Both AR relays teams place at Vic Relays

The AR club only entered two teams in the Mixed category (Short,Long,Medium) of the Victorian Orienteering Club Relays, but they placed 2nd and 3rd, so everyone competing got a certificate. Dry and warm autumn conditions at Eppalock.

April 4, 2019July 25, 2020

Vic ARDF scoop at Street-O presentations

The small AR club had an impressively high placings hit rate at the Street-O Monday/Wednesday Summer series presentations on 3rd April.
We even had the 1st/2nd/3rd tri-fector in one of the Power Walking categories !

Congrats to Bruce, Suzanne, Mark, Dianne, Henk, Jenelle, Ewen and Ian (not in picture – he had to head off home earlier).

February 25, 2019July 25, 2020

Feb 2019 Foxhunt


Team	Hunt 1	Hunt 2	Hunt 3	Hunt 4	Hunt 5	Hunt 6	Total	Place
	80 M			10M
VK3CI	Err:522	9	0	2	3	2	16	1
VK3BLN	10	10	10	1	0	0	31	3
VK3FAST	10	10	10	0	2	4	36	4
VK3FOX	4	0	6	3	1	3	17	2

February 23, 2019July 25, 2020

February 2019 fox hunt report

The February fox hunt was run by the VK3OW team. The hounds were VK3CI, VK3BLN, VK3FAST and VK3FOX.

The first event was a two legged hunt with the first leg being somewhat unusually on 80 meters with the second leg being on 2 meters. Both transmitters were in Plenty George Park Melway map 10 . 80m on a knoll at ref E7 and 2m in the bush at about J5. The two foxes were a 1.5 Km run or a 10 Km drive apart. The 80M fox gave, as it turned out, rather too cryptic comments suggesting the the hounds should bring a 2m sniffer when hunting the 80m fox. Or was it my rather rusty CW too difficult to read? The FOX team found both foxes within the time limit. The CI team found both foxes and although strictly over time for the 2m leg were given a point for actually finding the fox. Bruce in fact found the 80M fox first with Kristian 4 minutes later. Kristian was however first into the 2m fox, I suspect because the FOX team were better organised getting a 2m sniffer to Kristian. There appeared to be harsh words spoken in the CI team! The BLN team gave themselves somewhat of a penalty by starting from Doncaster or there abouts rather than Greeensborough. The hunts were run by VK3OW (80m) and VK3SLH (2m)

The next hunt was on 2m with the fox located in Cherry Street Grasslands, Melway map 20 A6. CI were first in followed by the FOX team sometime later. The BLN team arrived in good time but then tried to drive in and ended up getting their antenna tangled in a tree which slowed progress considerably. The hunt was run by VK3AI and VK3FVXN.

The next hunt was on 10m with the fox located in Price Park, Melway 20F11. The hunt started after a delay due to an air gap in the fox antenna system and the FAST team finally lived up to their name arriving quickly with BLN a minute later, followed by CI a minute after that with another minute gap to the FOX team. Hunt was run by VK3OW and VK3SLH. We were sitting at a picnic table in what we thought was a fairly plain view but all the hounds ran wide of us, finally spiralling in after running past.

The next hunt was on 2m with the fox located in Lenister Farm Melway 21J11 As we were runnning later than we wanted to be the fox was turned on while Stephen was still mobile. To ensure a good signal he “mounted’ the antenna in the sun roof. We had also planned to hide the transmitter but decided to leave it in the car. First in was the BLN team followed by the FOX team and then the FAST team who would have done better if Monica had seen the fox antenna on the roof of the car before running around it more than once. The CI team arrived a minute later.

The final hunt, on 2m, was located in Finns reserve Map 33D2 where VK’s 3AI, FVXN and FJTE were preparing supper. First in was the BLN team, followed by the CI team then FOX and FAST.

My thanks to the hounds for participating, and not lynching me for the 80M hunt. Also to Dianne, Jenelle and Henk for organising and preparing supper with a big thanks to Jenelle for the unexpected birthday cake.

Final results were CI the winners on 16 points, followed by the FOX team on 17 points, then The BLN team, 31 points, and the FAST team on 36 points.

