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21st World ARDF Championships Jizerske hory Liberec Czech Republic 27/8-2/9.2023

Bulletin 4 with all the details of the Competitions.

The team in the new snazzy outfits raring’ to go, after a 4 year break of International competitions due to Covid. (Postcard with thanks to Janelle and Ewen)

We were all picked up with other competitors by a preorganised bus at the Prague Airport and had a pleasant ride to the University accommodation in Liberec where we were going to stay during the event.

This time,Jack VK3WWW is a Referee and Ewen,Janell and Peter are competitors in the M70 and W65 agegroups.

Here’s Jack and the other Referees.

Couple of things to add was for the first 3 events the rain was a nuisance. It was also quite chilly but that was better for running. But, not for the transmitter sitters. In WC with so many competitors classic events have half on 2m and the other half on 80m so there were 10 transmitter sitters/technicians hidden under. camouflaged tarps low to the ground so most of the competitors never even realised they were there. Also 5 of the 7 referees were wandering the course making sure there was no cheating. There were a couple of disqualifications but in general all were well behaved. One thing that did come up though is the smart watch issue and gps watches with mapping. Smart watches are fairly new and pose a bigger threat than older gps watches. It will be interesting to see how the Region 1 technical advisory committee handle it. All in all it was a great event and the Czech clubs that joined forces did a great job I estimate the organisers had about 50-60 people organising most were ARDF people and on top of that number still had plenty of top athletes in all categories to fun full teams.-Jack

From Janelle and Ewen

Training

The first two days comprised of training which was invaluable. Having had limited training before leaving Australia, these practice events were a good opportunity to test our equipment and familiarise ourselves with the terrain in the area. The altitude and contours were a definite reality check.

Classic 1

Most of the older age groups competed on 2 metres. It was a day of mixed results for our team. Personally, 2 metres is my least favourite event, and my focus was to keep in touch with the map. The high points on the map gave the best bearings and I was delighted to find my three transmitters and have a secure path to the finish, 4th place but well off the pace. On the M70 course the transmitters were more elusive. Although not the result Ewen and Peter were hoping for, they finished within the time limit. There were reflections everywhere. From the start Ewen had good DFs to the North, South and West to the number 4 TX.

Photo – a good reason to smile

Sprint

Following the bearing and high speed were the tactics for success. With very runnable forest in most of the course, there was no need to keep in touch with the map. The winning time in the M70 class was just under 20 minutes. Ewen was pleased to have a good run and apart from a small error was placed halfway through the field. This was only Peter’s second international sprint competition and timed it perfectly to get back with just 33 seconds to spare. Not a great day for me, lost considerable time on the first 3 Txs and finished overtime with no result.

Note: we need more 80 metre sprint practice.

Photo – Ewen

Rest day

We began the day with lots of resting and then joined some of our US friends for a coffee and cake at a local café. We returned several times to this café, the best coffee and cake in Liberec!!

Photo – coffee shop

Classic 2

Revitalised, we were ready for the 80 metre course. Should have known when I taped the overlay with north facing south on the map that was not a good omen. (Perhaps I needed Peter’s spare compass that faced south instead of north) The terrain was similar to Classic 1 with some excellent tracks. Taking the direct approach proved heavy going with low vegetation and fallen timber. Some of the lesser tracks had been used by machinery and very muddy. My reluctance to tackle Tx1 straight up the hill resulted in a very convoluted route and well down the result list. The M70 course was far more challenging. Both M70 and W65 had Tx2. It was difficult to get a good bearing from the start and decide the transmitter order. Fortunately for W65 course, the Tx4 and Tx2 had similar bearings and lead to a high point that gave a clearer direction for TX2. M70 was not so lucky with Tx5 and Tx1 to the east and south of the map, that Tx2 was the obvious choice for their first Tx. It was certainly hard work. Peter and Ewen managed 8th placing in the teams event.

