|
 Organiser Chris G6PDE |
Sunday 14th July 2024
Multi-Tx DF Location Pipers
Vale (NW part of Orwell Country Park, Ipswich).
Event formatUse zoom on this map to explore detail. NGR TM 17828 41976 |
 10 Txs and associated triffids provide the amusement. |
| I
was contemplating two possible sites for my turn this year but after
finding out that one had been used previously I settled on Pipers Vale.
I made three visits to the site and discovered plenty of tracks and
hiding places, some protected by holly trees others by shoulder high
nettles and logged them in my what3words list. On Saturday Roy delivered all the Txs and triffids and I set out to hide them at my pre planned locations. I was surprised to discover how different things looked at different times of the day. I did consider hiding one right down by the river but was put off by people fishing and the fear of someone falling in the river. By 17:30 I had all the Txs deployed and made my way home. I arrived back on site at 11:00 Sunday morning and switched on my receiver. A few moments later and was reassured to hear test transmissions straight away on my newly built receiver (still not boxed!), K, L, M, ? , A, ...... C, F, G, H What happened to B?!  I got a little bit closer to B and still couldn't hear it. At that moment Roy phoned to say he arrived at the car park. I returned to the car park in a panic and asked Roy to prepare a replacement Tx so I could take it with me to the site of B. Only after Roy had done all the config did it occur to me that carrying a transmitter in my backpack would block me from hearing B if it was still transmitting with reduced efficiency. We checked the time and I determined I still had enough time for a return trip if necessary. As I passed A I could hear B now less than100m away. I quickly found B and discovered the aerial wire snapped less than a metre from the Tx , I quickly rejoined the wire trying to imagine how it got broken. The best theory I have is I wound it round the branch too tightly and the wind moved the branch. I made my way back to the car park listening for B to come around again. As I passed the start I heard B good and strong and with a massive sigh of relief phoned Roy and asked him to turn on the blocker. |
 |
 |  |
|  |
| Things
went fairly smoothly after that until George phoned me, he found a
dibber near to A , luckily I was nearby and collected it and phoned Roy
to reunite him with his dibber and bright orange strap.. |
 |  |
|  |
|
Calm returned and soon it was time to prepare to collect the ghost. I
located the ghost Tx with 15 mins to spare but I couldn't find the
triffid, some gentle feed back from Colin F that the triffids were too
easy to find last time had encouraged me to try a little harder
but even though I remember thinking this ivy matches the camouflage I
couldn't remember where I hid it. I detected someone coming in the
distance and retreated to the path so as not to give the location away.
George arrived and quickly found the right tree but couldn't find the
triffid, he now doubted he had the right tree and widened his search as
the next transmission started. Tim arrived and both George and Tim
systematically searched while I watched intently from the path. George
found it first and I kept my eye on that location as if it was a man
overboard drill until 3pm. |
|
Back at the car park I re-erected the ghost Tx whilst fielding
questions from curious onlookers. The competitors returned and I loaded
the data onto my laptop with Philip’s help. Results
Times
 Thanks to all for coming, especially the Kent contingent and most of all to Roy for his ever patient help in running the event. Chris, G6PDE |
|
So how did Colin do it?
| With
practically perfect weather today, part sun/cloud with a light breeze
the choice of clothing was just a teeshirt. Entertainer Chris chose
another part of the Orwell Country Park he so loves, and it didn’t
disappoint! However, as so often happens after the usual formalities,
signing, joker, grab a dibber then a walk of a couple of hundred metres
into the park, pose for multiple photo’s, prepare maps, the time left
was minimal. However, the ground was dry, level with short grass and in
good light, so bearing plotting should have been easy. Somehow mine
didn’t go at all well, all the signals were there, with good senses,
but all my bearings led out to sea . . . . . Oh dear what has Chris been up
to? It took me some time to realise I had marked my start point in the wrong place, some 400m to the South on the wrong path junction, what was I thinking? By this time I was left on my own, the choices were: re-plot all the lines from the correct junction (ie 2 sets of bearings on one map), or mentally imagine each bearing shifted north by 400m. I chose the latter, of course the one I hadn’t got was the Ghost? It was a risk waiting, but I held back slowly walking east towards my joker M. Ah huh . . - - . . (?) quickly I discovered its direction to the north, so it couldn’t be too far away, could it ? Just then a path to the right headed where I wanted, this took me out to an outer path, but which way now, I knew I was close, so wandered around waiting for another clue, it was good and strong, homing in quickly through undergrowth that wasn’t too dense here. A good decision got my first 40, and I was back out on the path heading south towards another path crossing E/W. I met others running about then realised H was on, and a convoy down the path led into a canopy on the left. There was Colin M, he found the triffid first, then Rosie 2nd, me 3rd and I think George then realised what was going on as we left, we all rushed out again in different directions, I unfortunately started to head away from M, before being pulled back by the next weak signal. This path was long and straight to the West as I passed Phil coming towards me, was he coming back from M? |
| I
continued until M began to get stronger and more northerly. I rounded a
huge clump almost passing an entrance on my right, this was definitely
worth investigating. It led me into a tunnel that I explored to the
end, not spotting the triffid on the ground to my right, so I had to
wait for another signal to bring me back. I was 1st here which was a