Posted: 24 February 2019, Ewen Templeton

September 22, 2018July 25, 2020

2m Sprint-TX test practice

Today was a lovely sunny spring day here in Melbourne, a perfect opportunity to test the new set of 2m Sprint transmitters, following a Street orienteering (Cake-O) event in the far eastern suburb of Chirnside Park. This was also a brand new map, the first time a street-O has been run in Chirnside. The Start/Finish location was the beautiful and manicured Delemere Reserve.

A number of ARDF regulars decided to make the trek to dabble in a bit of Sprint practice, as well as most also competing in the orienteering event prior (which wasn’t quite as hilly as I’d expected beforehand).

The results for the Sprint TX testing appears below too.

Rough Results

Competitors self-timed, as this was only an informal practice, but for the heck, here are the recorded results. You’ll note for both Jack and Jenelle I’ve only awarded 4 TXs. Perhaps Jenelle forgot to get TX#3 ? There’s no punch there anyway. In Jack’s case, he has the wrong punch mark for TX#5. Now I don’t know quite how he managed this, as there was only one punch at each TX. I can only assume he has punched at some random orienteering control, or perhaps at the grey practice FoxOr, instead (in the big tree just near the start) !?!

Name	#TXs	Time	Place
Kris Ruuska	5	10:14.00	1
Monica Lo Presti	5	30:30.00	2
Ewen Templeton	5	33:00.00	3
Jack Bramham	4	26:00.00	4
Jenelle Templeton	4	35:00.00	5
Uncle Rod	1+	?	6

TX #3 in the middle of the roundabout (shrubs are a bit bigger than pictured here). Jenelle missed this one.

TX #4 in a different little park well to the south

TX #5 near the tennis courts. Jack didn’t punch at this one.

Testing, Testing…

Another reason was to test the new sprint transmitters in the field for the first time.

Successes:

They all turned on at 2:30pm that afternoon, as programmed to 2 days before, and the transmit sequence was perfect, with no overlap between transmitters.
Battery voltage tests afterwards show all transmitter batteries had barely discharged at all, after running for a couple of hours (and 2 days sleeping). Even the Homing Beacon, which has the highest duty cycle, the LiIon cell was still above 4V. Lowest was 3.77V on the test FoxOr transmitter.

Room for improvement:

Some had difficulty DFing and IDing the transmitters at the same time. This may be because the CW is achieved by turning the final off and on, but the exciter stays on during the whole 12s. This means in practice, in whoopee mode, the sniffers alternate between a high and low tone, rather than being a definite OFF between the CW pulses, and this is harder for the brain to figure out. Another test version of firmware from Byon turns on and off the entire transmitter, but this suffers from a slow PLL re-lock time, making the pulse ‘soft’ and too short (the lock time was nearly as long as a dit). Perhaps a new special version that pre-turns on the PLL before each final stage pulse could help. Alternatively, something kludgey that shorts the exciter output during the OFF might improve things.
There is currently no modulation on the transmitters. Only FM modulation is available, and this seems to spread the power available over a wider frequency band, reducing the range of the transmitters significantly (liatening on whoopee, the exciter alone produces a higher whoopee tone than the modulated FM with final on, effectively inverting the morse, making it very hard to read!). Jack had problems with the Nick Roethe 2m sniffer, as it only engages whoopee when close-in, and with no modulation not much could be heard on AM. No easy solution to this one.
Perhaps the dits could be a bit longer. This can be manipulated somewhat in the MicroFox programming, but any changes would then need to be re-cal’d on all transmitters so the on-time window is correct for an integral number of morse words.
The Homing Beacon seemed to be down on power at the end. The battery was not the cause of this. Needs investigation. Is the PA getting warm ?
Feedback on anything else ?

September 7, 2018July 16, 2020

19th ARDF world Championships – Final update

The final event for the championships was the second classic.

Ewen, Jack, Jenelle and Peter all competed on 80m, whilst Kristian was the only Australian competitor on 2m.