Foxoring

The wet weather had cleared and there was promise of fine weather and some sunshine. Would have loved a later start as the mornings were still quite chilly. For the foxoring, there is not the luxury of studying the map and working out a strategy before you start. The buzzer goes, you grab your map, run, and try to plan a good route as you head down the start corridor. In hindsight stopping for 30 seconds and setting up the map compass would have been beneficial. In the rush to get started, I lost my position and precious time and consequently my orienteering advantage. Fortunately, the kit 80 metre receiver worked extremely well and the Txs all appeared on cue. No amount of fast running could make up for lost time and finished with another 4th. Ewen’s goal in orienteering has always been to choose the optimum course and this has obviously paid off with his choice today, the same order as the top competitors in M70. In 12th place with all Txs, it was a great effort. Peter had a late start and it fell to the first starter of the Australian team to chorus the “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” to bring home the men. Again, it was only the second time Peter had competed at an international Foxor. It was a creditable performance finding all but one of the transmitters and well within the time limit. All those Parkruns have paid off Peter.

Photo – Peter in the finish corridor

On a rough count over the 6 days of activities we each covered a daunting 40+ km, plus the lengthy walks to the starts and around the city of Liberec. Exhausting, but certainly worth the experience. The camaraderie amongst the competitors, the enthusiasm of finish corridor spectators and the support and encouragement from the organisers and referees made the championships a wonderful experience. Thank you to the Czech Radio Club for a world class event. It certainly challenged us.

Finally, to my fellow team members a big thank you for the technical support, encouragement, and good humour. Together we made it through the week.

Maps of the competition

Hygienic measures against African swine fever virus:
Every competitor is obliged to go through disinfection corridor after reaching the finish line and disinfect his shoes!

We all had to mark the out of bounds Rifle Range when sorting the map out in the map tent.It’s the red areanear the Finish circle! Most people had to run around it to get to the Finish.

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Karkarook Report

It was a blustery but warm day for the Karkarook Park Orienteerng and Sprint ARDF event on Saturday afternoon on 29th August.

Not only was the AR club running the Saturday afternoon Cake-O event, set and organised by Suzanne O’Callaghan, but the numbers were also boosted by AR members having a go at a 2m 5 transmitter Sprint-format ARDF event.

The new Map

Some orienteers were attracted by the new colour park map by AR member Geoff Hudson. This map had as the centrepiece the original 2005 Karkarook Park map by Adam Scammell, but now significantly updated from field checks by Bruce and Geoff. This was then extended by a colour street map of the area north of the bypass road, and extended south into industrial/retail estate. This region had previously been mapped by Steven Dunbar as a B&W street-O map for BK, but the detail was insufficient for park orienteering, so the decision was made instead to make a new colour map of the whole area.

Park O

There is a push to move Saturday Cake-O’s from just another street-O to a bit more park based orienteering, and the new map and the cunning course from Suzanne did not disappoint. She had to avoid much of the newly mapped intricate minor tracks around the lake itself, as this was mid-winter and things had a chance of getting sticky, but expect to see a summer event taking advantage of these in the future.

There was strange indirect hearsay of some discontent from some about actually having to navigate, but this was rumored to be from persons who really should know better anyway (bush-O people), and were really just caught out being lazy.

Notable placings are Lauris Stirling and Ros King in Power Walking, and yours truly & Phil Torode in Run45 (noting that Phil was riding a bike).

Control 9 was one of those controls where concentration was required, unlike depicted here

Sprint ARDF

Five 2m transmitters running 12s each, so the whole cycle takes 1 minute to repeat. The time limit was set to 90minutes, but a soft landing of 5 points/min late was applied instead of the normal ARDF sudden death overtime rule. Each TX was assigned 20 points, but due to a strange MapRun bug, the start and finish both counted as 20 points too.

Transmitter locations

This map segment shows the 5 transmitter locations, but this is hidden from ARDF competitors both on the map and on MapRun when competing.

Some complained that the distance required for this Sprint event were more akin to a full classic ARDF, and though it is true the obstacles did make it longer than a typical Sprint, there were only half the number of transmitters than in a full double-stage Sprint ARDF. Also, here’s what the normal classic ARDF exclusion circles of 500m and 750m look like on this map:

Totally fails classic ARDF exclusion zones

11 ARDF competitors gave it a go on the day of the Cake-O, and Darian completed the event (total 12) only yesterday (Monday 7th). His time has been adjusted to exactly remove the time he spent actually retrieving each of the transmitters (thanks Darian!) as he went. Peter C enjoyed it so much the first time, he revisited Karkarook during the week to try to track down the transmitters he didn’t find the first time around. In that he was 50% successful.

