"The
Hunt for Mid-Oktober"
THE
MID-ESSEX DF TROPHY
"TRADITIONAL"
DF EVENT
Sunday
16th October 2011
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Report from
Tim (Tx B 1956
KHz)
Following the “one-station” event we
experienced at the BTBDFA National Final, Gary and I thought that we
would make
the Mid Essex event relatively straightforward with the aim of getting
all competitors
to find both transmitters with time left over to get to the tea early.
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| Wishing
to avoid long distances to travel to the sites from home, we first
surveyed the
“Danbury”
area
for a potential site one Saturday afternoon and the wood finally chosen
for Tx
A was visited first and had enough ground cover to be suitable.
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Off
then to
look at the Dunmow Cutting area to the south of the town, around the
vicinity
of the old railway track. A potential site adjacent to a meadow and
stream
looked good.
The logic
behind this was to give
competitors a “who dares wins” opportunity to trust a ground hunt based
on just
one bearing at B, or to use the long gap between transmissions at the
start to
get to A, Transmissions would be reasonably well spaced; to get crossed
bearings competitors would have to deviate from the quick main road
route
between sites.
The day
before the event I was having
second thoughts about the event being too easy and over too quickly so
I had a
look around Sawbridgeworth and Bishops Stortford without being
convinced that
any potential site there would do. So back to Dunmow Cutting for a
final look
and I decided to change where I had planned to hide from the Eastern
side of
the path from the B road, to the west. There was some reasonable cover
here, a
bit of power line an extended boggy bit and some steep sides to the
railway
cutting.
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On the day,
I arrived at Dunmow at 8.45 and
spent about an hour setting up the main aerial stretching along the
boggy bit
at the base of the cutting.
Then over to station A to help Gary set up;
only I
couldn’t find him at first as he had changed his final hide by a couple
of
hundred yards.
His new site looked really good, with good cover and
lots of
boggy bits.
We set up in super quick time with a quick test thanks to Roy’s
clever kit. |
Dashed
back to Dunmow, added a bit more aerial and a “tee” at the top of the
cutting
and hid in a bit of blackthorn which had limited cover.
Back to the car
to
check for a signal from Gary
at A, and finally back to my Tx at 105 to tune up. Phew !
Sparked up
at 1.20 pm as planned, only to
get a call from Roy
at 126 : “Where’s the Morse ?”
Oops,
forgot to plug the keyer in. At
least a
good (but too strong) continuous signal got to the start.
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Worst fears about the event being finished by
3pm were confirmed when sounds of a marauding Larbalestier were heard
stampeding in my direction just after 2pm. Pity the transmission was 3
minutes
and not 2. Peter made a faultless touchdown behind the posts just
before 203
and I fully expected the rest of the scrum to follow. But it seems that
only he
had been brave enough to “go for it”.
Within
the next 20 mins three
more
competitors were seen, Ian and Andrew cleverly running right past me
within 3
feet, each not wishing to reveal my whereabouts to the other it seems.
Sounds
of wah-woo from Roy’s
receiver as it danced to subsequent transmissions could be heard in the
deep
cutting below. So it was all relatively quiet at the top of the
embankment for
quite some time as (I guess) searches were being made elsewhere.
Finally Ian
and Andrew passed by fairly close again; Andrew doubled back and found
me….but
Ian didn’t until quite a while later. I have no idea what Roy
had been doing but he eventually found me
at 3.32 – still time though to get to A !
Right
- Yes that's Tim but who is under the blanket?
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Contacted Gary
at Tx A at
regular intervals all
afternoon by Txt. At 315 he still had not had one arrival although the
sound of
Rosie’s voice had been heard in the vicinity and then disappeared. It
was
reassuring when he reported at about 3.30 that 2 competitors had been
in.
Still no
more arrivals at Tx B until after
4 pm when Phil arrived with Colin and Steve about 15 mins later on the
continuous signal. By that time we already knew the prizewinners………………
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Tx A - Gary 1930 KHz |
Off to the Fowlers Farm pub at Braintree
for a beer, pie and the results, only to be greeted by a visage of
smugness
waiting in the beer garden…………………….
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Thank you to all competitors for coming
along and making me feel better as I thought I had made this event too
easy and
I was largely proved wrong I think ! It was pleasing that the event
spread the
finish times from 3.38 until the end, and I don’t think anybody led
anybody
else in. Well done to Gary
for selecting a good hide and for persevering in a wet and boggy hide
all
afternoon. Thanks to Roy
for all the kit and for making alterations to it specifically for this
event. 
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