Thankfully the terrain and map were very appropriate for an ARDF event.
All Australian competitors did very well, getting all of the required transmitters with plenty of time to spare.

Jenelle just missed the podium, placing 5th in a time of 112’41.
Kristian was unable to beat the “sweet, handsom” M21 boys, finishing just outside of the top ten, placing 11th in a time of 65’05.
Ewen placed 18th in a time of 114’10.
Jack and Peter were inseperable, placing 25th and 26th in 99’33 and 100′ respectively.

Tonight the team will celebrate our achievements before boarding flights back home tomorrow.

Thanks for reading the updates. 🙂

Full results here:
https://ardf.darc.de/contest/18090407/180907m80+2-erg.htm
https://ardf.darc.de/contest/18090407/180907m80+2-lzl.htm

Map image available here:https://ardf.darc.de/contest/18090407/18090407.htm#map180907m80+2

September 6, 2018July 16, 2020

19th ARDF World Championships – Update 2

On Tuesday the first cassic event took place.
In a nutshell, it was tough. 6 out of 6 Aussies agreed that the course was very difficult. (but perhaps in more colourful language)
The map was large (B4) and was very colourful with lots of dense forest, many uncrossable features and decent contours to contend with. Many competitors were over the 140 min time limit and many competitors did not find the required transmitters.
Kristian and Nelly competed on 80m.
Ewen, Jack, Jenelle and Peter competed on 2m.

Kristian completed the course in 124 mins.
Ewen found 1 Tx and finished on time.
Nelly finished in perfect time (with 44 seconds to spare) but unfortunatley didn’t find any Tx’s.
Peter, Jack and Jenelle found 1 Tx each but finished over time.

Results can be viewed here:
https://ardf.darc.de/contest/18090407/180905m2+80-erg.htm
https://ardf.darc.de/contest/18090407/180905m2+80-lzl.htm

Todays sprint event was more enjoyable for all competitors. The open forest in this area allowed for quick running. All of the Aussie competitors found all of their Tx’s except for Peter and Jack.
The uncrossable fence 2/3’s of the way down the map caused some difficulty for many competitors trying to find transmatter 2F (Which also had its antena knocked down on the ground for approximately 20 mins during the event.)

Ewen placed 5th.
Jenelle placed 7th.
Nelly finished 18th.
Kristian finished 21st.
Jack and Peter both missed one Tx.

Results can be viewed here:
https://ardf.darc.de/contest/18090407/180906SP-erg.htm

https://ardf.darc.de/contest/18090407/180906SP-lzl.htm

After the sprint Jack, Nelly and Peter went on a tour to the unification observatory and DMZ museum.

Ewen, Jenelle and Kristian explored a local film set that contained many historic replica buildings from different periods and thought that they might find some instruments to assist in the local terrain.
Jenelle found a ladder (intended for storming castles) to assist with the impossible hills, whilst Ewen and Kristian found a battering ram to assit with getting through the inpenetrable forest.

Maps for events can be viewed in more detail here:

https://ardf.darc.de/contest/18090407/18090407.htm#map180905m2+80

September 4, 2018July 16, 2020

19th ARDF World Championships – Update 1

6 athletes (5 from VIC and 1 from Qld.) Are currently in Sokcho, Korea for the 19th ARDF World Championships.
In the usual fashion competitors made their way to Korea all at different times.

Jenelle and Ewen were the first to arrive, enjoying a week long tour of Korea before the event.

Peter and Kristian met up with Jenelle and Ewen just a couple of days before the event. As a team we headed on a tour to the DMZ and individual members enjoyed some of the historic and cultural sights around Korea.

On the arrival day Jack and Nelly met up with the rest of the team in Sokcho.
The following day we had training with 3 seperate model events which were held in the area surrounding the accomodation.
During the model events all equipment was tested and working except for one of the 2m beams had a broken BNC connector, but luckily there was a spare. (however the spare PVC beam exhibited a design flaw so no doubt a fault report will be lodged with the manufacturer on our return.)

