about the place that added up to most folk being out rather longer than they expected.
  2. Yet again Andrew G4KWQ was on stunning form to win the long course in under 80 minutes. Also having a good day were Steve Stone, coming back very strongly after a lacklustre outing in December; Ken Jones who made a brilliant ‘call’ regarding the sequence in which to visit the transmitters and Vlad who showed he is as good as ever at ARDF.
  3. The split times are now available in the ‘Bracknell Upper Star Posts’ option on the open-circuit site. Click on the name of the competitor whose splits you wish to view. The software also gives a pictorial view of the transmitter sequence chosen.

Organiser’s Comments:

Thanks to everyone for coming along, we had a good turn out which is always encouraging.Thanks to BKO for allowing us to share the site with them for the day.

Thanks also to Vlad for helping with the tent set up first thing, and to those who helped at the end with collection and finish monitoring. A big thanks to Dave Deane for preparing and organising all the transmitters and I-button equipment so that everything was ‘ready to go’ for me the day before, and for processing all the results data afterwards.

Unfortunately in my excitement to synch all the TX boxes on Friday I forgot to align them to the start clock, but by pure fluke it was only about 20 seconds off, so not as bad as it could have been!

TX 7 was unexpectedly quiet, and the reason for that isn’t known yet. There was no obvious reason for this as the terrain was flat and open in that area. The TX is with Dr.Deane for an MOT, in case there is an issue. It was audible from start and the eastern side of the course, but not from the far west side. For some runners it would seem they’d overshot the clear range without knowing they had gone past 7 and did not pick it up again.

I tried to place some controls in areas that would cause a bit of multipath and reflection from hills, to give some challenge, and it seems no.6 sent some of you off in strange directions. No.3 was a bit sneaky close to the boundary and by the marsh, not good news if you came to it from the wrong side of the marsh (as Andrew found out!), but easy from the other.

The optimum circuit was 7,2,6,4,1,5,3 (or reverse) . Most competitors appear to have taken the anticlockwise route starting at 3.

The prize for the most unusual and innovative route choice goes to Mike Pemberton who managed to zigzag all over the place, and still return in time with all 5 of his TXs.

It was good to see you all enjoy yourselves.

Category: ARDF Results