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 Organiser Philip G0NXH |
Saturday 14th June 2024
Multi-Tx DF Location : Great Cornard Country Park, Blackhouse Lane. NGR TL 893 363 Postcode CO10 0GY. Map with zoom See more detail on maps below. |
 10 Txs and associated triffids provide the amusement. |
With all Sundays in June allocated to other
activities, we tried our first Saturday event.
Philip spent some time finding a new site for us to use. He was intending to put the Txs and Triffids in place on the Friday but other commitments meant that he had to make an early start, planting them all on the Saturday morning. The map provided for the event  |
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Philip provided us with table, chairs and water for use before, during
and after the event - superb! Despite the large area available within 1 km of the start on the event map, we were kept busy in a tiny fraction of it. Txs were tightly packed on the side of the hill but access from one to another was quite a puzzle, particularly in the FGH chain, some of us spent a long time trying to find our way through dense undergrowth ! At 13:30 he conducted a countdown and the first chain of 3 Txs (A, B, C) sprang into life on 1960, 1930 & 1915 kHz. So eyes down, off we go! |
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 With 9 competitors and 9 different jokers ... |
 ... we are all facing in different directions. |
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 Rosie has her bearings - waiting for release at 13:35. |
Philip was so shattered after his early morning Triffid planting (plus setting up the picnic site) that climbing the hill again to take more action pictures was considered 'steps too far'! However, he did have to retrieve the Ghost at 15:00 and took this one:  George at the Ghost, just in time - dibbed at 14:55:39. The Ghost shuts down an hour before the other 'Red Txs' on 1915 kHz to allow C, H and M to transmit for longer. Philip took the Tx to the car park where it automatically switched frequencies (to 1900 kHz) in order to act as a beacon during the collection phase at 16:00. All went well and by 16:15 we were all back at the car park, having collected in our Joker Txs & Triffids. Philip, downloaded the data from the Triffids, processed the results and it was time for picnic and prizes! |
Results
 Tim Multi-Star of the day and Hero once again!  
Second
Rosie
Third
Colin M
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 So how did Tim do it?
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Well I was just lucky
really. Mixed feelings at the start as I drew “A” as my joker. Mixed because it should be relatively easy to find, but that may also mean that other competitors may try to nip in first. Good signals were heard on A,F and K at the start; A up the hill directly ahead, F over to the right and K further still on the right. So a quick check on the competition heading up the hill; Rosie and Roy looked like they were heading my way. Oh dear, Rosie’s eagle eye is always better than mine near a triffid ! On the second transmission I was surprised to find that I was very close to A, but it went off before I could narrow it down. I decided to bury my drink under leaves next to a fallen log. Along came Rosie to see where I was hovering, perhaps expecting to find the triffid where I had hidden my can. A rummage brought her no luck ! |
| So
I
hovered around for the next transmission and Rosie went away
elsewhere. I wish I had known that I had actually hidden my can within
a couple of metres of triffid A, which was found in branches on
transmission 3. Now to escape before being seen again. It seemed logical that B and C may be further up the slope, so that’s where I headed next, to see Roy suspiciously leaving a raised bank near a footpath junction. Guess who turned up again !! With a bit of a search, C was located without another transmission, thankfully before guess who. |
| When
B next came up it seemed quite close, but there was a hawthorn hedge
preventing a direct route. Having foolishly discarded the easier way in
up the slope next to a bench, I approached from the top only to find a
row of hawthorn and Roy approaching it from below. A signal dictated
that I needed to get through the thorns. Ow! I think that prompted Roy
to turn around and swipe B from under my nose. He must have two 40s now
so a potential leader. At least I had
bagged three in under 30 minutes. So off to the right of the hill now towards F. I tried to take a direct route towards the next wooded bit along from B and through a small tree clump at the top of an embankment. I had just walked past the Ghost ! A non-ghost in the form of Colin M was standing on the path just inside the wood. Now you have to ask – why ? Waiting to find F,G or H, or had he just found F, G or H and was departing ??? There was a potential hiding place just up the slope, so I went to have a look up there. On signal, Colin shot off and my set blocked on F confirming I was in the right place. I was looking more in the branches than on the ground at first, but on the ground F was, protected by a stinger or two. Before departing I had enough time to tune to G and know that it was on my right, further along the footpath, and less than 200m. Richard joined me on the path a little way along, explaining that he had no luck in finding his joker, H, and so was seeking better fortune at G or F. The next signal brought me close to G not too much further along. Up the slope a relatively clear area looked promising. I believe that several others approached this by battling through nettles, branches and allsorts from other directions ! But on my own, G was found, and without a scratch or sting back onto the path. |