The first event was the fox-or which was held today.
For each age category a different map was produced with only the required Tx’s shown. There were a total of 10 Tx’s (10mW) plus the beacon (3W) but the longest course only covered 8 of the TX’s (map shown below for M21). Each Tx had its own morse identifier and were numbered 1-5 and 1F-5F.

_
The frequencies for the foxes were 3520 kHz (1,2,1F,2F), 3550 kHz (3,3F,4,4F) and 3580 kHZ (5, 5F) with the beacon being on 3600 kHz.

All Australian competitors completed the course within the allocated time.

Jenelle and Ewen both finished 7th in thier categories.
Kristian finished 24th in M21.
Nelly finished 27th in W21.
Peter missed 1 Tx.
Jack missed 2 Tx’s.Full results can be viewed for todays fox-or event here:
https://ardf.darc.de/contest/18090407/180904FO-lzl.htm https://ardf.darc.de/contest/18090407/180904FO-erg.htm

August 11, 2018July 25, 2020

Sprint Training

With the forecast wind and hail, 9 brave souls attempted the ARDF Sprint training held in and around Deakin Uni. A couple also did some of the Enduro controls, which was an orienteering event starting from the same spot.

The format of the event was a Five-in-Five 2m event, which in theory is possible to complete in about 6.5 minutes, followed immediately by an 80m Sprint ARDF event. Five-in-Five uses classic 5 minute cycle (1 minute each) ARDF transmitters spaced close enough that it should be possible, walking, to get to each transmitter as it comes on first time (for you). Only Jack WWW managed to get the transmitters in under 10 minutes (2 cycles). Good effort, Jack ! He admits he had a bit of luck, with earlier competitors just leaving transmitters as he approached, helping to lead him in. The time limit for this part of the event was set to 30 minutes. The transmitters were all in parkland, just off a track. In you look at the splits, below, you’ll also see Jack was the only one to do the transmitters in order, with everyone else going from #1 to #5, and then to others. Perhaps some just happened across #5 by accident ?

Mark, Suzanne & Rodney elected to only do the Five-in-Five course, with Mark the winner amongst those. Suzanne suffered some late penalties (problems with #1), but still beat out Rodney for second place. Looking at the splits at control 6 (236), Jack was clearly the fastest at this part of the event, followed with an impressive 11 minutes by Jenelle.

An ARDF sprint event has a 1 minute complete cycle, with each transmitter only on for 12s each. This was set in an area with both complex buildings, the university, and parkland around Gardiners Creek. TX #5 and #4 were in amongst the buildings and this proved too much for Jack and Peter, but not so Kris and Jennelle, who both managed those with ease. Monica liked #5 so much she punched it twice (see splits below) ! Clearly after being so flustered by those two tricky TX’s, Jack and Peter both also forgot to punch the Finish Beacon (which you are required to do at international events).

And TX #1 in the uni accommodation area ? Well, it had to be there didn’t it 🙂 Can’t make it too easy ! Generally competitors had to plan and DF carefully in this event, as it could be easy to end up the wrong side of the creek. Competitors doing both events had an un-timed (up to a 10min limit) transition leg between 2m and 80m, to get their 80m gear in order. I’m happy to say the software handled this perfectly, and I didn’t have to adjust the times it published at all.

Yep, we got that hail, and the heavy rain, but luckily both were only for short bursts, being perfect running conditions otherwise. Monica says the hail even helped her spot TX#5, as she sought shelter under cover. Besides, it’s good practice and testing for your gear, as sometimes weather can be quite unpredictable at international events. Torrential downpours are not uncommon. Thanks to Ewen for the new 80m Sprint TXs. Proto TX#1 for the 2m set has now been completed (and works), so soon we’ll have a 6-TX set on both bands.

Thank you to everyone who helped pick up the transmitters afterwards, just before the rain came (again). Apologies to Monica for not giving her a key on her first attempt.

Here’s the map, with TX locations shown. I’ve used A->E for the 80m TX, and 1->5 for 2m TX. BB was the location of both 2m and 80m beacons.

Here’s the full results:

Name

Callsign

Course

#TX

Score

Late Penalty

Time

Place

Time

Mark

VK3BES

FiveInFive