Apologies to Dougie who replied just a tad late.

Here are the results. You can also see the routes taken.

Congrats to the placers: Bryan, Darian and Monica/Rod, just edging out Ewen from the placings, but who also located all 5 TX in time. Bryan also had the extra self-inflicted handicap of not using MapRun, and the transmitters were pretty well hidden from public view.

Here are the 4 routes of those who found all the TXs:

Next Event

Peter Cole is setting the next AR street-O this Wednesday on Academy Hill.

Darian has plans for a Large Sprint format ARDF (or small classic ARDF) possibly using 30s TX timing as a compromise (2.5 minutes per cycle). Those traveling overseas soon should let Darian know when you’ll be back.

We wish Jack (as an official), Peter, Ewen & Jenelle the best of luck in Czech Republic at the World ARDF championships, 2023.

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Bellbird Dell RadiO August 13 2022

Setting this course was fun and so different from a StreetO event where only the GPS locations are required – trying to find good “safe” spots to hide Ewen’s 80m transmitters so they wouldn’t be stolen or attract attention was the aim – and fortunately all were hidden well, and performed flawlessly, and were returned home intact. Phew!

I was pleased to find, when walking around the Bellbird Dell area, that the areas which I thought were out of bounds before are now part of a park redevelopment and after I read the sign carefully, walked through a break in the barbed wire fencing to find ideal places to hide transmitters.

Ultimately, after correcting the angle of this map which must have been at least 10 degrees off North, a hand out was made.

I had put placement locators out using green garden stakes – which are so camouflaged that I had trouble finding them later – but all was set,- transmitters placed, all timing sorted and power on. So I went back to the start at Terrara Park car park – to find several eager participants waving their sniffers in all directions, trying to hear signals with varying success.I turned on mine expecting to hear all five but thought I best have my ears looked at because I could hardly hear anything.

Oh well, I thought,- nothing I can do – if the transmitters are all working these guys will be able to find them they are all so experienced. Then I thought – ” I’ll just try one of the ones Jack had assembled, to see if it’s my sniffer which is the problem – and Boom! – I could hear them 5 and 9 plus. Good one Jack – the club sniffers work better than my overseas one – (The one which you can’t open up and mess around with .)

Here’s the Maprun6 map of the 5 transmitter locations –

Weather reports for that Saturday were that a storm was coming late in the day – in fact even though the sky was clear, with a few clouds appearing, crashing static could be heard from what might be coming up and sure enough it came later but everyone was back before any rain fell.

Altogether there were 9 who did the event. Congrats to everyone taking part. – Bryan, Ewen, Mark D, Pierre, Monica, Mark B, Geoff, Henk and Dianne. I’m glad it worked out and everyone had a good time. Extra points go to Henk and Dianne who found the closest coffee shop to the Start position.

Peter

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Damper Creek Sprint ARDF Report

Report & Results are below the Event Details

Map has been updated with TX locations.

Damper Creek


As per usual now, it’s a MapRun event. No need to eyeball the transmitter – it is deliberately well hidden from public view.

Event Name: /Victoria/OV-Clubs/AmateurRadioDirectionFinding-ARDF/Damper Creek ARDF July 2022.
In fact, if you are quick off the mark you could even squeeze it in today, Friday!

When: Commencing Saturday 16 July, 1:30pm. Transmitters will run daily from 1:30pm to 5:30pm till at least Sunday 24th July (or later on request).

Start is where the dirt path leaves on the south side of the tennis club carpark, in Federal Reserve, Mt Waverley. Melway 61D9.
WARNING: Don’t forget that once you Start, avoid going anywhere near there again till you actually want to Finish.

Frequency 145.300Mhz. 12s Sprint timing, 5TX. Time Limit 90 Minutes. If you want to give yourself the full time-limit, don’t forget to start before 4pm.
It is possible you may not hear all transmitters from the start location, so keep an careful ear out as you head around. I could hear 4 of the 5 at the Start.

oom_62dd47ef1a79eDownload

Report

Well done to everyone who gave it a go over the week, a total of 13 competitors.