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| Now, using the
“chain rule”, H should be further along the path still,
away from F and G. I guessed at about 100m and ascended some wooden
steps before waiting. To then hear H back in the direction of F and G
was a tadge disappointing, especially when you only get the odd
microsecond of transmission to help. Guesswork took me into a field
where the slope plateaued out. Without much to help, a search seemed
pointless –no signal for an eternity, and no elephant tracks, and no
elephants. When H did wake up, it was quite weak, and back down the
slope. So I was expecting that it was down a grassy track on the
exterior of the wood, or even further. Going down the track tramplings
of nettle and other greenery made me think Ahah ! and Oh dear ! at
about the same time. Following the way in made by some brave soul led
me to a barrier of nettles I didn’t fancy a fight with. Well surely H
would only be worth 20 at most now, having seen plenty of others
closeby, and even Gary had shot off somewhere. But it meant back inside
the wood, and approach from the other side. Here, Chris seemed to know
that he was in the vicinity of H. But as luck would have it, I located
H before Chris, and more suprising, before anyone else !! Six down now in less than an hour. Ghost time !! I had already taken rough bearings on the Ghost, so I knew that from H I had to go down the hill in an open area, towards A. Roy was coming up the hill, and was no help at all. But a helpful transmission and déjà vu took me to the Ghost without too much bother. Why had only one other person found it ? When you dib, the triffid displays the number of dibs recorded - Ed. |
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So
that just left KLM. With longer transmissions, K was selected. From the
start, I knew that K would be beyond FGH, and a transmission got me
very close to K but not close enough. The next said “It’s here”. I said
“No it isn’t” and went away to search other promising hides. Richard
emerged smiling, but from where ? Back to where the bearing and signal
strength said it should be. Same place as before. Not behind logs, not
under leaves, not behind the veil of hedge opening into a field. At
this point the receiver and headphones and hat were discarded as all
three were considered to be a cause of frustration. Eventually a
modicum of working brain cells forced me to check again on the field
side of the hedge, and lo and behold a shining throng of angels singing
“It’s just there you idiot !” got the job done. Back up the hill
towards L now and a lifeform partially hidden under an ivy laden tree,
venting his frustration at finding the transmitter but not a triffid.
Two choices : within three metres of not much ground cover, or in the
ivy and branches of the only tree. |
| Now common sense
would say “in the tree”, but by that time, common
sense had been left at K. Help swiftly arrived in the form of Rosie. It
was an “I’ve been here ages and Rosie is going to find it straight
away” moment. But that happened in a parallel universe, and my hand got
to the triffid on an ivy covered side branch just before hers and
Richard’s. A little smugness was allowed before the three amigos shot
off towards M. Well, all three of us got there or thereabouts, and then
Rosie got her own back on me. Smugness is a short lived thing and leads
to immediate downfall. Now that was all 10, and Rosie had finished too. Thinking that her handicap was quite a bit less than mine, and she had had a good day, I thought I’d better get back to joker A to validate asap, just in case there was a tie on points. Relief at clocking in with about 45 min to go. Further relief in a nearby hedge, and even more relief on opening my concealed can of Fanta (which I had moved further away from A). Time, then, for a sit down with Phil and Rosie at the picnic table until the apocalypse at 4.00 pm, and collecting in. Thanks to Phil for a challenging event with good mixed terrain in a small area; I was really surprised to get over 300 points and come out on top. I am not going to be smug at all ever again, as I know Rosie is going to beat me next time. Best way to avoid this is to run the next event on Sunday July 13th!! Hope to see you there, Tim |
The Hero League Colin F had won the Hero from Gary on the previous event ...  |
... .but then Tim took it from him on this event. Life is tough at the top!  |