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Sunday July 11th 2021 Multi-Tx DF Location Chalkney Wood, Earles Colne. Event Format - Full details here |
 Organiser Richard M6EWJ |
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Organiser’s
Report I had
previously used this site in 2019 when I spread the TXs to the full
boundaries
of the wood. The result was a very energetic afternoon which stretched
everyone’s athleticism. Having
looked at the wood on Wednesday it was clear
that flooded main paths could slow down even our Olympians. After more
heavy rain before the weekend I
decided to pull in the spread just slightly. I
had also noted that the approach lane was
overgrown but a conversation
with a couple of rangers who were onsite failed to get it trimmed
before the
event. |
The Mud Map!
 Sunday morning was bright however and all 10 TX signals could be heard from the Start. A good beginning to the day. |
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All
of the 9
competitors shot off confidently at 1.35. Ben, Phil and Roy had the A
group of
Jokers and I set off to the location in search of action photos. When I
found
Roy he was heading for transmitter A but with no signals being
received after 13:55.
I had to lead the way to the hide which was a DF classic, a small
“cave”
in thick bushes, good size puddle to jump, plenty of brambles,
irresistible.
The TX was completely dead but this didn’t defeat Roy. A quick dash, or
mud
scramble back to the car park, a fast programming of the spare TX and I
had a
replacement for A TX ready to put in position. It’s probable that the
signal
down wasn’t noticed by any of the competitors who were busy elsewhere.
So, on
this occasion all ended well except for the time lost to Roy who would
no doubt
have bagged a full house if not for this delay. |
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In the scramble I had picked up a call from Tim who was reporting that Triffid L was failing to record dibs. Back to car, fetch reserve triffid and across the wood to replace the faulty unit. This was in place at 2:58 just as Steve was homing in. Good work but only three hunters visited L after that time. Fortunately, the previous visitors had all noted their arrival times meaning that we still had good data for the results. |
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Chalkney
Wood: |
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All
competitors successfully made their validation dibs in good time and
were back
at the car park shortly after 4pm. Then the fun began: I was
having my first experience of operating the user-friendly Multiscore
program on
my laptop and all went well until Triffid M refused to download it’s
log of the
afternoon’s event. Over to Roy to download the data from the
intelligent
dibbers. By then it was time to be at the Cricketers pub for our first
after-event tea since the pandemic restrictions commenced, in time to
see
Djokovic win the men’s singles. Roy continued to work on the results
and kindly
phoned them to the group to enable the prize presentations. |
Results
Times
At L blue times were estimates provided by competitors, black + green validation for Tim were retrieved from replacement Triffid. |
 Multi-Star
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Phil was the winner of the Chalkney Challenge for the second time, with 265 points. Tim in second place on 236. However, everyone put in a good performance, especially the enthusiastic, less experienced competitors who are, worryingly for the old hands, coming on in leaps and bounds.
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 Software-Star! |
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Colin F retained the Hero trophy. Other heroes of the day included Roy for his determination in keeping the tech going and Steve for building in invaluable fail safe components in the MulitiScore architecture which enabled results to be obtained. Much boots
and clothes cleaning on Monday. I look
forward to my next Multi (if I’m allowed). Richard The Hero League
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Chalking up another win.
The weather has been all over the place, with the Hadleigh Multi nearly being called off because of the heat, whilst this event looked like it may have been too wet. Fortunately the rain held off and headed to the continent. Wondering whether the nettles were going to be a problem again, Richard did assure me that short sleeves would be OK, he was wrong, the brambles got me as well. Thought myself lucky to get B as joker with transmissions at the start all working well with A off to the north, F in the opposite direction and K to the east, creating a nice fan, I assumed with the ghost somewhere in the middle. |
| Heading
towards A and the boundary footpath meant passing the car on the way
letting me drop off the compass board and bits. Ben followed me, with
Roy ahead. When the signal came up again it pointed well outside the
wood and it became clear was off down one of the radiating footpaths.
Lost track of Roy but with Ben behind found the path leading towards
the overhead power lines and arrived at the little hollow just as the
signal went off. The path was well beaten down leading further on, so I
was not clear if I had gone far enough, but next signal up took me back
to the little hollow in the brambles where I quickly spotted the
triffid, scoring top points. Passed Ben on the way out, but still no
sign of Roy clearly heading for C. I swear A was working when we left
it! With Ben then worked away at B, which we eventually found in a swampy bit through some more shoulder high nettles. Full points again. Helpfully C was further into the wood in the right direction and we passed Roy coming the other way having got his joker. Managed to find the right paths to take me to K, found in only a further 8/9 minutes. Then found Chris hovering around L with the area well trampled down and the report that the triffid was not recording correctly. Chris eventually spotted it for me and I did find it not logging in correctly so noted the time at 2.14 pm (2nd). M was really close on the edge of the wood, but with no direct route to it, guarded by more brambles. After finding a way round the back it took a full 15 minutes to finally find M, still with 32 points. Having heard the Ghost a fair bit by then, it was next, though by then I was fairly disorientated so just followed the signal in a straight line. Saw Roy on the way out but no one else despite being fourth in, which set the score for the remaining three. |
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| F was helpfully the closest and saw Ben again on the way out. G was a
fair stretch away, but managed to find another muddy path off to the
left of the lump of wood that had been coppiced. H proved tricky and the narrow (more shoulder high nettles) muddy path, really slippery. Having overshot, came back to find it just to the side of the path at 3.07 pm, the full ten. Crossed paths with Tim just by the car park and stopped off for a drink only to notice that Roy’s car door was wide open with no one to be found nearby so closed it. Richard showed up soon after and explained the technical problems of the afternoon. Returning to wait by joker B, had a visit from George & Geoff before getting stung again on the arms getting the TX out when the contest closed! Thanks to Richard for a great event and with Roy for sorting out the results and technical glitches. I did invite Gareth and the team to come and at least celebrate my decisive victory – but they didn’t show for some reason – probably, by the end of the day, like the rest of us a bit too knackered! Philip G0NXH |
| Very well done Philip and many thanks for closing my car door, something must have distracted me, probably a Purple Hairstreak! On Monday I set about fault finding, the Tx A problem was caused by a drop of condensation stopping the PIC oscillator. The two Triffids probably suffered from a similar issue but after running continuously from Friday, by Monday both were found to be working perfectly again! I don't think the water will have got in despite the rain, I suspect the problem was high humidity on Friday when I closed the cases. Looks like we need silica gel folks, so please throw any small packets that you get my way rather than the bin. Next Event - Sunday August 8th - Gary will be be doing the hiding watch this page for details |