Special thanks to Geoff, who not only managed to win overall, but did it while picking up all the transmitters for me as well. He had no choice but to do it quickly, as he rang me around 4:30pm today saying he was heading to try the event. I pointed out to him that it was less than an hour before the transmitters were due to turn off at 5:30pm. Geoff figured he therefore might have to run. He managed to locate the last one to collect, #4, just before they all turned off! I hope he had a backpack with him, or lots of roomy pockets. Geoff gets the Golden Retriever award (hey it’s gold for 1st place, right?).

Most people chose the nice weather today to attempt the event, but Henk & Di also struck a good afternoon mid-week. Oddly, noone chose yesterday (Saturday). I wonder why? Jack was first off the mark (last weekend in the drizzle), managing to hold on to the winning time till today. Jack is therefore awarded the Beaver award.

Second place goes to Darian, followed by Mark. However, I should mention Mark’s time may be artificially long, as he accidentally ‘started’ before he even got out of his car. I have instructed him as to how to cancel out and restart in Maprun. He might have even nudged Darian out of second place. Along with Jenelle, Mark also decided on an unconventional route choice off the map. I’m pretty sure you aren’t really meant to do that in ARDF, but Jenelle left the maps at home, so I’ll decide to ignore it this time. It does make sense if you are going between #3 and #4, but probably isn’t much shorter. I have decided to award both Mark and Jenelle with OBE awards (that’s OutofBodyExperience, not OrderofBritishEmpire – I’m not Tony Abbott!). Maybe Mark should also get the Tardigrade award, for his late start?

Many reported not hearing #5 from the Start, but you were forewarned. I note also that most took a more complicated route over two creeks to #2, rather than directly in via the path below. A better map may have helped out here. The dithering by Di and Henk just before #2 makes amusing viewing in replay mode. Di & Henk are hereby awarded the Phaff award.

Peter’s result may not be indicative. He decided to willfully ignore my careful warning, imploring competitors to avoid going too close to the Finish before they actually want to finish, so we will never know what became of him after #3. Did he find any other transmitters? We’ll never know, but I have decided to posthumously award Peter the Icarus award, as all that I found left was a smoldering pile of feathers.

Ewen’s result, however, is even more curtailed than Peter’s, in that it is completely absent. I’m told there is some terrible embarrassment there, which he hoped to avoid by not even uploading his result. Unfortunately that has backfired, as now, due to this very report we now all ponder what he might be trying to hide. Ewen is awarded the Bloody Mary ghost award.

Another thing to note is that the most popular order was 3-1-4-2-5, which probably isn’t the most optimal route. I consider that a bonus for the course setting (or likely more just due to the land topology hiding #5 till later).

Next ARDF event is Sat 13th August at Bellbird Dell, by Icarus. He is also setting the next AR run street-O on Wed Aug 10.

Results

Click here to see results, and view each competitors route.

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Report on Radio Combo Event 7 May 2022

A Radio “Combo” event was run in conjunction with the Saturday afternoon Orienteering event at Endeavour Greens on 7 May 2022. Unforunately the weather was rather poor but despite that we had eight people competing.

Five 2m Fox-Or transmitters were placed in bush or park areas on the map and competitors had to locate these once they had reached the large red circles on the map. A copy of the map is below with small blue dots indicating approximate transmitter locations. A 75-minute time limit was set with 3 points per minute late penalty. The event was run using MapRun and no flags were set with the Fox-Ors.

Congratulations to Bruce Paterson who got all 20 orienteering controls and 5 Fox-Ors in the time, achieving a perfect score of 120 points. Newcomer Christopher Hall also did very well, getting all five Fox-Ors and all but three of the orienteering controls. Chris also managed his time very well, returning 30 seconds before the 75-minute deadline. Monica Lo Presti came in third with a respectable 91 points. Jack Bramham was feeling a bit unwell following a flu vaccination the previous day but still went out to get one of the radio controls after spending some time getting MapRun set up on a new phone. Scores are copied below (also available on MapRun “Leader Board”):

Results

Nortons Park Rust Remover Free Sunday Practice With 2M Sprint ARDF

Nortons Park Rust Remover Free Sunday Practice

Now with 2M Sprint ARDF practice!!!

