Multi-Tx DF  10 Txs to find

Sunday June 12th 2022 Location  Bridge Wood, Ipswich. (A14 / Orwell Bridge) Road map with zoom Event Format - full details here .  Organiser  Chris G6PDE

This was my first time hiding the transmitters and I was very nervous that I would make a mistake resulting in a ruined afternoon’s entertainment for a dozen people and or loss of one or more transmitters or triffids. I shared some of this anxiety with Roy and as I thought of each thing that could go wrong he responded with a solution on how to resolve or mitigate it. I studied the site on google and OSM maps and walked around it a couple of times to determine if the tree cover was as dense as it appeared in satellite view and where the boundary fences were. I considered extending the site along the river but rejected it in case a high tide made the path too wet to walk on. As it happened the water level on Sunday was higher than any of my previous visits. Using the map I selected three locations for the start of each chain  and verified these were reasonably accessible on one of my pre visits. I selected the yellow and red locations on the day I put the Txs out. As it was down to me to recover the Ghost and relocate it to the car park at 15:00 and I was worried I might not be able to find it once it stopped transmitting I elected to locate it fairly near the car park so that if I couldn’t find it people would still find their way safely back.

Triffid A

B

Ghost

Colin has found the ghost!

Rosie and friends

George near H.

L is in here!

After finding it you had a good view of the bridge.

Plenty of views for those who finished early

Time for the results

Pos Competitor Hcap Joker A B C F G H K L M 1 Score Raw % Total 1 Philip C 81 L 23 17 23 20 23 40 40 80 32 23 321 100 240 2 Colin F 111 C 26 40 80 13 9 11 23 23 23 40 288 89 177 3 Tim P 92 M 17 20 20 17 20 15 32 26 80 20 267 83 175 4 Roy E 81 G 9 0 11 26 80 26 20 20 20 26 238 74 157 5 Colin M 71 H 20 23 26 23 15 64 17 15 15 0 218 67 147 6 Alex S 20 F 15 11 15 80 26 20 0 0 0 0 167 52 147 7 Steve S 71 A 80 26 32 11 11 13 0 0 0 32 205 63 134 8 Ben G 20 A 64 32 9 0 13 0 0 17 17 0 152 47 132 9 George F 103 K 11 15 17 15 17 17 52 32 26 17 219 68 116 10 Richard S 40 B 13 26 13 32 32 23 0 0 0 0 139 43 99 Philip was way out ahead

Over to Philip for the winner's report: This site was better known to me when I was in the boy scouts and use to camp out at the Hallowtree activity centre, usually rubbing two sticks together in wet weather.In those days we had the whole site to ourselves and did late night hikes in the dark which prepared me well for ARDF!  Good to meet some of Rosy’s Suffolk relatives before the event. So good weather was a first here for me and everything had changed, with so much of the park being taken over by mobile homes. There were not many tracks through the wood, though more were evident on the map Chris posted afterwards!  Even at the start I was a bit confused as the bearing for K felt like it went straight back to the car park which did not seem right.

Once plotting it on the map it made more sense and it clearly was on the top left hand side of the map by the A14. Caught up with and overtook George with Tim close behind me, the bearing on K leading us onto the edge of the wood where we did some fruitless searching until the next bearing which was not quite strong enough for George, so a fast run round the corner got me to K ahead of him and Tim. It was then a run down the edge of the wood. I stopped and started looking for my joker L, with Tim & George running on further and I assumed ‘M’ was their aim. Did not see the aerial but managed to spot the triffid for joker L down at the base of a large oak tree by the fence, another 40/80 points. Managed to do this quickly enough to then catch up with Tim and George looking for M at the end of the field, joining in a fruitless search there before the next transmission took us further onto the corner of the wood. As it peaked I decided to go round the stinging nettles which let Tim get to it first. I had already heard H and knew it was not much further on, so ran down the river and along the coastal path through some thick scrub. Popped out into a bit of a clearing to find Roy and Colin M. Assumed a hot and bothered Roy was coming out of H so back tracked his trail to a well beaten area to find H, only to discover I was first in there as well. Only a half hour into the contest, I then passed Chris taking photos as I worked my way to G for 23 points. Then struggled with F and got into some swampy bits, running alongside Colin M. Then decided it was time for the Ghost and avoided going back through the mud and took to one of the main paths that went under the power lines and back past the start where I was again spotted by Chris before getting even closer to the car park. Clocked the Ghost just ahead of Tim at just past 2.30 pm, which left plenty of time for the last three. It was a long run to A which was at the bottom of a steep incline, with later Colin Merry and Tim for company.

Philip's GPS track - the perfect route with few wasted steps.

A’ was not too difficult but back at the main path B was not particular strong and I failed to get a sense, I assumed because I was at the bottom of the hill. Decided to go back up the hill where I had spotted Colin M lurking. By the time got to the top he had gone and the bearing for B was 90 degrees from what I expected and it gave me another run around before I found it, now behind long gone Colin and Tim. ‘C’ had been weak all afternoon and was further on to the river giving me time to catch them up arrival all at the same time, managed to spot the aerial first, but Colin beat me and Tim to the Triffid, though there was still 23 points on it. So it was all over just before 3.00 pm, though it felt like much longer! Ambled back to the other side of the park along the edge of the river with Tim, passing Colin F in deep contemplation along the way, but saw no-one else all afternoon. Philip Cunningham     G0NXH

The Hero League Gary, who couldn't make this event, was the current holder on 130 HPs. Both Philip and Colin F managed to get 131 before discards, causing some rapid head scratching on how to resolve such a tie  - see the bottom of this for the resolution. Full list of handicaps/hero points is here

Competitor Handicap Points Awarded Discard New HP Events as Hero Philip C 81 50 0 131 11 Colin F 111 20 7 124 7 Tim P 92 8 10 90 7 Chris I 2 5 0 7 0 Roy E 81 0 0 81 2 Colin M 71 0 10 61 0 Alex S 20 0 0 20 0 Steve S 71 0 0 71 4 Ben G 20 0 0 20 0 George F 103 0 10 93 0 Richard S 40 0 0 40 0 Colin F discarded 7 of his 131, meaning he may take the trophy with a third place.