Sunday March 22nd 2015  Top Band Multi-Tx  DF 

Organiser  Philip G0NXH 
Times  1:30 - 4:00 pm
Location -  Wivenhoe Wood.
Pub -  Wooden Fender, Ardleigh.

Equipment: First use of the ten new 'programmable in the field' Txs.


'Groupus Rigor Mortis' observe 'Club Youth' going through a stretching routine		 ....but with years of DFing  experiences are we worried  ......?

Philip was supposed to be helping Chris & Dave but Chris is close to B
and Dave is about to find his first triffid and 40 points!

B & and A in the bag they're now after F
Soon they are heading for J and the water but others have been there first  ...
a very different story!

Yep they've found J and are completely dry ...........
Earlier ... that different story, Rosie wet knees, yours truly wet .... everything ...
... notice the stiff, frozen stance!
Beginners doing well, was it too easy?  That different story:
At 1:30 pm I left the start with a reasonable Joker 'I'. My first bearing took me through the woods and by 1:45  I was waiting for a bearing opposite 'I' on the wrong side of the railway - groan. Eventually after a detour North I realised 'I' was also the wrong side of two streams. PROBLEM, BIG high tide has flooded the path to the bridge (in the above picture). As I stared across the water Gary appeared to the South, bad news he's on the right path having run a long way, good news he is not amused, the water has flooded his path too.

 I must confess I didn't bother with the map, Philip had provided this to persuade people to use the footpaths across the railway, he didn't mention damper dangers!  With 40 point Joker power applied to mortistic legs I headed for the top yellow dot (along the black dots on the map) hoping to get access from there.  Eventually it looked as though the water was only about 3 inches deep, OK wet feet but Gary will have a long way to go to get here and 40 x 2 = 80 points  = I can put up with wet trainers.

My path was probably pretty much across that top yellow dot; what you can see and I didn't notice,  is the stream (then underwater).  My descent was vertical and rapid, fortunately it stopped with the water just under my armpits. Getting out was a struggle and during this time my set was completely submerged, not just in water, but salt water. "I need a plan, Gary still isn't in sight, surely I can find my Joker without a set"  ......... no.  After a very cold eternity Gary arrived and I followed him in but of course only 32 x 2 = 64.  As Gary departed Rosie arrived, she was looking for J but had also dunked her set, it was hissing but nothing else. I decided I might as well look for J too.  I said well 'I' is here so J can't be far away, the following conversation made me check my ticket, B...*.....other! Gary had led me to J not 'I' (so that is only 32 x 1= 32  points for my dunking). By now almost an hour had passed, the tide had receded and as we returned  to higher places Philip appeared (picture right above).  He seemed surprised at our difficulties and offered a set for us to share, Rosie took up the offer but I was headed for car, spare set and dry clothes.
Back at the car, no one was about, I created a 3 sided changing cubical with the next car and a door.  All was going well until a gasp came from a couple of moon watchers behind me ... I started to explain .. but they weren't interested! A complete change of clothes .. things were looking better. Now where did I put my spare trainers? OK dry socks wet trainers ....  there are still 9 Txs to be found ....

Tim searching for B
He's getting close

It's all over: stories exchanged, Colin F's set had also failed  ......
 ....  other sportsmen only talk about 'sweating blood'  ....  Bob had been going for it
too, I wreckon it was him that scared the moon watchers!

Position Competitor Handicap Joker A B F G I J R S Y Z Total Percent
1 Dave W 0 * 26 80 40 40 32 23 13 13 0 17 284 100
2 Chris V 0 * 23 32 32 32 80 20 11 11 0 20 261 91
3 Steve S 60 Z 9 15 23 23 17 15 40 40 0 80 202 71
4 Gary P 48 J 20 20 26 26 26 80 20 15 0 13 198 69
5 Rosie M 30 Y 32 26 0 0 20 26 17 17 52 26 186 65
6 Tim P 93 S 40 23 17 20 13 13 26 52 40 32 183 64
7 Colin F 25 I 11 11 15 15 46 0 15 20 32 23 163 57
8 Colin M 0 R 17 -13 0 0 0 0 64 32 0 0 113 39
9 Roy E 46 I 15 0 20 17 0 32 23 23 0 15 99 34
10 Bob S 0 * 13 34 0 0 15 17 0 0 0 0 79 27


Caroline presents the prizes to Dave (right) and Chris... an incredible performance!
Rosie gets the 'Wet Knees' prize.
Chris and Dave have done a few trad DFs and followed Gary round on a previous Multi but this was their first attempt at a Multi with a set each. It was agreed at the start that they would stick together but hunt separately once close to the Tx.  Philip, would walk around with them and explain all to them and Bob (also a relative beginner). However, in Philip's operator's speech at the pub he told us how they had needed no help at all!  Dave becomes the first novice to ever win a 'Multi-Star' at the first attempt, amazing! We are all wondering how good he will be when he has his own set and gets used to using it?!  Of course he may have made a slight tactical error, as from now he goes straight from 'wild joker' to 'red joker' and has a 40 point handicap!  By coming 2nd Chris was able to discard his 10 'hero/handicap' points and so will start the next event with a 'green joker' - good tactical game?  Hopefully the jokers will keep these serious competitors apart so the rest of us may just stand a chance on the next event.

Colin M tasted the 'Multi-Spice' by arriving at A with tickets to post but after the dreaded 'Machine Gun'.

'I suppose' we must reluctantly admit that Timbo did pretty well to find all ten Txs;  and well done for keeping his handicap  points in order to chase our current 'Multi-Hero' Philip.  You can find out all about the 'Hero League' and handicaps for the next event here.

The fact that Tim was the only one to find all ten Txs underlines the fact that this was not an easy event, once again hats off to Dave and Chris.

So how did the salt water affect my DF set?  
At 8 pm after returning from the pub I was keen to get it apart and dried out.  I had taken trouble to waterproof it against downpours from above but I knew that with the headphone jack empty and the small holes for the speaker, a total submerge was bound to force water in.  Having lived on Mersea Island in my youth I would never even dip a car's tyres into salt water let alone the boywork and removing the lid of my set reminded why.  Everything was covered in green gunge, the electrolytic action between the various metals and four layer PCB (double double sided with plastic separator), the switches, the coils .... all were just a mass of corrosion and this only 6 hours from the salt bath dip. My first concern, during the event, was whether the lithium polymer battery would catch fire but fortunately its fuse and separate waterproof case had protected it.  So after nearly 40 years of DF I have finally achieved total DF set destruction, there have been many previous attempts involving ordinary water, driving off with set on roof, the toe in tree root flail and thwack but none have achieved what salt water did.

Many thanks to Philip for putting on an excellent event and giving me a map! Despite the first hour I thoroughly enjoyed it and have course yet another tale of DF to relate (you may have noticed)   I would like to say I will learn from this  ..... but experience shows .....!

Thanks also to all who came along and:
A very big thank you to Colin M and Steve S for all the hard work over the last year writing the PIC & PC software for the 10 new programmable, waterproof  Txs - great team work and loads of fun (for me anyway).  Next Multi-Project ... 'The Dibbers' (Colin's idea) but more of that another time.

Next chance for a dip into Multi-DF is on Sunday May 10th  when Gary will be hiding the Txs.

P.S.   Just received this email from Colin F ........  Never give up!

List of all Multi-Winners The Hero League (Handicaps) Dates Multi-Main Page