Start: Nortons Park car park, Nortons Lane, Wantirna South

This is a free practice event, using MapRun and virtual controls. However, we will be taking donations for the Junior Squads (cash or card), at Registration.

2Meter ARDF sprint course will be available with MapRun scoring.

There is also regular orienteering courses,
Choose any of three Line courses – Hard 5 km, Medium 3 km, Easy 2.5 km. Use MapRun6 on your smartphone or bluetooth watch, to locate controls.

Start any time between 12 noon and 1.30pm. Courses close at 2.30pm.

Covid rules: Groups of up to 30. You must check in with the Service Victoria QR code, at Registration, and show your vaccination status. Practice hand hygiene and physical distancing. Wear a face covering if you can’t keep your distance.

Please stay home if you are unwell, waiting for test results, been in contact with a positive case or at a Tier 1 exposure site, or otherwise required to isolate.

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Hays Paddock Sprint ARDF Training

Hays Paddock training event is on from 9 Oct – 24 Oct (or later if requested). For now only if it’s in your 15km circle, but fingers crossed that may change, before the batteries die.

Sorry if outside your circle – I tried to suit as many as I could !

The 2m transmitters are on daily from3-7pm daily. Time limit 90 minutes. Frequency 145.300 MHz, 5TX Sprint Mode

The event will be on MapRun6. Use the QR code on the map, “Events Near Me”, or in Victoria/OV-Clubs/AmateurRadioDirectionFinding-ARDF/

The start, as shown on the map, is the northern track junction east of the carpark.

Here’s the map:

hays_paddock1Download

So that’s a wrap.
Tracks and results are now visible here

Congratulations to Jack on the winning time, and I think a pretty impressive track. Apologies to those who missed out on hunting down #3, when it had a temporary outage. I can see some spent a while on long excursions looking for a signal. Click on any of the tracks to see where it actually was located. Jenelle just beat out hubby, leading a large cohort who were all close after the 50min mark. And well done to Peter M who, as usual, did the event in PMT as the controls were being picked up. He brought the total up to 16 competitors, which is a great effort.

By the way, #5 was located on the peninsular south of the creek (which is even more ‘loopy’ than mapped), but seems MapRun just allowed check-ins on the north bank, as I can see a few made use of! Oh well. We awarded Greg #4, as he was unable to get there due to the lake flooding.

Many thanks to Bill, who was able to monitor the TXs for me when required, and who we can all thank for restoring #3 to health – three times! (all for differing reasons). The firmware will upgraded so the website auto-update can be stopped for easier/safer delayed-turn-on programming (reason 1). #3 will receive a new battery (reason 2 & 3).

PS: The next version of MapRun6 will have configurable control punch tones, which will be much more satisfactory for handsfree (phone in pocket) ARDFing.

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2021 ARDF membership form

If you are a returning Vic ARDF member who has joined via Eventor, and none of your details below have changed, you do not need to fill in a form. Everyone else needs to fill in a 2021 membership form (links below) and send to Kristian and Suzanne, at the address included. Payment details are also in the form.

Attention OV members:

  • If you are a member of another Victorian club, please join that club first, then join ARDF in Eventor.
  • In Eventor, you can still enter any OV event with whichever club you wish to. We encourage entering under ARDF, as this helps our stats.
  • If you wish to join OV, and ARDF is the only orienteering club you want to be a member of, please do not use Eventor to join; fill out this form and Bank Transfer the $45.

