In conjunction with the MelBush-O orienteering event at Darebin Parklands, a 2m classic ARDF event was held, in the rain on Sunday 16th March 2025
Despite the awful weather, 12 ended up taking part.
Peter M arrived too late to do an O course, but I allowed him to start the ARDF, but with the usual proviso we’d start picking up transmitters whether he was back or not.
Paul VK5FAB from SA also took part in his first pedestrian ARDF hunt. He had some difficulty recalibrating to the 1 minute ON cycles, more used to the 30s ON time of the Mt Gambier car-based ARDF style hunt. However, at least it’s easier to work out which TX is which with the proper MOE, MOI etc ID.
It was a compact area with a 1:3500 scale A4 map, so all transmitters could be easily heard over the whole course, but the complexity of the creek and steep river banks make it quite a challenge, and increased the course length suitably. The two creek crossings went underwater during the event, making it extra challenging for the later starters.
At such a public park, transmitter placement is a compromise between not being particularly visible to random walkers (even on such a wet day there were still many out), yet visible enough to be punched whilst not transmitting.
Thanks to those who were able to pick up transmitters afterwards, Ewen, Darian, and especially Alistair who grabbed the two on the other side of Merri Creek (driving all the way around rather than risking the now underwater creek crossings. Everything was packed up by 1:30.
Here are the results:
| ARDF | (13 / 13) | ||||
| Place | Name | Time | Raw Points | Points (TX * 10) | |
| 1. | Darian Panter | 53:00 | 50 | 50 | |
| 2. | Ewen Templeton | 1:00:18 | 50 | 50 | |
| 3. | Monica LP | 1:37:40 | 50 | 50 | |
| 4. | Dianne Shalders | 1:40:28 | 40 | 40 | |
| 5. | Henk DeJong | 1:40:30 | 40 | 40 | |
| 6. | Alastair Knowles | 1:42:19 | 40 | 40 | |
| 7. | Suzanne O’Callaghan | 1:12:47 | 30 | 30 | |
| 8. | Pierre Brokner | 1:17:32 | 30 | 30 | |
| 9. | Paul Burns | 1:27:30 | 20 | 20 | |
| 10. | Rod Stephens | 1:27:58 | 20 | 20 | |
| 11. | Jenelle Templeton | 2:02:46 | 20 | 14 | |
| 12. | Peter Maloney | 1:01:11 | 10 | 10 | |
| Bryan Ackerly | DNS | 0 | 0 | ||
Here’s the transmitter locations:
