Author: brucep

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Croydon Hills Fox-Or

14th April 2007

From the point of view of course setting, 14th April was a perfect opportunity for me to offer my services. It was during the school holidays, so my normal Saturday “taxi” services taking my children to various activities would not be required. Croydon Hills is a great map to set as the network of winding streets leads to interesting courses virtually regardless of where controls are placed. I decided to set the normal Saturday afternoon “Cake-O” on behalf of Dandenong Ranges, and in addition to set radio courses on behalf of ARDF. As course setter for both, liaison problems would be minimised, and I could put out both the normal and the radio controls at the same time.

After the success of the “Combo” format offered by Ian Holland at Woodlands recently, I decided to offer this format of event for the Saturday. Five 2m Fox-Or transmitters were placed in suitable parkland areas (these abound on the Croydon Hills map) close to or between the normal orienteering controls. Additionally, there were standard Fox-Or courses offered for those who wanted to compete in the normal Street-O and do a radio course either beforehand or afterwards.

The Combo event was a 75-minute score format with normal 2/3/4/5 point scores for the orienteering controls and 10 points for each radio control. All competitors “got” all five of the Fox-Or controls. Both Bruce and Marta also got all 20 orienteering controls, and were separated by less than 30 seconds in total time. This was a very good effort when compared to the Street-O results where only two of the fastest “A” runners managed all 20 orienteering controls in the 60 minutes available for A course.

I was very pleased with the way the whole event ran and it was good to see several orienteers have a go at the Fox-Or either before or after the main event. The only low point was the theft of the flag and punch (luckily not the transmitter) from radio control R1. I would also like to thank Marta for her helpful suggestions prior to the event plus the “surprises” at control 12. Thanks also to those who helped collect controls and others who helped out during the event. I think that this type of combined event should be successful in future and hope that we can do more when suitable event locations are available.

Results

Fox-Or

Name�TransmittersTime (mins)Place
Darian Panter5661
Greg Williams5932
Banks Family51133
Diggins Family41064
Tony Bird3305
Mike Hubbert3476
Keith Anker3577
Dianne Shalders2578

Combo

Name2 point3 point4 point5 pointRadio
(10 point)		Late
Penalty		ScoreFinish
Order		Time
(mins:sec)		Place
Bruce Paterson555550120168:451
Marta Salek555550120269:102
Georgie Giles545550117472:053
Gary Panter414550102370:154
David Beard43345099574:595
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Report on Woodlands Historic Park RadiO event

Woodlands – 2m Fox-Or  

Sun, 1 April, 2007

Ian Holland, VK3YQN

An introductory CombO event was held at Woodlands Historic Park (just North of Tullamarine airport) on 1st April in conjunction with the Tukonie Orienteering Club.

I e-mailed an invitation to a few friends to encourage potential newcomers to the sport and was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who said they would come. I therefore planned an event tailored for newcomers, especially families. This was done by setting courses that combined finding some Fox-Or transmitters with finding some of the Orienteering controls that lay between the transmitter sites, thereby giving the kids in particular something exciting and challenging to do every few minutes. The result – a CombO event. I also put out a few treats for the kids at some of the RadiO controls close to the start.

There were 26 Orienteering controls and 6 Fox-Or controls.

4 Orienteering/Fox-Or combination courses were available (but no separate RadiO-only course), covering a range of ability and experience. There were 3 courses based on time:

  • RA: All 6 Fox-Or + any 15 orienteering controls (approx length 10k)
  • RB: Any 5 Fox-Or + any 12 orienteering controls (approx length 7.5k)
  • RC: Any 3 Fox-Or + any 8 orienteering controls (approx length 4.5k) – specifically designed for beginner families

These courses didn’t have a time limit, other than when the Finish closed around 1:30pm.

The course lengths above are approximate and are between 0.5 and 1km higher than the calculated straight line distances to allow for out of bounds areas, fences, etc.

If the 10 km CombO course wasn’t challenging enough, there was also a score-based course (RD). The aim was get as many points as possible within a time limit of 80 minutes (orienteering controls scored between 5 and 15 points (depending on their location) and the 6 Fox-Or controls were each worth 20 points).

Registration opened at 9:30 and staggered starts were planned from 10 to 12 noon, although some experienced entrants were allowed to leave after this time.

The turnout to the event was an impressive 114 competitors (21 of these did the CombO courses), although the number of people attending was somewhat higher than this figure (especially for the CombO courses) as quite a few of the participants were family groups.

Deciding on the number and type of courses was challenging – there needed to be enough of them to span at least from beginner to advanced levels but not too many or there would end up being only one entrant in a course and therefore make scoring that course fairly meaningless. Fortunately with 21 RadiO entrants the choice of 4 courses resulted in at least 2 people doing each course, with most doing the course focussed on beginners (RC) as expected.

The weather on the day was close to perfect – it had been forecast all week as “Fine & 22” but on the morning of the event the forecast had changed to “Early drizzle, clearing in the afternoon, 22”. Fortunately no drizzle was encountered at the event even in the early morning while putting out the controls.

Everyone who attempted the RA, RB and RC courses managed to find all of the required controls and the kids managed to find a few lollies that were left with the 3 closest RadiO controls.

For those that are interested I’ve posted images of the routes I used to determine the course lengths for the RA, RB and RC courses at www.digitalideas.com.au/woodlands. I don’t guarantee these are the optimal courses and obviously the actual length on foot is somewhat more than the cartography software calculated as straight lines between the controls. This is especially true for the RA course because getting to the R3 control required navigating around an uncrossable fence to a gate.

Here are the summarised results by course (if you are not one of those mentioned but would like to know your time or place, let me know).

RA (2 entrants)
Marta Salek 75:58
Mark Besley 97:15
RB (5 entrants)
Won by Bryan Ackerly in a time of 51:38.
Other competitors times ranged from 71:44 to 114:48
It should be noted that Bryan’s time in this event is doubly impressive in that he had just completed the 10km Run For the Kids event in the morning in a very fast time with a focus on bringing extra sniffers to the Woodlands event as soon as possible, which he managed to do just as the first lot of sniffers ran out (thanks Bryan). Last across the line was Fitzel (Marta’s dog), closely followed by his companion David.
RC (11 entrants)
Won by Diane Shalders in a time of 42:56
Most beginners chose this course and treated it more as a learning/fun exercise rather than as a competitive event. All entrants, despite most never doing any form of orienteering before, managed not only to get around their chosen route without getting lost but also to find all the required controls.
RD (timed event: 80min limit, 2 entrants)
Bruce Paterson, time 80:10, score of 325.
Catherine Sheahan, time 82:10, score of 150
When Bruce arrived at the finish, I was quite astonished at the level of perspiration that was literally pouring off him. He had clearly been running VERY hard for quite a while. It wasn’t until I looked at his control card that I understood why. He had managed to find all of the Fox-Or controls except R4 (the one furthest south) AND all but one of the 26 orienteering controls! According to his stopwatch he had managed to get back within the last minute of the 80 minute limit, but according to the official timer, he was 10 seconds over the limit!

Thanks

As I hadn’t done orienteering (other than at school – that’s MANY years ago) and this was the first RadiO course I’d set I had a steep learning curve in a number of areas. A very big thank you is due to the following people:

  • My brother John for helping me extensively tour the park to find suitable control locations and deploy & collect the controls on the day;
  • Huge thanks to Bruce Paterson for coping with endless e-mails of questions from me, lending me one of his bikes, going back out to pick up 2 of the controls after doing the hardest course (RD) and for handing out sniffers and training people when John and I were overdue back at the Registration tent (it took a LONG time in the field untangling the pile of control flags and punches – should have checked that box of items more thoroughly before the event);
  • The TK orienteering club, in particular Julie Sunley, Janetta Davis & Lindsay Thomas.

Without these people’s help this RadiO event would not have been anywhere near as successful.

Thanks also to Marta and Adam and all the newcomers I invited who took up the challenge and turned up to try something quite different from the average Sunday outing.

Thanks to everyone who went out of their way to tell me they enjoyed it; that made all the effort very worthwhile.

Ian Holland VK3YQN
Victorian ARDF Group

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December 2006 Foxhunt

VK3YDF and team ran the final foxhunt for 2006 in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne on a lovely Summer night. Five teams assembled at Blackburn Railway Carpark at 8pm and the first hunt started shortly after.

Adam made good use of a small area between a carpark and office shop front to hide himself and a fox.

The second hunt was a 2 leg affair that saw teams challenged by closed roads due to rail and roadworks at Laburnum train station. Hounds (after 10minutes) found their ways up onto the platform where they found Bryan and Darian and some random drunk guy. (yep, you guessed it, a lot of teams thought it was the bum).. Teams then flew off in search of the second leg that was found by a drain reserve not far from Canterbury Road Blackburn Road Cnr’s.

We thought we’d throw a bit of everything in, so this time we employed the 10minute drive off rule and drove ourselves to a laneway between houses and vacant land in Mont Albert. Teams disappeared as quickly as they arrived owing mostly to the fact that this too was a 2 legged hunt. The teams next found themselves at the big bustop carpark near Doncaster Road.

Next up was another single legger to a large open canal drain near Bulleen road and an impromptu hunt the foxhunting Fox were Adam sneakily followed more than one team around.. (to the confusement of all)..

An adjurnment allowed for cold drinks to be served. Teams were soon off again for the final hunt for the night a 3 TX hidden in reserves that adjoined the Yarra in the Bulleen / Templestowe area. Hounds found Adam and Darrian on an Island, Steve in a carpark that was sort of locked (VT?), and Bryan near the Bike track (yes, with a bike)..

All teams and hounds arrived at the Supper location by 11.30pm where BBQ and Supper was provided (thanks Dianne).

Results: 

		BLN	MZ	YQN	OW	VT
Start		10	3	2	4	0
Hunt 1	0	10	4	1	1
Hunt 2a	1	0	6	2	1
hunt 2b	1	2	5	0	1
Hunt 2 Tot	2	2	11	2	2
Hunt 3a	1	0	2	4	5
Hunt 3b	7	8	0	6	4
Hunt 3 Tot	8	8	2	10	9
Hunt 4	1	0	4	8	2
Hunt 5a	1	1	0	5	5
Hunt 5b	2	2	0	9	6
Hunt 5c	0	6	6	9	8
Hunt 5 Tot	3	9	6	23	19
						
Total		24	32	29	48	33

To the teams/people that I don’t see tonight, Merry Christmas / Happy New Year from all of us in the VK3YDF Foxhunting Team.

Bryan, Steve, Dianne, Darrian and Adam

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Emerald Lake Park RadiO

Sunday, 15th Oct 2006

Emerald Sunday Special & RadiO

On a cloudy day, a small group of intrepid RadiO orienteers gathered at the Lion’s Den in Emerald Lake Park. Attendance was low, both for the RadiO event and the BK normal orienteering event being held in conjunction with ours – this was set by one of our members, Dianne. Nonetheless, every event on offer was tried by at least one person, with mixed results.

A 2m ARDF course was on offer – this was tried by Bruce. Unfortunately, over 2 hours after beginning, he returned rather disgruntled, and informed us that the event was an ARDF course, not a fox hunt! Excessive paranoia relating to stolen transmitters, coupled with bushland much thicker than we had anticipated, meant that the transmitters had been placed in locations that were really too obscure for an ARDF event, leading to a lot of time spent standing around near the transmitter locations, waiting for them to turn on again. A good point was made by Mike Hubbert – should we be really worried about people pinching our equipment, then we could continue to hide the transmitters thoroughly, and just place the flags high up and further away from the transmitter location, so they can easily be seen.

More successful were the FoxOr and CombO courses. Seven 2m FoxOr-ing controls had been placed around the lake, with four of the ARDF transmitters positioned “in-between” these controls. Those doing the CombO course had the option of finding any two of the ARDF transmitters, as well as the FoxOring controls. Gary and Henk completed the FoxOr without too much difficulty (except perhaps for control 2, which had been placed in fairly thick scrub), while Bryan, Mark and Mike had a shot at the CombO event. All three of the latter people found the ARDF controls, and seemed satisfied with the course, which was a bit of a relief after the ARDF debacle! Credit to Mike and Mark for heading out after already completing an orienteering circuit; especially as the heavens opened halfway through their events, drenching all those out there for a good half hour or so! Full marks to Bryan, also, for competing despite still recovering from foot problems following the marathon he had completed the previous week.

An 80m 5-in-5 course was also available, although only a couple of people had a shot at this – I think the rather unpleasant turn in the weather meant that most people wanted to dry off and head home once they returned, and weren’t as keen to give the RadiO courses a try. There seemed to be fewer of our regulars around as well, which didn’t help matters. Nonetheless, I put the controls out, vigorously flinging red cable up into the trees and then hiding in panic as both the wire and various overhanging branches rained back down on me! David then went out to give the course a shot. A few problems made themselves apparent. First, the thickness of the bush meant that cutting through forest to get between controls was not a viable option – you really had to run along tracks and dive off once you got close. I had provided blank maps of the general area to make this slightly less painful, but I’m not sure how easy it is to navigate while having 1 minute to get between controls! I actually had to put controls somewhat closer together than I had planned because of this little problem, and also because, just as I started putting transmitters out, some park rangers decided to close off a bridge I had planned to use! Secondly, David found that stopping to punch the control (given that they were generally located amongst fairly thick shrubbery), meant that there was no chance of getting to the next control within its cycle period. We therefore decided that it was OK to just sight the flag; punching was not required. We should perhaps adopt this method for future 5-in-5 events… Bryan had a go before this new rule was introduced, but independently decided not to physically approach the controls anyway, mainly because he was using a new 80m transmittter in which the sense antenna wasn’t working. Bruce went out afterwards, and had a successful run – he didn’t quite get to the first control in the first minute because he was a couple of seconds late starting, but found the rest within the second cycle period, which is pleasing.

All in all, the FoxOr and CombO events went quite well, as did the 5-in-5 once the non-punching rule was implemented. Best not to say anything further about the ARDF course! A few more people giving the event a go would have been nice, but you can’t do much about the weather, I guess…

Results:

NameEvent# ARDF Controls# FoxOr ControlsTime
Bruce PatersonARDF5–2:08:20
Bryan AckerlyCombO271:07:00
Mark BesleyCombO271:27:40
Mike HubbertCombO251:40:35
Gary PanterFoxOr–71:17:20
Henk DeJongFoxOr–71:39:00

Marta and David

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Albert Park RadiO

October 1st, 2006

Albert Park Sunday Special & RadiO Results        

Runners

NameClub# ControlsTime
Bruce PatersonAR100:54:30
Ewen TempletonAR101:04:00
Mark BesleyDR101:14:24
Jun OkabeDR40:30:40

Walkers

NameClub# ControlsTime
Keith AnkerBK101:29:00
Dianne ShaldersBK101:43:45
Darian PanterAR101:44:37
Gary PanterAR101:45:55
Mike & Joy HubbertBK61:16:00
Helen Schofield51:08:04
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Report for VK3YQN Fox Hunt 18th August 2006

The hounds met at the Pinewood Shopping Centre and were set off from there by Neale Banks (thanks for helping out Neale).

The night was run by Ian VK3YQN, Bruce VK3TJN, Roger VK3HRL and Peter and consisted of a mixture of single and two-leg hunts with a 70cm leg thrown in as well.

Hunt 1 Leg A
We were worried that the 70cm signal on this first hunt of the night might be a bit weak way back at the Pinewood start location, but it turned out the hounds had a good signal all the way. The fox used was Ian MZ’s 70cm intermittent unit that put out a good signal on the 3 element beam in the tree beside the creek, at the back of Greaves Reserve, Noble Park.  All hounds had difficulty with overloaded 70cm sniffers and a fair delay till they looked upwards into the tree. VK3YDF took the longest time dithering around, but BLN and MZ teams were also experienced considerable frustration. MZ was in first followed 3 minutes later by YDF and OW with BLN arriving 6 minutes after them.

Hunt 1 Leg B
This 2m fox-or transmitter was located by Peter a short run from the first leg (provided you knew where the bridge was) in a drain pipe on the Eastlink construction area.  First in was MZ followed by YDF, OW and finally BLN with similar timing to the first leg.

Hunt 2 Leg A
Ian (and his brother John) hid this transmitter in bushes at the East side of the lake in Karkarook park.  First on the scene was Adam YDF followed a minute later by Geoff and BLN 3 minutes after that.  OW arrived 4 minutes after that.

Hunt 2 Leg B
Though physically not more than 300m from the 1st leg location, this 2nd leg was meant to be a real bastard. Shortly after we heard that teams were in on the 1st leg, we could here car doors slamming in the industrial estate off Warrigal Road….so near, yet simply no access in from there, except perhaps over nasty looking security fences with alarm systems. The BLN team happened to know someone who knew someone who’s dog knew about the spot we were hidden, but they were the last to find their way in from the South, off the end of Henry St. YDF was first, followed by MZ with OW narrowly beating BLN for third place.
Most took some time to actually find the fox hidden under some discarded polystyrene foam halfway up (down ?) a steep embankment.
Somehow the MZ team got a runner in from the North, through the trotting track, even though we thought we’d discounted this possibility pretty thoroughly in our explorations the weekend prior. Something mumbled about “easy to squeeze past gates”….hmmm, well we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
We’d considered hiding the fox within the ex-tip right beside our secluded laneway, but thought that this might create too many objections about not-particularly-accessible-property, despite the nice hole in the fence nearby. As it turns out one runner (another MZ one I think!) did come into our location via the tip….more mumblings about “no fences the way I came”, where we knew this to be patently impossible.

Hunt 3
Peter was located in the “Urban Forest” off Waverley Road.  This was a fairly easy location and not surprisingly all teams arrived within 3 minutes of one another – YDF then MZ and OW together and finally BLN.

Hunt4 Leg A
Bruce dropped Roger out of the car near Darling Station on his way to supper for a spontaneously created extra leg on this hunt to pad the night out to the correct length due to the hounds finding some of the trickier spots faster than anticipated.
Roger was on foot on the east side of Monash Fwy near Darling Railway Station transmitting intermittently on the T7H.  Most teams were observed before alighting from their vehicles so Roger took every opportunity to confuse them. The YDF team’s beam-swinger seemed to stop the beam at 12 o’clock every time, and as Roger was at his 3 o’clock he would transmit until he saw the beam start to turn, then turn off as the beam went past 1 o’clock. Nasty! MZ saw him before he could hide properly and were in first, followed by BLN, YDF and eventually OW.

Hunt4 Leg B
The fox was located up an embankment on the side of the Anniversary Trail near Winton Rd. Easiest entry was via a lane near the corner of Nicholas street. Having arrived at the spot and turned on the transmitter Ian realised he probably should have the clipboard to record the score and, given that the first team had just found Roger, thought he could make a quick dash to the car and back before hounds arrived.  Unfortunately just as he was locking the car, the MZ car arrived so he ran back, managing to get ahead of Geoff and out of site up the embankment before runners came after him.  First in was Geoff followed very quickly by 3 other MZ runners coming from different directions.  A couple minutes later Adam YDF arrived followed by BLN another 2 minutes after him. OW arrived just over time.

Hunt 5
This was the supper hunt and was handled by Peter.  It was located in the new estate on the site of the old Arnott Factory near a fence at the end of a drain extending beyond the west end of Cox Lane.
The location was found by Bruce when creating the “Hashwood” map.  Similarly to Hunt 3 all teams found this within 3 minutes of each other with MZ first, followed by OW, YDF and finally BLN.

Final scores are slightly different from those announced on the night due to double checking however the placings are unaltered:
 1st MZ 6 pts
 2nd YDF 8 pts
 3rd OW 18 pts
 4th BLN 27 pts

Cheers,

Ian

VK3YQN

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Gellibrand Sunday Special – ARDF & Fox-Or

     Sun, 20 August, 2006

Results from Radio Event – Woodland Historic Park – Sunday 20th Aug 2006

ARDF – 80m

NameTimeNo. of Transmitters
Bryan Ackerly62:005
Adam Scammell71:255
Bruce Paterson73:145
David Beard106:305

Fox-Or – 2m

NameTime
Marta Salek40:40
Jun Okabe58:35
Pam King80:05
Dianne Shalders92:30
Mike Hubbert98:10
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RadiO & Toorourong Sunday Special

Sun, 25 June, 2006      

Radi-O 1 (short)

RalphBach29.17
PeterBach29.17
HelenEdmonds33.32
DarianPanter37.57
RyordanPanter46.04



Radi-O 2 (long)

BryanAckerly24.35
BrucePaterson25.51
BarryHart33.01
EwenTempleton38.02
RalphBach40.13
PeterBach40.13
MartaSalek42.22
TonyLangdon43.57
PamKing46.06
DavidBeard46.11
RobMason48.07
RexNiven48.27
JamesCoomber49.27
MikeHubbert51.10
MarkBesley51.20
LaurieNiven56.52
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Victorian Foxhunting Championships Report

  Report: Foxhunting Victorian Championships      

Sat, 6 May, 2006

On Saturday 6th May, after a week of pretty wet weather, it luckily cleared for a day of intense foxhunting activity.

Four teams VK3BLN, VK3TVB, VK3OW and VK3YDF competed for glory, and to test out rarely used equipment prior to the up coming National Championships in June.

None of the teams were in their normal Friday night member or car configurations, so anything was possible !

The Program had 5 hunts in various configurations and scoring methods. We ended up only having to cancel one 2m leg, and that was due to the whole thing starting � late due to the slow team arrival (well done to VK3TVB who were the only ones ready on time !).

Roger VK3HRL ran a short simple 70cm leg to get the day rolling and shake out the gear/maps and so on. This was scored using the normal 10minute timing. VK3TVB won this one comfortably with VK3OW just making it in before the 10 minutes was up. VK3YDF hadn�t yet arrived and VK3BLN didn�t quite make it to the fox in time.

The next hunt proved to be the most challenging of the day. It was 4 legs, hunt any order. The scored was based first on number of TX found, then if the same, time into the last TX found. The stopped exactly 1.5hours after starting. This format is great for spreading teams out as many elect to go for different legs first.

To make things interesting, there were two 23cm legs, a 10m and a 6m. No-one found the 23cm leg on Mt Wilson, but two teams were on the scent when the hunt ended. The 6m leg proved more challenging than intended, due to the odd things trees do to 6m, and only one team found this, and only as the fox was driving out at the end of the hunt. Two other teams spent much of their hunt time fruitlessly searching for the 6m fox.

Well done to the two teams who found two legs; VK3TVB won this hunt from VK3OW based on their 2nd TX time.

A Fox-or hunt with 7 transmitters scattered about the forest around the Barry�s Reef starting location was time limted to 20minutes. 4 frequencies were used, which meant that 3 transmitters shared frequencies with 3 others, just to add some complication.

As many could enter individually as you wanted, and we took the best score of a teams entrants to count towards the overall total. Also a welcome to Bevin, VK5TV who competed in this hunt, all the way from South Australia.

Adam, VK3YDF took out this one easily, finding all 7 in under the required time. Special mention also to Marta, who though was helping the fox the rest of the day, competed in the fox-or for her normal VK3BLN team getting a 2nd place for them here.

The two legged 80m/2m hunt was cut to just 80m due to timing constraints. We had planned to use an antenna mount for this hunt that ended up back in Melbourne due to a YQN team member being unable to make it at the last moment. A temporary mount was fashioned up with bits of coax and metal, so apologies for the dodgy signal on this leg.

Strangely the only team who could hear the signal at the start didn�t end up finding the fox, but VK3YDF did, 6 minutes ahead of VK3BLN.

Dinner was supplied pre-ordered at the Blackwood pub, and very good it was too. Though a little more expensive than self-catering for the event, it certainly made it easier for the fox team who had zero time to spare as it was !

Teams had to forgo dessert because soon afterwards was to follow the gruelling 4 legged night hunt. These are always meant to be difficult, to test team�s patience and perseverance. It is rare a team will breeze through easily on all legs, and again this proved to be the case. VK3TVB had difficulty with the first 2m leg, putting them well back in the field to start off with. Marta was the 2m fox located on a walking track to the North East of the start, deep in the Wombat State forest. VK3YDF and VK3BLN swapped places for the 70cm leg run by Roger from a track not shown on the map to the North West of the start. VK3BLN maintained their lead into the 10m fox operated by Ian, well to the East again at a hastily found new location (the earlier planned location was scrubbed due to a road closure). The final 6m leg run by Bruce turned out to be the un-doing of both VK3BLN and VK3YDF. It was located to the South of the start again in what was not meant to be that difficult a location. The two teams spent nearly an hour within about 3km of the 6m fox, not ever quite narrowing in. Meantime VK3TVB is making up lost ground and have found 10m. Unfortunately VK3TVB also waste their time, but in their case searching grotty dirt tracks over 6km away from the fox so were unable to capitalise on the misfortune of the leaders. Suffering grotty track overload they gave up in disgust (at themselves I hope !).

Finally VK3YDF find the 6m fox after an exhaustive grid search. They have to head off to Melbourne from there due to two members running the a �beat the train Puffing Billy fun run� the next day. About 10 minutes later VK3BLN turn up from an unexpected direction�yes I can see your headlights this time, John ! The 6m fox wasn�t far at all from the first road they�d turned down an hour earlier, and turned away as the signal dropped.

I�ll attempt to create a map picture of the event locations.

The night finished up with supper back at Roger�s grandparents house in Barry�s Reef, near Blackwood. Thanks to Roger for use of the great venue, and supper organisers Roger and Rhonda. VK3YDF are the overall winners, which implies they are running the Vic Champs next year ?….or perhaps someone new wants to give it a go.

Results

TeamVK3BLNVK3YDFVK3TVBVK3OW
1. 70cm101009
2a. 23cm A––0:18–
2b. 23cm B––––
2c. 6m–––1:30
2d. 10m––0:491:17
2. Overall2020810
3. Fox-or1037
4. 80m601010
5a. 2m40810
5b. 70cm04810
5c. 10m04810
5d. 6m401010
5. Overall883440
Total45385576
Placing2134

Fox-Or results

CompetitorTX / Time (mins)Placing
Adam YDF7 / 200
Marta6 / 221
Ian MZ4 / 213
Graham ZKM3 / 236
Bevan TV2 / 237
Gary TXO4 / 244
John BLN4 / 24.15

Fox locations for all hunts

Posted on

March 2006 Foxhunt

Here are the results of the March fox hunt run on Friday 24th March 2006.

Old fashioned scoring was used – (time of arrival, point per minute, max 10, lowest score wins) . Leg times used on the 2 legged hunt 2.

TeamHunt 1Hunt 2aHunt 2bHunt 3Hunt 4Hunt 5Hunt 6Place
VR/MZ/TVB70/71/81/93/121/131/141
BLN07/70/72/97/162/185/232
YQN71/87/150/150/152/179/263
YDF109/1910/295/342/360/360/364
TXO105/1510/252/2710/373/402/425

Our thanks to those who participated, to Ian VK3MZ for the use of his fox, and to Sandra, YF of VK3CHR, for the excellent supper – I am told the quiches were delicious – pity the hordes had consumed them before I got there!!!!.

Cheers
Greg on behalf of the the fox team:
VK3VT, VK3CHR & VK3JDO

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Porcupine Ridge RadiO Event

Sun, 19 February, 2006

Twelve competitors gave RadiO a go today at the Bush Orienteering season opener near Daylesford. Despite some early drizzle in Melbourne the weather at the event was perfect.

Unfortunately not many attempted the full scale 5 transmitter ARDF event, but a few gave the novel Combo (Fox-or+) course a try . The line distance for the ARDF was 7km, but the quite hilly terrain made for a challenging event. Noone found all 5 within the 120 minute time limit.

The Combo course (do the Fox-or but also try to find any two ARDF transmitters) was an attempt to give a gradual introduction to ARDF to those already reasonably proficient at Fox-or style events. In the future a Combo course could be rolled into the standard Fox-or, but with bonuses for finding any ARDF transmitters as well.

The hilly terrain also meant many that attempted to do both a Bush-O and a RadiO were just too exhausted. There are two possible future options here. Those attempting both should be actively encouraged to do a shorter bush-O than normal (to have any real chance at the RadiO at all), or we attempt to always offer a Bush+RadiO course that incorporates a suitably short Bush-O only leg (Hageby style). The latter would require allowing Bush+RadiO starts from the same time as Bush-O (10:00am).

A few small issues:

  1. There seem to be only 3 mini flags + punches in the Fox-or bag. Had make do with some Medals as flags.
  2. Fox-or #1 started fine, but when it came back it was no longer flashing; it was stil producing a weak carrier. Some people found this one a bit weak. (Unit marked �Dodgy� with duct tape.)
  3. The new LCD sniffers can’t really be lent out yet. A competitor who had one came back saying it didn’t work (for Fox-or) as it was too insensitive.
  4. The fudge at the Woodend shop is really fudgy.

Bruce Paterson, Course Setter

Results

CourseNameTransmittersTime
ComboDavid Beard82:08:00

Marta Salek61:34:20
Fox-orDianne Shalders41:20:00

Gary & Ryioden Panter41:36:56

Ewen Templeton31:03:00

Ian Stirling20:40:00

Ken & Anitra Dowling20:60:00

Darian Panter10:30:00

Shane Keely10:50:00
ARDFTony Langdon41:58:17
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Japan Region 3 ARDF 2005

Report 1

Hi Everyone,

This is my first instalment for the Japan trip. Of course we haven’t made it to the Radio event yet (since when have we ever been boring and gone straight to the event ?). It’s late on the night of our second night in Japan and I’m typing this on my laptop whilst lying in bed. Had a few ales, so the prose might be lacking, but more about that later.

Firstly, yesterday. A day of plane trains and automobiles. Well you know we’ve made it here, so at least it didn’t go completely awry, but there were a few moments there where events tried pretty hard to unravel. For instance the lovely time of the 6:05am flight from Sydney airport we’d managed to put so far the the back of our minds that the implication of having to get up prior to 4am hadn’t entirely sunk in till we had to set the alarm clock whilst chatting to my cousin Jenny at their place in Sydney the night before. Or maybe the fact that after heaving out of bed at that pre-dawn no-existent time of the morning, the taxi ordered the night before didn’t arrive, and continued to refuse to arrive, despite increasingly panic-ed calls to the Taxi company, 20 minutes later ! It’s perhaps just the way things go that it wasn’t till just *after* I’d woken aforementioned cousin Jenny (who had already had to cope with an very unhappy infant at midnight), that finally a taxi driver got around to accepting the job and rolled up outside. “Errr sorry Jenny, bye….”

All seemed to go smoothly for a while, till the puzzled girl at the Qantas check-in counter wanted to know what flight we wanted to check in for at that hour. We knew we were going via Brisbane, but nothing had made us wonder if the Sydney-Brisbane leg might be actually be a domestic flight. Yep, you guessed it…wrong airport ! So another taxi ride (the shuttle bus doesn’t operate that early). The taxi driver wasn’t at all keen either, as he’d now lost his first place in the taxi rank, carefully gained, he lost no time in telling us, by getting to the airport at 2:30am. Still, it’s a domestic flight, right ?, we don’t have to be as early for that ! We’re still going to be ok. Phew.

Ok, (boring), it was. A bit tight doing all the Immigration stuff in Brisbane, but made it through ok and we weren’t even the last on the Tokyo flight !

New Ontani Hotel organised for us at special discount rates by our man-on-the-ground-in-Tokyo, Douglas, turns out to be pretty spiffo, and though it’s expensive by our standards, it’s real real bargain for the centre of Tokyo. For those who have no idea who Douglas is: He’s an Aussie living here who used to foxhunt with the YQN foxhunt team from when he was a teenager.

Not only did he organise the Hotel, but we did the tricky business of booking all our train tickets for our stay here (we’re all doing slightly different things) this morning at the Tokyo Central station this morning, but also has been showing us around today.

Few use cars here (Douglas doesn’t own one) which means the public transport really has to work well, and it does. Much use of the subway and train system, and plain old walking, and we did a mixture of the tourist thing and lurking in the odd but amazing electronics (and amateur radio stores) district. The new stuff wasn’t particularly cheap but the second-hand could have some real bargains (in we had the room to carry it!). Good junk :). We also fitted in a pleasant river boat trip under the many bridges, a trip up a tall tower for the view and and a quick look at the the Roppongi (sort of red light) area this evening after dinner. Oh and Sue, we managed to hold Mark back from all sorts of evil temptations and he is safe in (his) bed.

Oh yeah and the beers ?

Well the beer glasses were kinda large, but Douglas assured us that lurching about in public is perfectly socially acceptable in Tokyo (afterall noone is driving home), and in fact is to be almost expected, and let me buy you another beer…

Weather is not too hot, but quite humid. Fine for walking around but could be hard going for the competition. Sleep time. <Coughs loudly to wake up Mark enough to stop him snoring…>

Report 2

Back again for the 2nd instalment !

If all went well Douglas should have been able to send out the first one this evening.

Unlikely to have a chance to get onto the net myself till tomorrow (Monday), so no pictures yet.

Tomorrow we take the fast train north to Niigata and the Radio competition, but I’m getting ahead of myself !

Today ?

Well it was a little warmer today at 32Deg, but according to Douglas perfect weather compared to last week when it was stinking hot & humid. Hmmm, well these things are all relative as it felt pretty hot & humid to me already !

Waited for Douglas at the subway station for a while till I timed out and went in search of a phone to call him. Seems it’d been a big night (4 bars worth) last night and he’d only managed to get home at 4am. We took pity and elected to meet up with him later this afternoon.

Sony building in Ginza: Mainly a showcase for Sony products. Aibo robots were cute but otherwise not as impressive as I’d been expecting. Lots of dull laptop displays and endless home-movie setups. Nice, but…

Back to the subway again (just follow the colour coding) and along the street leading to Meiji, the largest shrine in Tokyo. Temples are Buddhist, Shrines are Kinto and they happily coexist. Due to the public holiday this weekend we were lucky to witness a number of ceremonies where the gods go portable for a day in hand-Bourne shrines.

All the shrine-bearers wear traditional costumes (except two who seemed to be wearing only shirts (very odd)) and chant, drum and bounce the shrine along the way (must be a bumpy ride for the god!).

Grab some lunch along the way up the tree-lined street and meet Douglas who has emerged from his cave. Go to have a look at the Goth girls. For some reason they all like to dress up Goth and congregate in one particular square.

Many are weekend-only Goths who return to normality for work & school midweek. They were there again today, but not in huge numbers, possibly because of the warmth in the sun, or the public holiday weekend (some more non-posing-Goth things to do perhaps).

Even more disappointing was the poor showing of Elvis’s at another nearby square that Elvis calls his own. Yes a few there, but mainly sitting merely listening to Elvis tapes. It seems Elvis had left the building.

Despite this being a very central part of Tokyo, a large area of park and forest surrounds the shrine. Since it looked so shady and inviting we walked through up the forest path to the shrine. There was even a wedding while we were there, so we got to see a priest or two as well.

One of the interesting parts of life here are the Pachinko machine halls. These are like pokies, but involve launching metal ball bearings around what is a bit like a vertical pinball machine. Occasionally it pays out in yet more ball bearings.

Since gambling is officially illegal here, you can’t officially get money back if you turn back in your hard won boxes of bearings, but there’s always a loophole. You return your boxes and the staff are so happy you’ve given them back the balls that they present you a gift, like say, a teddy bear. You then take this gift to the attached shop next door where they suddenly take a liking to the teddy and value it at just about exactly the ball return cost (which is half the ball purchase cost). See ? No gambling at all.

Getting late now so goodnight from Tokyo.

Last minute update: NO INTERNET !!! If you are reading this it’s because I’ve managed to get someone to email if for me somehow, or it’s all over…..

Report 3

Hi all,

Well it looks like there is no internet here.

Like…NONE! Not even international phones. I have managed to ask one of the Japanese organisers to email these out when he has a chance. Apparently he can drive a few km to get to a place his mobile phone card works in his PC.

Therefore I have no way of knowing if these emails are getting out or not, but I’ll continue assuming they are. Sorry no pictures possible till later.

The area is hilly and green with heavy forests. We’re all in a small village nestled in a valley, or to be more accurate, two separate villages. We are spread out a bit with about 2 countries per traditional Japanese rooming house. We’re in for the full Japanese experience with meals on the floor, sleeping mats and bath houses.

Mark is a bit dubious about some of the seafood and sushi, but there’s enough other things to survive 🙂 The rest of us are loving the food. We are staying with the chinese team. Korea is next door. The Yanks, Russia and Thailand are up the road a bit, and Mongolia, Kazahkstan and Japan are in the other village a few km away.

It is now the morning before the receiver testing (rather hopefully called “training”) followed this afternoon by the Opening ceremony. Hopefully we’ll have no problems with the 80m frequency being so low (3.52Mhz) compared to our usual 3.58Mhz.

Shimmer Shimmer Shimmer (lots of hand waving and clock hands speeding round) Wobble Wobble Wobble

Now for those of you who have no interest in things to do with the event, it’s possibly a good idea to tune out for a few paragraphs ! If you’re really boring scan through to the last paragraph to see how we did.

It’s now just after the 80m competition on Wednesday.

Unusual to have 80m first, but this is just what they have decided to do. Not a great deal to say about yesterday. Mark had to modify his sniffer a bit and Bryan had to fix a broken one to use as the team spare today, but thats about it.

The opening ceremony was held in an auditorium after the obligigatory hour of team photos (a typical Asian experience). After a few speeches (in both Japanese and English, except for Mr Parkes in English) which take forever, we had some traditional dancers. Mr Arisaka (Japan) interestingly decided he didn’t need to give a yet another welcome speech (Yay for Mr Arisaka), but it was noticeable how much longer the Mayors speech went in Japanese compared to English :). Somehow methinks we weren’t hearing the same stuff.

Team Leader meeting last night was typical of these sorts of things:

Russia, Kazahkstan and Mongolia are a bit worried about how close to each other the two frequencies (fox and homing beacon) are and are concerned their older Russian made receivers won’t be able to cope too well, but the Japanese organisers explained that frequency allocations in the narrow 2m band in Japan are very strict.

No water at the transmitters today, so I decided to carry a water bottle taped to a belt. Damm, I should have put in that Camel pack afterall !

They asked people to not turn on receivers when they get off the bus at the start as they’d be doing transmitter tests at that time. After the problems in Mongolia 4 years ago with this I “suggested” they hold off transmitter testing till all receivers had been impounded, and after some discussion they decided to do that.

The map is not to IOF standard, and most significantly has not runnability grading ! Actually we found out today in actual practice that anywhere on the map in white was invariably “fight” or deep green.

The event start turned out to be in a sports hall next door to where we’d had the opening cermony yesterday, a few km from here at out lodgings. I’m happy I didn’t have to wait too long. It’s hard not to get nervous. Mark and I had early starts so that Adam and Bryan can start early on Friday as they have to zip off to the train station straight from the competition.

One amusing thing at the start was a young Chinese (M19) competitor who elected to not even take his map with him.

Apparently he couldn’t read them anyway (I wonder if his name was Jack?). I was trying to discourage him from talking to me at the start line, not because I was being unfriendly, but because I didn’t want to be disqualified for assisting or something similar.

So the course itself ?

Essential to stick to the roads/tracks otherwise have to clamber through jungle. I did decide to at one stage on the way to my first transmitter to brave the “white”

on the map as I got to a dead-end with only a long way back around. It was tough. Hard to know if it was worth it, especially as I was swearing at the vines stangling my legs and broad leaf shrubbery up to my head as I semi-tumbled down the side of a gully.

The course setter had put a lot of thought into making the transmitter order important. Miss the couple of transmitters down the bottom of the map on the way and you were in for a lot of back tracking. Myself I was lucky to pick up the lower one (my route there wasn’t perfect though…see above) on the way.

The other low down one I didn’t have to get for M40. I then ran nearly the entire height of the map to get the most distant transmitter next and filter down through the middle getting the last 2 on the way to the finish, which was in the middle of the map.

This turned out to be the optimum route. I only had to contend with the jungle once more, but that time was really unavoidable. I drank all my water so I was glad I’d taken it along.

Bryan did the same route as I but taking about 80mins (there are no results as yet…see below). I took around 93mins (the cost of that bush-bashing early on). Our course distances measure at about 12.1 and 12.8km respectively.

Interestingly we both went within about 40m of the transmitter we didn’t have to get, so the overall optimum length is possibly something like 10-11km.

Mark found 4 of his 5 tx, taking about 120 mins, 13.5km, being sure to be back on time. His initial course was excellent, but he didn’t pick up that way up top distant one next so it made it too messy to get the last transmitter. Adam did a rather strange order for all 5 taking 19.6km and 130mins. It illustrates how important transmitter order was on this competition and the importance of early bearings for decision making.

It’s hard to gauge how well we’ve done in the team category at this stage as there are so many variables there, but we have a reasonable chance of a team placing for M40. I’ll promise not to delete the above line later when I find out the real results 🙂

<More wobbling and shimmering> Oh, use your imagination !

Results are up ! (bit lax not having them at the event really)

M40 Gold overall: Bryan Ackerly 1:17

M40 Silver overall: Bruce Paterson 1:32

(and 30mins onto the Bronze competitor from China)

M21 Silver Region 3: Adam Scammell 2:11 (5 TX)

M21 Bronze Region 3: Mark Diggins 2:01 (4 TX) Gold was taken by a Mongolian competitor, and above that two Kazahkstan competitors who don’t count to Region 3. Notably 2nd overall was Nikolay Tarrasov who was profiled in AO. He admitted to having an awful run, mucking up the order badly.

Of course in M40 we will also get the Region 3 team gold, but the surprise news is also gold team result for M21 since the 2nd Mongolian was well down the list and also had 4TX, so the addition of their two times was less than Adam and Marks.

Anyway great news for the Aussie team.

I’ll deliver this via flash stick to Mr Hirochi now…..

Report 4

Hi again everyone,

Managed to get onto the net last night at another lodging hotel, but thats likely to be a one-off, so these will continue to be communications out of the great beyond.

Well we were more than a little surprised at the results for yesterday. What happened to the Japan home town advantage. It is also worth noting that both Bryan’s and my times were faster than the quickest M21 times even though we were doing M40. Ok we didn’t need to go actually into #5, but we both went so close to it, it would have been a few minutes at most.

Our Japanese host, Yoshimoro, who was a competitor at Ballarat but is on staff here, gave us a couple of bottles of Saki (rice wine) to celebrate.

Have a look at https://ardf.org.au and follow the International links to the Japan R3 championships site to get to the results. An article will appear after the champs at the JARL website http://www.jarl.or.jp

Today turned out to be an amusing tour day, but probably not for the best of reasons. The plan was to spend 4 hours in Niigata city (doing shopping, lunch etc, whatever you want), a couple of hours at a Theme park (?) and a barbeque dinner.

What it turned out to be was a few hours of mutual confusion as our young student guides tried to cope with 4 Aussies and 2 Yanks who all had this tendency to not strictly follow the herd. Things started to get better at the theme park, however.

The theme park to out to be a geriatric, somewhat rusting and dilapidated fun park which appeared to groan into oily activity at our arrival. We’d been given a book of tokens each to go on whatever rides we wanted.

Our hapless guide kept trying to enthusiatically guide us towards the ferris wheel and other such exciting activities. The theme of rusting machinery and cracked paintwork though a bit sad, started to became funny as we started to find how pissweak the rides were. The devastation of our young guide, (1st year University English student), when we expressed such disappointment that the rusted hulk of a chairlift (well past Arthurs Seat state) was broken was comical. When Mark pretended to start to back a dogem car out of a shed, ostensibly to ride it down the hill on a concrete drain, he became very alarmed. How was he to cope with these impossible Australians.

After that we really started to get into the swing of “pisstopia” world. Harley and Mark even went on a ride on the exteremely lazy ferris wheel. After waiting for their return we weren’t even able to use up our tickets as all the rides closed down, but we didn’t mind much. It’d been fun.

The barbeque with free Sapporo beer was great. Each table had a small burner with thinly sliced meat and vegetables.

A bit like the Australian version of a Mongolian BBQ. Lots of photos again, and unfortunately (but inevitabably) Kareoke. Still, free grog always helps 🙂

Just before Adam let off his fireworks from a 100Yen shop (ok, he was a bit drunk tonight).

I’m now in the team leaders meeting. Always a good time to update a report.

Everything will be much the same as yesterday for tommorrows competition, but there will be water at the controls !

Every morning at 6am we are woken by the large bell (which sounds like a gong) from the temple at the end of our street. Quite why it is struck 9 times none seems to be able to tell us !

Anyway it sounded the start to what turned out to be a really tough day. They made up for the lack of hills on the first competition by adding extra ones for this 2m competition.

Start was in a basketball court not far from Pissweak World we visited yesterday, and in fact the finish ended up near a little railway that runs around the theme park right in the middle of the map.

We fully expected to not do as well today as we knew the Japanese mainly practice on 2m (VHF), and it’s a harder band to ‘hunt’ on, especially in hilly terrain.

For me things started off very well, finding my first TX in just over 10 minutes, and even better I was up in the middle of the map after 1/2 hour, with only two TXs to get off to my right, and one above the finish to the left.

Unfortunately I chose the one road too early to head towards my 2nd one (I’d already passed the one I didn’t have to get off to my right). Rather than go all the way back down the hill to the main road again, I elected to bush-bash across a small bit of white to get to the right road…. BAD IDEA !!! I should have learnt from yesterday, but this was worse…far worse !

Half an hour later, sore, hot, and tangled in vines after climbing a cliff only possible in orienteering shoes I made it to *a* road, but which one I wasn’t too sure. I had to do quite a bit of weaving in the jungle just to get through.

It didn’t take me too long to recover and find TX 2, but I still wasn’t sure where I was. The roads kept refusing to fit and somehow I finally relocated myself right up the top of the map. How I actually got there I’ll never know, but since I now knew where I was I figured I’d better get that one above the start now (not my original plan) before getting the one on the far right. I did this pretty well. Then the slog across the top of the map turned out to be uphill, forever…..

Finally got to the peak and had 2 drinks before the return to the finish. It was a long way, and I had to run the entire distance, mostly on tarmac with O-shoes. Ouch ! Anyway, it took a while and I was completely soaked, but made it with 4 minutes to spare before my time limit. If only I’d gone one intersection furthur ages before and I’d have probably done the whole thing in 90 mins.

Bryan couldn’t find the one above the finish, and neither could Mark. Adam found all 5 in just under 2 hours.

So not as impressive a performance today, but we’ll still get some medals:

M21

1 Nikolay Tarrasov, Kazahkstan, 1:16 (remember not in Region 3)

2 Adam Scammell, Australia, 1:58 (1st R3, 2nd outright)

8 Mark Diggins, Australia, 2:08, 3TX (Also 5th R3)

They will still get Gold for the R3 team as the other teams partners let the winners down.

M40

1 K.Makita, Japan, 1:50

5 Brucer Paterson, 2:16

7 Bryan Ackerly, 2:09

Unfortunately we just miss out on Silver R3 team (by 1 minute !), so we get Bronze.

As for those Yankee dudes in M60 ?

Quiet Bob is happy with his Gold medal today, being the only M60 who found all required 3 TX’s in both competitions.

Harley came last in M60, skipping one Tx (got 2), but he did make an attempt at the 3rd putting his time after the others who skipped it straight away. They still got a team Silver.

Got to go now ! The girl at the other Hotel has allowed me to post this from her internet tonight.

Report 5

Hey Everyone,

I’m in a Hotel in Tokoyo, it’s morning, and since Douglas took us out drinking last night….. well you know how it feels 🙂

The Banquet and closing ceremony went well after the 80m competion, but it felt a little strange for Mark and I having to accept medals on Bryan and Adam’s behalf, as well as our own ! Each of us ended up with about 6 medals each, once you take into account both Region 3 and overall for both individual and team results. Started to get a bit heavy around the neck, and you’d jangle as you walked 🙂 The ceremony went for ages due to all the categories (you may recall at our Ballarat Region 3 champs we didn’t give team results for “friendship” or what Japan calls Open (not to be confused with M21) which cut it down a bit.

Anyway, best to take advantage of the free internet before we checkout so I’ve uploaded some pictures. It’s only for the first part of the trip so far since that’s all I’ve resized !

Mark heads home this afternoon and I head of to Kyoto.

Report 6

Hi,

Well this will probably be the last bulletin from overseas (this time!).

Since that’s the case I’d better mention a fwe bits and pieces I’ve forgotten along the way. After that Kyoto (for those interested).

I’m on a free internet connection, courtesy of an ignorant Japanese who has left their wireless network unencrypted ! Works ok from the Hotel, but down to 1Mbps as it’s a bit weak here.

Courses Revisted:

On the bullet train back from Niigata, Mark and I measured our 2m (VHF) course distances (approximately). Mark did nearly exactly the same distance he did on the 80m competition (13.2km) for his 3 Transmitters (if he’d found #4 it would have been slightly less, but missing the distant #3 cuts down the km a lot).

I did just under 17km for my required 4 transmitters. No wonder I had only 4 minutes spare at the end ! I also measured what I considered to be a do-able optimum route (sticking to tracks mainly), and it was about 12km. That’s a touch long for a region 3 event and reflects the longer course times we’ve seen.

I guess the fact you have to use roads does lengthen the straight line distance considerably, more so than in a typical Australian setting.

Arto, from Finland, also wanted to mention that Bayside is well represented in Finland, and you will also see his picture in my Niigata album.

Next Comptition:

Well this is a complicated one. Lets take the 2008 World ARDF Championships first. Region 3 (asia pacific +) has been nominally allocated the 2008 World Champs, but withing Region 3 we have to work out who, and it has to happen within about a week from now.

China has requested to run it as it coincides with the Beijing Olympics, but wasn’t certain at the champsionships if they could. [Update: China says no]

Korea has also said they might be able to run them. We (Australia/WIA) have said we will run them if noone else can, to make sure they stay in Region 3.

Now taking Region 3 Champs 2007.

Korea has also said if China (or Australia) end up running World Champs 2008) then they at least want to run Region 3 champs. Also Mongolia have put up their hand again, as has new possibility Vladivostok (Eastern Russia). I’m not entirely sure the East Russian are actually in ARDF R3 yet (they have been trying), so maybe this is another way of asking ?

Kyoto:

Now this bit is just me, so not really anything to do with the Aussie team any more, but included here if you’re interested.

Firstly, the cheap Hotel Douglas found me is great. All I need, and relatively big by Japanese standards. The bathroom is in a cupboard, but that’s to be expected. And the free (by accident) internet is a bonus. Email is the way to contact me now (but I have to check out tommorrow morning).

I visted Nijo Castle this morning since it’s across the road. The Shogun sure had a lot of meeting rooms ! The interesting things for me were just how massive all the timbers in the construction are, and of course the Nightingale floors that squeak to alert of an assassin. Would drive you insane in the meantime though ! I tried to see how they worked but alas couldn’t get to see under.

Since it worked so well in Prague a while back, I decided to hire a bike to tour around. This worked really well. I started to get Temple overload after a while, so I hiked up a hill behind the Kiyomizu Temple. There were little shrines all the way up, making me suspect this was a path to enlightenment or some such. It was a bit of a dissappointment to pop out at a paved road at the top then 🙂 The narrow cobbled streets near the slopes are fascinating, full of little shops selling gifts at ridiculous prices.

Kyoto Central station was where I ended up for lunch, and I couldn’t resist the yummy buns of many types in a French Pattiserie Cafe in the basement.

Later as I tired of temples, and even the ornamental gardens, I found a bike track beside the river and headed North for a decent ride.

This turned out to be a little microcosm of Kyoto life. The rear of the resturants that are on Pontocho Dori (a famous lane), the people riding, walking, practising instruments (guitar, trumpets, recorder, flutes…) and the some Japanese style BBQs where they bring a little portable griller to cook thinly sliced meat and veges.

Had to return the bike by 7pm, but afterwards went to a Kyoto Kitchen Resturant not far from here (just walked in hoping they had an English menu). Yes they did !

Tommorow afternoon I’m back on the bullet to Tokyo and Narita, so only the morning to do some more exploring.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the reports, and stay tuned for next year, Bulgaria World Championships.

Cheers,

Bruce

PS: If you liked the reports or wish to make a suggestion, I’d appreciate if you could send me an email. I’ts good to know who is reading them !

Posted on

June 2005 Foxhunt

VK3BLN June 2005 Foxhunt Report

Hunt 1 – Masochistic Adventure in the rear of David’s new office “OUCH”! If you didn’t yell it, you at least thought it if you were one of three hounds who braved the blackberries along a dark and narrow strip of mud behind the industrial estate north of Redland Drive Mitcham (48 J12). Gary would have come first – he was spotted not 20 metres away – but changed his mind, perhaps lacking the requisite penchant for prickly bushes and barbed wire, only to return many minutes later. Adam found the fox first, complaining loudly about thorns embedded in sensitive southern regions. With Adam constantly reminding us of the time, we heard Geoff bellowing instructions (from safely behind a fence) to fellow snifferer John, who had to contend with Adam’s countdown (“HURRY, 30 seconds left!”) before spotting coax cable and pulling the transmitter out from beneath a dirty wooden platform.

Hunt 2: In view of the hill climbing planned for later in the night, we decided, for a bit of a change, to set the second hunt down in the gully of a picturesque little park not far from the first hunt. A long, scenic, wooden bridge, ferns, native vegetation, frogs croaking their excitement at the night; what more could any hound ask for? Well, quite a lot it seemed. After crashing through the damp and muddy undergrowth, Adam from YDF team was first to arrive. After exchanging brief greetings with an excited Fitzel, he ran straight for the briefcase which we had set up conveniently (and obviously) on the little bridge, and yelled out ‘I’ve got range 9!’. He couldn’t quite understand my laughter as he frantically pawed at the briefcase; eventually, I took pity on him and assured him that no, David could not quite fit inside it… He kept circling the briefcase for quite a few minutes after my little hint, though, not able to understand why his sniffer was so excited in that location. Why all this trouble, you ask? Well, David’s apparently forgotten leaky coax was the key. Quite a long thing, securely attached to the underside of the bridge, it produced an interesting standing wave pattern with many range 9 locations! Adam eventually found the end of the coax and traced it down to where David was lying. Geoff from MX was next to arrive, experiencing a similar amount of fun in locating the transmitter. It took a bit of work to persuade him not to tug the coax out from under the bridge, though! Gary from TXO arrived last, and it took a bit of advice from Geoff and Adam to guide him along to David, who then leapt out at him with a rather loud ‘Boo!’, leading to much hilarity from those assembled.

Hunt 3: Hunt 3 took us to a new subdivision overlooking Lilydale Lake, Roads not marked in 2003 Melways , with a really good view of all approaches on the main road. The Fox settled in for a long wait, as the first two hunts of the night took 30 minutes each, but soon enough the Hounds were on the way. The only approach from Vermont South to Lilydale was Canterbury Road, long/straight with no chance for triangulation.so to make things a little interesting and break the monotony the Fox broke out the mouth organ and offered a few tunes. No-one complained; maybe it was better than Hunt 5’s phone ringtones…:-) To make things even more interesting the Fox kept cycling the transmitter power (later comment from the Beam Swinger (Geoff) on the MX Team, “Shit, I’ve lost the Signal”). Not having sat in the back of the MX Houndmobile for quite some time, and not being up with all the latest mods to the gear, Geoff was still coming to grips with operation of the equipment, obviously still thinking it was his operational technique and not the Fox cycling power. As the YDF team came in sight the Fox just happened to cycle the Power again, which saw them sail past and take off up the opposite hill. The Fox’s timing was impeccable (YDF comment later, “The signal was just starting to swing around when we lost it”). They came back and straight past again in the opposite direction. This was one of those classic moments that puts the pleasure in being the Fox. They had enough information now on where the Fox might be, just had to figure out how to get in. One more pass found the new subdivision and the Fox. YDF in first, next it was MX’s turn. Then the fun started. Gary’s team, could clearly be seen cruising back and forth along Canterbury road, much to the amusement of the gathered hounds (“No left, No Right, you’re getting close”, shouted the Hounds, but Gary’s team were not listening). Then they turned into Lilydale Lake, again!!! That was too much for the Fox, he started issuing commands via the radio, “Not there! Across the road!”. They eventually got in, much to the amusement of the assembled hounds.

Then it was time to let them off for the big hunt. Bruce had just rung in and wanted to play. Geoff asked if the Fox could possibly put a hunt close to where Bruce could be picked up. The Fox was firm, no way were we heading back that way, not even close (to Burwood?????). So it seems that MX team of two and Bruce were in contact through Hunt 4 and Bruce was to meet them later…

Hunt 4 – Better get a ladder, I think I’ve thrown my sniffer up. Samuel Adams, an old-world lager from a Boston microbrewery, complements licorice all-sorts – or so discovered John and Graham as they picnicked on a Hill-top water tank in Christmas Hills (274 D1), having pulled their ladder up after them. “How are they going to get up here?” “I don’t know, that’s their problem. (snigger)” A 5-element yagi perched upon a milk crate beamed an intense beacon south to Lilydale, making the long drive a surprise. Adam approached first, hoisting himself high enough to peer along the tank’s lid (hanging from his nose or sniffer?) shouting, “I can see you!” in an attempt to lure the shadowy figures adopting a low profile on a picnic blanket. When nothing stirred, Adam circled the tank once or twice more before getting a leg-up onto the top from a teammate. In second place came Geoff (thanks for returning our stepladder), closely followed by Gary.

Hunt 5: Just as YDF have a reputation for blackberries, BLN is trying hard to establish a reputation for hilltops. In this hunt, we believe that we succeeded. Skidding along a dirt road in Panton Hill, we screeched to a halt in a little dirt parking lot, and wandered up with batteries and radio in hand to the top of a reasonably tall hill. We took a track; quite nicely marked, it was, with many star pickets neatly positioned along its edges. The fourth hunt finished much earlier than we expected (a bit of hooning, perhaps?), so we were transmitting in no time at all – this is where David’s phone with it’s many ring tones was first brought into play . Gary from TXO was first to arrive, sniffing straight to where we were sitting. He chose to crash through the undergrowth rather than up our little track, though. It would have _been_ much easier otherwise, Gary! Quite a while later, Geoff puffed his way to the top of the hill, muttering what I’m sure were a few choice obscenities along the way. He was briefly distracted by a bouncing Fitz before making his way to where David was transmitting. There was a bit of complaining about broken down fences – what is it with these hounds and their complete disregard of tracks?? Interestingly, he mentioned that our signal was so strong that he had thought the fox was somewhere near the Memorial Tower. And in fact the next hunt was – lucky he didn’t spot Guy setting up during his travels in that direction! Shortly afterwards, Bruce arrived, complete with sniffer but lacking any light source. He’d been directed by us to the meeting point of this hunt, and was commanded to sniff his way to us if he wanted to join the hunt. At this point in the evening, time was pressing on, so we called off the hunt and moved the hounds to the meeting spot.

Hunt 6: This was to be somewhere up near the Tower at the Kangaroo Ground War Memorial. The Fox thought that was a little obvious, so the Foxmobile was parked as close to the tower as possible. Then the fox went along the fence 50m in the opposite direction to set up his lair (under a blanket and against a wire fence). The fox Tx was set vertically, hard up against the fence and again the power was cycled…many times!!! First to arrive was the YDF team, out of the Houndmobile and straight up the hill to the Tower. Two head torches went bobbing up the hill (huge smile on the face of the fox), then came the MX Team. Same problem, straight up the hill. By this time YDF was working their way down the hill and crossing fences??? Sniff, Sniff, Sniff. Then arrives Gary’s Team. Gary says, “I’ll just sniff this”, went straight to the fox and was gone straight away. The other teams hadn’t even noticed where he had been… Then came YDF, kicking the Fox in the Leg and finally Bruce (weren’t you at home a little while ago?) for the MX Team. Later, Geoff said the signal was coming from the tower on the hill; absolute fluke, the Fox had not expected that. Certainly helped confuse the Hounds. Gave Gary’s team a second first for the night, and a good boost for the team with the youngest Beam Swinger (Darian).

By this time it was 11:30pm and the Hounds were set off for the Supper Hunt. They knew the rough direction (Warranwood), but the Fox wasn’t ready yet….Dave said, “Don’t worry we’ll do it mobile”, Marta was heard to say, “Too hard ????, can’t reach!!”. Not sure what was happening in the last Foxmobile, but the Transmitter eventually got turned on too and the Hounds were well and truly on the way..

Hunt 7: By the time the 6th hunt finished, we were only partially on the way to the final position, so we quickly hooked up the radio and started transmitting ring tones again until we drove to the top of yet another hill. We were briefly off the air as we got out of the car and set the beam up to point toward the direction were we anticipated the hounds would come from. We settled ourselves in near to where we had parked, behind a convenient bush. We expected all the hounds to drive in along the same road that we had come from, and then wander straight down to where we were sitting. Imagine our surprise and delight when torches appeared from the top of another adjacent (very tall!) hill and began slowly stumbling over to us. They weren’t moving very fast when they finally arrived (I run up that hill most morning, guys, what’s your problem??), and all the teams seemed to move straight past us to a car parked not far from our bush. Must have been quite a decent reflection back there! Bruce (who’d defected to MX for the night) was first to arrive, shortly followed by Adam. TXO trundled up some time later. Final scores:

		Hunt 1	Hunt 2	Hunt 3	Hunt 4	Hunt 5	Hunt 6	Hunt 7
TOTAL
TXO		2	2	2	2       0	0	2	10
MZ		1	1	1	1       1	2	0	7
YDF		0	0	0	0       3	1	1	5


Cheers,
John, David, Marta, Guy, Graham, Fitzel and helpers
VK3BLN .-.-. …-.- . .

Posted on

May 2005 Foxhunt

Hi all
Greetings from sunny Broome.
Here are the results from the May hunt – VT was the fox.

Hunt	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total   Place
VRetc	3	7	1	0	0	0	1	12	1
YDF	0	0	8	1	10	3	2	24	2
BLN	1	5	0	10	3	7	0	26	3
YQN	3	9	1	7	6	10	1	37	4

Our thanks go to the Victorian Police who added that extra unknown – the booze bus. Which happened to be on the main road that we kept using to crisscross the Eastern freeway. Those who hunted some years ago may have wondered how the team in the Fiat sports (was it 3YRS?) would have made it through!

Cheers
Greg VK3VT