The Kent Multi-Tx DF
Sunday 21/08/2011
Operator
Colin G4CDM
Txs Ten
Times
First transmission 13:30
End 16:30
Map
188 (Maidstone and the Weald
of Kent)
Start
Potter
Mede car park TQ 611581
Transmitters Ten
- detail here
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So here we all
were in the sunshine (despite
the forecast) surrounded by beautiful countryside. This is the
second Kent Multi-DF, the report on the first is here. What a shame there are so
few DFs on this map, it is just perfect.
I
was keen to try out my newly modified DF set. Its ten turn
pot
and tunable aerial had been giving me serious finger ache on previous
multis so the tuning was now on four pots with a selector switch and
varicap tuning to all stages - how could I fail?
On arrival I
spotted a very relaxed Helen (see below). "Sorry Helen, there
are
no passengers on Multi-DF events, you can borrow my spare
set" .... "Er, ... thanks!"
Triffids were paraded to threaten the uninitiated and Jokers drawn ...
we're off.
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Rosie
giving equipment and words of encouragement to Tim and Helen.
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Helen is realxed .......
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That's
better ........................?
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For what we are about to receive ......
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Graham
never does it without protection.
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Thanks to Philip and Rosie for the pictures.
At
13:30 Maxi A was heard to the NE but surprisingly weak.
Later we learned that Colin was running low power and only 7
Km
away on Holly Hill.
The winding roads and bearing bending hills
meant that some had more problems than you might think with the site so
close to the start. While we find him over to Colin to tell us about
his plan:
We
searched the 188 map for possible hunt areas and short-listed a few.
Then we visited Holly Hill as a proposed site and, on inspection,
thought it was well-suited. The site had mixed farmland / woodland /
hedgerows and some spectacular views. A 1km circle was drawn, centred
on the Holly Hill trig. point.
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So,
the initial idea was to
locate the maxi where mico z was, and vice-versa. However that put mini
J outside the 1km radius so the two stations were exchanged and the 1km
circle was redrawn. Mini L was originally envisaged as being 300-400m
further south (Whitehorse Wood) however it was decided to only have one
mini near the 1km extremity (for the experts) and not to
indiscriminately place at some distance. A number of start locations
were considered, choosing the same spot as the national qualifier
started a month ago, near to Borough Green.
The
micros were intended to be easy to find (ideal for novices), being
placed under an isolated tree or bush and not too well hidden. The
minis were placed such that there was a diversity of difficulty, two in
woodland and three in hedgerows or scrub and all at distances varying
from 400m to 950m.
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The
view from Holly Hill
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Colin checking the 10 Txs
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Setting-Up
I
arrived on site just before 10am. Spend a good two hours installing
the TXs, leaving the site at lunch time without having deployed mini L
(through a lack of time). It is amazing how the time goes when setting
up this sort of event. Returned to site in the afternoon, deployed L
then visited nearby each micro to make sure it was transmitting ok.
Extra care was taken to insert each TX in its plastic bag as the
forecast was for heavy rain at 4pm.
All
I needed to do now was to wait for the Maxi to start up which, to
my surprise occurred much sooner than expected! Two of the delay toggle
switches must have been knocked and the transmitted sprang into life
half-an-hour early. Realising what had happened I decided to let it
continue and switch to low power so that I would not be heard. Just
before 1:30 I switched to medium power. I had decided to set the Maxi
Tx to Medium power due to the proximity of the start. The maxi had a
very good vertical aerial so I imagined it would be booming in at the
start! To finally correct the mistake, the transmitter was switched to
manual over-ride just before 4pm to ensure that there wasn’t a
premature fire of the machine gun followed by Out-Of-Time signals.
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Rendevous
It
was decided that we would have a BBQ at our QTH. Rosie disappeared from
site to light-up at 4pm, praying the predicted deluge did not occur.
Luckily the weather stayed fine and cold beers seemed to be preferred
to the offer of tea. Thanks to everyone for their
contributions towards the tea - we think that we may have to open a
cake shop imminently!!
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It is strange how few other competitors you meet on these events and it
is no surprise when they are going the opposite way.
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Always
comforting when you spot the operator - not that it/he helps!
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What
p..................erson invented triffids?
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It MUST
be here somewhere.....
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I am relaxed again having found Mini K
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.........
but Tim hasn't !
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Yellow jokers
are drawn at the start from a bag containing 2 for each Mini and the
Maxi (12 in all). Micros don't have jokers because they can not be
heard from all
over the site.
Green jokers are wild giving the less experienced a slight advantage,
they are applied to their highest score including the Micros.
By a statistical freak of the draw J and K got more than the usual
attention!
OK, so how did you do it Philip?
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Hot
Colchester Triffid hunt in Kent.
We
arrived early and quickly found two lost puppies. One a cute little
spaniel, one a grumpy old DF’er. We had to put a lead on one and give
him back to his family, unfortunately this was not Ian, though he did
follow us around all day begging for his photo to be taken, which we
eventually did oblige.
Did
not hear a thing at the start –either on the set or monitor, but those
who did catch a single were pointing to the north east – so we took to
the hills and listened out on the monitor. Mini and Micro signals soon
started to come in. There was not a lot of space left on the map and we
drove right past two transmitters and ended up in the car park on Holly
Hill, soon to be joined by Ian and Steve Stone.
Confused
Caroline by running off into the woods – then rushed out again when I
managed to get a bearing on my ‘Joker’ station ‘J’. This was
across the other side of the road into a meadow. Took advantage of
being on my own and found ‘H’ first in a hedgerow by the foot path, and
a full 40 points. ‘J’ then took me down the hill and to the north. As I
approached picked up it’s micro ‘Y’ which helped pull me on between
signals. After running out of signal on J decided to use the four
minutes to finish off ‘Y’ before running back to ‘J’ located neatly
under a fir tree. 80 points is about 25 minutes – it was going well.
Had
already worked out that ‘I’ was the next closest and that ‘K’ was some
way off. Crossed the road and found the path down the hill under some
power lines. Concerned at this stage about whether it was the power
lines peaking up as I ran down the hill and who it was racing me on a
converging course; I assumed it was Steve Stone, so was very
surprised to find him at the bottom, swearing about in the fern. He had
been looking for ‘I’ all afternoon, but clearly not looking hard enough
as I spotted it with one glance into the undergrowth just off the
footpath. Forty more points! Steve followed me in. Having raced Gary
Parker down the hill, raced Steve back up the same way for ‘W’ which I
had clearly passed. We chased round the small pylon and I again led him
to it, though found Gary had already beaten us both to the forty points.
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Then
came across master mischief maker, Colin (really) Merry.
Made the
mistake of taking his photo for posterity and must have dropped my
forty point ticket from ‘H’ as I whipped out the camera.
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Decided to drop in on Caroline at the car for a much needed drink on my
way back into the woods, only to find she had wandered off on her own.
Picked up a bit of ‘A’ and spotted this under a Holly tree as I walked
past – second placed with another 32 points. Found the
traitor wife helping Tim and Helen and forced her into
pointing me towards Z, which I found had only 13 points left on it.
Then ran down the hill towards ‘L’ to find John had spent the afternoon
trying to track this one down and showed me round the likely spots.
Hardest one to find all day, but took only one more transmission.
Was clearly getting closer
to ‘K’ but still some way off as I got back
over the hill to the other edge of Holly Hill wood. Found my way down
the road and back up to the junction and the footpath looking out over
the edge of the downs by Pilgrims Way. The signal for ‘K’ at first took
me straight down the hill before bending 90 degrees round to the right,
then back up the hill for 26 points, clearly not the first person down
this end of the site. Had the same
strange experience tracking down the last micro ‘X’, back
down the hill, then a long curve back up again for 32 points, time 3.25
pm – whew it was very, very hot.
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Wandered
back to deliver the tickets to the
‘A’ station, where I had
two un-wanted surprises, first Colin hiding in the tree, then that I
had lost my ‘H’ ticket with forty points on.
Picked
up Caroline and drove down to K/X to take pictures of the view
over Snodland and Steve Stone who said he was off that way.
In
the end missed Steve, but relaxing with Caroline, the long lost
puppy turned up for his picture to be taken by the Micro, which we did.
He then boasted to Caroline about his latest invention, a large
Scottish safety pin to put his tickets on, thought I might need one
until I noticed he dropped a ‘Z’ ticket with forty points on just as he
went to run off.
Back
to the Merry’s house close by, for a relaxing BBQ outside in the
warm evening, with only the wasps to trouble us. Eventually they called
it a night and so did we.
Philip
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Well done to Philip, once again proving
your
superior skills by finishing a really serious challenge with 45 minutes
to spare!
Excellent to see Ian 'snapping at his heals' again
and proving that, even in your 70th year, this style of event is not
too much of a physical challenge if you engage your brain with your
set instead of running wildly in all directions (note to
self!).
Also while making notes to self - having
heard
nothing from any Micros on my circuit of L, K, H, J,
I
my thoughts were that Colin must have placed them all
around Maxi A for the novices. As I handed in my tickets it
at
Maxi A I was 'overjoyed' to learn from Colin that I
would
need to visit all the Minis again and listen more carefully, as per my
own instructions! I managed Z and found W but arrived back
Maxi
at A panting,1 minute out of time - Oh the 'sting in the tale of
Multi-DF' but
why is it I am the only one that gets stung! So its back to the drawing
board with the new 'improved'
set - well at least it will keep me away
from the exercise bike.
Thanks to Colin and Rosie for all the work they put in. A
superb, well planned event, rounded off by a most
enjoyable BBQ. In fact I enjoyed it so much that Graham had
to remind me it was 'perhaps time to go home' at 8 pm. Thanks
too for persuading novices Tim and Helen to come along, they did
remarkably well, let's hope we see them again.
Rosie thought that the only thing lacking from Multi-DF was a designer
labelled bag for the Micros, so now we have it!
And ..... finally thanks to you all for coming, in particular
Steve and John
from way out in the Wild West. |
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