relief, then thought I need to remember where I am, but it was fairly
obvious as someone had already kindly marked the path with a discarded
BBQ, hopefully I will remember that! L appeared to be north of K, so I tuned to 1930, and sure enough a gap appeared in the long grass which was suitably trampled into a northerly wandering path with me following. It came to a clump with a path crossing in front of a low entrance that enticed me inside, I could see a perimeter fence so began to search before another strong signal took me to it, a 2nd place here, now ten past two I felt I was getting somewhere. Just K left in this group, but its signal suggested east then south but was still weak. I stayed on this trampled path hoping it would go back around, which eventually it did, but got very narrow at one point. However it got me through to the original path from H to M, and K was now just a short trampled walk to another huge clump with an entrance. | |
| Inside there were many slender trunks which I had to search around but not for long, another 2nd was good, then I was back out again and heading east, picking up the path going south. I figured G might be the nearest, possibly towards the shoreline. I found the dead-end path to the shore, which took me down to an open area before turning uphill south. I overshot a bit because it was just to the north of this dip, now the numbers were getting higher with a 4th place this time at nearly 2:30pm. I’d already got H so F to do next, my bearing F was almost south, so pretty much the same as I had plotted. As I was too west, and there were no paths marked going east, I opted to stay on this path going south, until there was an opportunity to cross in a more open area on some very minor paths (not marked). But as I was passing a large canopy like tree, I stopped to take a closer look inside. Bang on, F was here, but a 6th said 5 others had also been here. Now ticked off, there was just A,B & C to do which I had as further SE, but how far? Was one or more Tx’s south of the bridge? |
 | I was very conscious of
wasting time finding out, so as I ventured along the path towards the
end of the bridge, keeping tabs on the direction of each Tx. I was
still not sure if C was the other side, so when I reached the bridge I
waited half way under, only to discover I had no signals at all. I
wondered back up the road to the first path on the right and walked a
short distance. A was now back towards the road, B was north & C
was rather quiet to the NE. This path didn’t appear to be much use, so
I headed back to the road to concentrate on the strongest signal A,
this was now further up the road. But as I rounded the bend I found the
strongest signal was east by a large holly tree, but found nothing
accessible from this side of the wooden fence. There were nettles on
both sides of the fence, and none had been disturbed, I was sure I was
close, and although I knew this was the wrong approach, I squashed the
nettles with my boots and scaled the fence. The other side was not so
easy, and somehow I fell off the fence onto my back, landing on a mat
of springy sticks. I had great trouble righting myself (rather like a
turtle) but managed to stretch my arm far enough towards the fence to
grab hold of it, pulling myself upright again (without letting go of
Roy’s set). I now had a wet bum, but after pulling myself together, I
had to negotiate a curtain of prickly holly, so with brute force and
gritted teeth I forced forwards. Not comfortable, but at least I was
practically on Tx A. Phil appeared at that moment from the easy side,
but it took both of us an age to find the triffid, Phil discovered we
had kept missing it by inches above our heads, its colour blending in
so well. After discovering we both had the same Tx’s to do, we took to the paths and crossed the road where B did not appear to be far away. Climbing the fence would have saved enough time to get me there first, but I had already followed Phil down to the next path, and then I decided not to follow but instead re-tuned for C. This kept us apart, and ensured I would get to one of them first. C was quite a way up the hill on the right in sparsely spaced trees, and was not a difficult one, another not too bad 6th at 3:07. Now back to B where I had left Phil, we passed on the hill and I could now take my time without any jostling for the triffid! I think I was last into B with an 8th at 3:11. |
| All
done, I studied the paths working my way back along the coast and
around the corner to M, where the dead BBQ was waiting my return. Ah
huh, what have we here, a queue, Colin M and George were about to make
a claim for M, I allowed them time to search inside the tunnel and
watched from the entrance. Colin M crouching on all fours to get his
dibber in, but George had got it first! I validated my gatherings, and
then followed them out into the bright sunshine at 3:25. The BBQ provided a concrete block nearby for me to rest for ½ an hour, with a view of the estuary, it was pleasant enough for me and the pesky flies to sit it out. Phil and I covered Tx’s K,L & M and were soon back by the cars ready for a good drink and listen to Tim’s tale of a lost smart phone that hitched a lift back. Unfortunately for Tim it wasn’t one of ours, and so ensued another runaround !!! Despite my many attempts at losing points and time today, losing 10 discards after the last event allowed me to just beat George by 3 points, his handicap was only 1 different! Well done George for 2nd place, and Phil coming in 3rd. Chris did his best to keep us all happy, providing a picturesque site and excellent weather, what more could we wish for? Not forgetting Roy of course, overseeing all that might go wrong if he wasn’t there, ready to spring into action and put things right again. I thank you all for making my day a very worthwhile one, and maybe I’ll make your day in Kent ! |
 Gary remains the Hero on 130 HPs (on holiday for this event)
The full list of the current 'Hero Points' can be found here. Next event is in Kent with Colin F in charge on Sunday August 18th. Noticeboard Results of of previous events Dates |
Changes after this event
|