Your Details that may have changed:

  • New SI stick number (did you buy an SI-Air stick recently?)
  • New address
  • Joined/lapsed OV or WIA memberships
  • New callsign
  • New email
  • New contact phone number
  • Sex/Name changed

PDF document: https://ardf.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Victorian-ARDF-Group-Membership-2021.pdf

Word document: https://ardf.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Victorian-ARDF-Group-Membership-2021.docx

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Vermont South ARDF 2m Sprint Event


After some teething problems with logging the GPS locations for the start and each of the transmitters only to find the program I used to save the
locations only went down to 3 decimal places. I then went back to the course and tried again using another 2 apps this time it was better. 6 decimal
places.
The MaprunF file was created and sent to Geoff Hudson to create the file for the MaprunF app.
My map was made using Open Street Map but Geoff put the Coordinates onto the Camelot Rise Streeto map. This map had better detail of the area but
the exact start location was slightly out. I know the advertised start location of the bridge was accurate as when I did a test of the event MaprunF
started me as I stepped onto the bridge.
All of the transmitters were located in the park and I noticed from the various course routes that having the Motorcross Track, Whitehorse Waste
Transfer Station and Bunnings did make for some interesting route choices.
Transmitters were activated on December 14th and originally the plan was to collect them on December 24th. As the course dates did not suit everyone it
was decided to leave the transmitters out until after New Years Day. I could hear Transmitter 2 from home so each day between 15:00 and 19:00 I
could monitor it. Occasionally if conditions were good I could hear TX3 as well. From the Bunnings carpark I could hear all of the transmitters with
TX1 being the weakest.
In the time the transmitters were out only 7 people attempted the course and owing to the time of the year it’s understandable. For those of you who did
not do the course and wondering what the terrain is like here is a video I made of my test run: https://youtu.be/qxTOoP5uCfw
Not the best but it will give you a good idea of the area. Hopefully if I make another video like this I will get the map and the synch of the receiver
better.
Peter VK3ADY was the first to attempt the course but did not allow enough time and after he found his 3rd transmitter the timer cut in and all of the
transmitters turned off. Peter returned the following day to find the last 2 transmitters.
Mark VK3BES could only hear 3 of the 5 transmitters. I did hear TX5 come on the day he attempted the course but it may have shut down shortly
after. I was planning to collect the transmitters on Monday Jan. 4th but as TX5 and TX4 were reported not transmitting I collected them on Sunday 3rd.
1,3 and 5 were still going strong but by the time I had collected 3 and 5 TX1 it had gone silent as well.

Name Callsign TX Order Time Distance Date Comment
Peter Cole VK3ADY 5,4,2 01:04:06 3.98 16/12/20
Peter Cole VK3ADY 1,3 34:04:00 1.94 17/12/20 Picking up missed TX’s
J. Bramham VK3WWW 1,5,4,2,3 31:39:00 2.4 19/12/20 Course Checking + Video
Peter Cole VK3ADY 1,5,4,2,3 29:58:00 2.4 19/12/20 DF1FO 2m RX Test
Bruce Paterson VK3TJN 3,2,5,4,1 28:51:00 3.26 23/12/20
Monica LoPresti VK3FFAB 3,5,1,4,2 57:45:00 3.3 23/12/20 Joined by Uncle Rod
Ewen Templeton VK3OW 5,1,4,2,3 32:40:00 2.37 28/12/20
Jenelle Templeton VK3FJTE 1,4,2,3,5 01:00:06 3.29 28/12/20
Mark Besley VK3BES 3,5,1 41:37:00 2.26 01/01/21 TX2 and TX4 not operational

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Ashwood South Sprint ARDF Report

This Covid-safe event ran for over 3 weeks for 4 hours a day, stretching from Jack first out the gates on Thursday 22nd October, through to Henk & Di on Saturday 7th October. I suspect this may be the longest foxhunt we’ve ever run?! Perhaps longer even than the US election. Of course this renders it a bit pointless to include the traditional reference to the state of the weather at the event.

Kristian has just pipped Geoff for the fastest time just under the 3/4 hour mark, but note the impressive minimal distance Geoff managed it in. However, we should note that Kristian had some issues using MapRunG, and was forced to return to his car part way though his run, as well as locating 3 of his transmitters by sight. As the transmitters had been very carefully hidden, as they were going to be out in the wilds for quite some time, this would have been particularly difficult. He also didn’t take out a paper map, complicating things for himself.

Darian, Pierre & Cameron, I’m told, also somehow forgot to use MapRun (?), so also had to eyeball locate some of their transmitters. I’m not sure I completely understand that, but anyway, Darian-et-al’s track was loaded up retrospectively. Unfortunately they were over the 90min time limit, so I had to mark down as overtime, but all their results are still shown. A welcome to first-timer, Cameron.

Jack was so keen he decided to have multiple goes at the event, finding a different set of 4 transmitters each attempt. On his first attempt, he was never able to hear TX#3, so after that I decided to swap TX#3 and TX#5 positions, as the latter was a much stronger TX. Jack returned a second time to check the new TX configuration, and then yet again on a later weekend to post his 2nd result, which I’ve shown at the bottom as unofficial.

Rod notes the event was an excellent start to his weekend, and he & Monica liked the course layout. Their course length is also excellent, only 400m longer than Geoff’s. Di mentioned that she & Henk might well have found all 5 transmitters under the time limit, if Henk hadn’t wanted to actually see all the transmitters (see above!), but as they were running a bit short on time decided to cut out the one over the other side of the creek. Good to know all the transmitters are still working fine after 3 weeks, as they went for a stroll on Saturday 7th.

The first event upload to MapRun didn’t successfully set it up as a Score event as wanted, but unfortunately the second attempt didn’t seem to either. I’ve therefore extracted the results here, taking into account those who eyeball located some TXs, and the TX location swap. Beware that the Track files linked will have TX5 & TX3 swapped still. Many thanks to Geoff for promptly doing the MapRun submission – if you can prepare a (correct), MapRun compatible, kml file for him detailing the TX locations, this is a lot of the work required done.

Ashwood South Sprint ARDF Results
NamePlaceTxsTrackTimekmAgeWhen
Kris15: 5, 4, 1, 2, 3Track00:43:375.75M30-3431/10/20
Geoff25: 2, 3, 1, 4, 5Track00:45:483.78M65-6926/10/20
Ewen35: 2, 1, 4, 3, 5Track48:18:005.35M70-7426/10/20
Monica & Uncle Rod45: 3, 2, 1, 4, 5Track00:58:204.2W25-2931/10/20
Mark55: 4, 1, 3, 2, 5Track01:03:235.52M60-6401/11/20
Jack64: 2, 1, 3, 4Track00:59:185.18M65-6922/10/20
Doug74: 5, 2, 1, 4Track01:14:575.79M50-5405/11/20
Jenelle84: 5, 2, 1, 4Track01:16:526.11W65-6926/10/20
Henk & Di94: 5, 2, 3, 1Track01:27:185.62M70-7407/11/20
Jack (unofficial)N/A4: 5, 4, 1, 3Track38:47:003.12M65-6901/11/20
Darian, Pierre & CameronO/T5: 3, 1, 4, 2, 5Track01:39:295.49M25-2931/10/20

Here’s the actual transmitter locations:

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Sprint Ardf Training begins again!

Sprint training Covid style is available now in Ashwood South. 5TX 2m (on 145.300MHz). Each TX runs for 12s, so 5 TXs form a 1 minute cycle. There is a 90 minute event time limit.

Start location in in Harlequin Dve, at the main park sign. Off Power Ave., Ashwood South.

Transmitters run for 4 hours daily, 3-7pm. I’ll finish the event once everyone has had a chance to try who wants to.

Use MapRunF to register at the controls. Event name is under Victoria/RunFree/ARDF/Ashwood_south_ARDF_Use_this_one_ScoreV90, or “Events Near Me” should have it top of the list if you use that near the Start. Please avoid cheating by looking at the map on the phone, even though it’ll be mostly purple.

PDF version: https://www.ardf.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Ashwood_south_ARDF_Score90-2.pdf

You can currently train on this event in Melbourne if you live within this 25km circle:

Image
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Yarren Dheran – 2M ARDF Sprint

UPDATE: Due to the updated COVID-19 restrictions which are effective from 11:59pm on Wednesday, 8th of July, this event will be ending on Wednesday, 8th of July. Sorry, if anyone was planning on attending after this date.

5 Transmitters (145.300 MHz) are located within the parkland.

Transmitters are at least 100m from each other, and from the start/finish.

Transmitters are on from 2pm until 4pm each day from Saturday 4th of July until Sunday 12th of July Wednesday 8th of July.

There is no flag or registering device at the transmitters. You will need to use the MapRunF app. To find the event in the app go to Shwerkolt Cottage and press Events Near Me. The event is called “ARDF – Yarren Dheran ScoreRun90 04-07-2020” If you get asked for a PIN enter 6771.

Once you start the event you shouldn’t look at your phone until you finish.

  • The best thing to do is to move off the map screen. Select the centre tab (the symbol looks like a clock). This will show you how much time you have remaining, how many controls you have punched and what the last control was. (Note: the start and finish are counted as controls)
  • Make sure your volume is as loud as it goes so you know when you have registered as locating a transmitter.

Your time will start when you pass through the start/finish location and MapRunF registers that you were there, your time will end when pass though the start/finish location for a second time. (There is no beacon at the finish.)

The Map attached to this blog post is far superior to others that I have seen of this area, but if you wish to use others then feel free. (Thanks Geoff for the map.)

Please park in the carpark at Shwerkolt Cottage and walk north west to get to the Shwerkolt Cottage Orchard Shed (The western most building). The start/finish is the water trough north east of the building.

Some warnings

  • Do not enter the Freeway.
  • There are a number of cliffs in the area. There is no need to attempt to climb up or down any cliff.
  • Do not cross any fences. They are often close to the top of the previously mentioned cliffs.
  • To be fair to all competitors, please only cross the creek using one of the marked bridges.
  • There are hidden hazards in many areas including, logs, rocks, old fences and unmarked low cliffs.
  • There is a busy bike path that runs through the middle of the map, please use caution when entering/exiting or swinging your beam on this path.
  • Some of the ground is very muddy, spare shoes are recommended for the drive home.

If you venture off a track please be careful.

In case of emergency / technical issues

I will be within approx. 10 mins whilst this event is active.

If you are seriously hurt call 000. If you have a minor injury and require assistance then call me.

If one of the transmitters isn’t working then please contact me, I have a spare transmitter, but it may take 20 mins to program appropriately and get it in place.

Whilst you are in the area

I recommend the donuts at The Pastry Board in Ringwood North, or if you want a sugar overload Pizzeria Express has Donut Snack Packs (DSPs).

Results

Results will be available instantly in the MapRunF app but will also be posted on this page.

Yarren Dheran – 2M Radio Sprint – Event

5 Transmitters are located within the parkland.

Transmitters are at least 100m from each other, and from the start/finish.

Transmitters are on from 2pm until 4pm each day from Saturday 4th of July until Sunday 12th of July.

There is no flag or registering device at the transmitters. You will need to use the MapRunF app. To find the event in the app go to Shwerkolt Cottage and press Events Near Me. The event is called “ARDF – Yarren Dheran – July 2020”

Once you start the event you shouldn’t look at your phone, but please make sure your volume is as loud as it goes so you know when you have registered as locating a transmitter.

Your time will start when you pass through the start/finish location and MapRunF registers that you were there, your time will end when pass though the start/finish location for a second time.

The Map attached to this blog post is far superior to others that I have seen of this area, but if you wish to use others then feel free.

Please park in the carpark at Shwerkolt Cottage and walk East to get to the Shwerkolt Cottage Orchard Shed. The start/finish is the water trough NE of the building.

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Some warnings

  • Do not enter the Freeway.
  • There are a number of cliffs in the area. There is no need to attempt to climb up or down any cliff.
  • Do not cross any fences. They are often close to the top of the previously mentioned cliffs.
  • To be fair to all competitors, please only cross the creek using one of the marked bridges.
  • There are hidden hazards in many areas including, logs, rocks, old fences and unmarked low cliffs.
  • There is a busy bike path that runs through the middle of the map, please use caution when entering/exiting or swinging your beam on this path.
  • Some of the ground is very muddy, spare shoes are recommended for the drive home.

If you venture off a track please be careful.

Whilst you are in the area

I recommend the donuts at The Pastry Board in Ringwood North, or if you want a sugar overload Pizzeria Express has Donut Snack Packs (DSPs).

Results

Results will be available in the MapRunF app but will also be posted on this page.