Tag: Radio Orienteering

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Candlebark 2m ARDF Event Sunday

I plan to run a full 2m ARDF event/training this Sunday 21st June based at Candlebark Park, Fitzsimmons Lane, Eltham.

Start:

Homestead Road, Eltham, where the Diamond Creek trail crosses the road. Starts from 1pm to 2pm. Start window restricted to allow for a longer time limit.

The weather is currently a predicted top of 14Deg, with rain showers unlikely.

Notes for this event:

  • ARDF transmitters on 145.300 MHz with 5 minute cycle (1 minute each)
  • Homing Beacon on 145.700 MHz
    • You must visit the Homing beacon to get a valid result in this event
    • The Homing Beacon will be remote from the Start, to avoid interference. The Finish will be back near the Start location, so you may have to navigate there! (sorry Jack)
  • ARDF Start exclusion zone of 450m, and 300m between transmitters.
    • The Homing Beacon might not adhere to the Exclusion rules
  • Time Limit 100mins, but with a ‘soft’ landing (points deducted per min late)
  • Please observe the Out-Of-Bounds areas marked on the map, in order to allow future use of the park.
  • SI controls will be used (Can’t use Maprun as final TX positions will only be determined on Sunday!)
  • Transmitters can be placed anywhere on the supplied map

What do I need to do?

  • Let me know if you plan to come, email or Facebook
  • Bring your 2m sniffer (or let me know you want to borrow a club sniffer in advance)
  • Bring your SI stick (or let me know you want to borrow a club stick in advance)
  • Volunteer to pickup a transmitter afterwards
  • If you plan to compete in Japan, treat the start procedure yourself as if you are at an international event. I will not be enforcing the procedure; it is self imposed:
    • Do not turn on your sniffer at all till you depart on your start time (which will be at TX1 turn on)
    • Give yourself say 4 minutes to prepare your map/map board prior to your start (I plan to have the Start exclusion marked on the map already)
    • Do not stop moving in the start corridor (ask me where it ends)
    • Must punch Homing Beacon before Finish
    • Try to not rely of the soft landing overtime

Results

Started off an amazingly warm day for June. Thousands seemed to decide a walk or a bike ride in the parks was a good idea, so by the time I got to park at the Start location the carpark was already full!

The afternoon turned a bit cooler, but the rain held off. Perfect orienteering weather.

Here is a map showing all the TX locations (approximately). As I placed them on the day, these are only my rough estimates for where they actually ended up.

I wasn’t sure about whether the TX5 location would be OK till I checked it out in the morning, but it turned out fine. Though tricky, it seems more had difficulty getting good DFs to TX4.

The best three transmitter route was chosen by Henk & Di, who were walking, so given that they did a good sequence, taking in TX4 first, then TX1 and TX5. Others who got three ventured into Westerfold Park instead.

Monica got four, but alas should have run back from the Homing Beacon in order to lose only 3 or 4 points rather then 5, and she would have ranked far higher.

Suzanne is marked as an MP as she simply ran out of time (personal time, not event time) to get the Homing Beacon. She also knew where TX4 and TX5 were, but also didn’t have time to get them.

Alistair was so late he cancelled out all 15 of his transmitter (3) points.

Well done to Bryan & Darian for finding all 5 in the time limit. They both had difficulties getting good bearings at times, so the terrain certainly posed a challenge.

Here are the results:

Candlebark ARDF 2026
ARDFc
(12 / 12)
Place
Name
TXs
Points
Time
1.
Bryan Ackerly
25 p.
25
1:10:28
2.
Darian Panter
25 p.
25
1:15:24
3.
Jack Bramham
15 p.
15
1:20:04
4.
Henk DeJong
15 p.
15
1:30:09
5.
Dianne Shalders
15 p.
15
1:32:03
6.
Mark Diggins
15 p.
15
1:32:11
7.
Monica LoPresti
20 p.
15
1:44:06
8.
Hamish McDonald
5 p.
5
1:31:14
9.
Pierre Brokner
5 p.
2
1:42:09
10.
Peter Cole
0 p.
0
1:52:05
11.
Alistair Knowles
15 p.
0
1:59:00
 
Suzanne O’Callaghan
5 p.
2
MP

Created by MeOS 4.1.1702 (U2): 21/06/2026 6:22:31 PM


Thanks to Dianne for providing the much appreciated hot chocolate for the course setter, and the malleable coinage afterwards.

Posted on

2026 Mount Gambier – Railway Lands & Wulandia 2m ARDF sprint

UPDATE: TRANSMITTERS ARE ALL ON DIFFERENT FREQUENCIES. SEE FURTHER DOWN FOR DETAILS.

Returning for 2026 is the Sunday morning Sprint ARDF style event for those who want to have a run around. This event is just for fun and will not contribute to convention results.

Event arena: The area that is bound by Bay road, O’Halloran terrace, Wehl st south & Railway terrace / Eleanor street. (see map below) The only street that you may need to cross is Margaret street. Please use caution when crossing roads.

There is access from railway lands through to Margaret street in 4 places. At both ends (Bay Rd and Wehl St S), next to the Woolstore brewery (36 Margaret St) and at the public toilets (22 Margaret St).

There is also access from Margaret St through to O’Halloran Terrace in 4 places. At both ends (Bay Rd and Wehl St S) and either side of the Wulandia stadium (Between the Scout hall and the stadium and between the stadium and the courts).

Access to the Reidy park school grounds around the school buildings and playground is prohibited for this event. (Access to the oval is allowed and can be used to get between O’Halloran terrace / Wulandia and Wehl St S)

Start/Finish location: Mount Gambier scout hall, Margaret street

Transmitters: 5 Transmitters on different frequencies. Each will each transmit for 12 seconds in sequence each minute with the following morse codes: All can be heard from the start.

The frequencies for each transmitter correspond with the same number on a VK3YNG sniffer in mount gambier mode except for Tx2 which is number 9.

  • TX1 – MOE – 145.300Mhz
  • TX2 – MO – 145.700Mhz (on all the time)
  • TX3 – 144.500Mhz
  • TX4 – MOH – 144.750Mhz
  • TX5 – MO5 – 145.000Mhz

Start time: Anytime between 8:30am and 9:00am (transmitters may be on before 8:30am, if they are you are welcome to start early.)

Time limit: 30 mins from your start time. (10 point penalty per minute (or part minute) late, transmitters will turn off at 9:30am)

Recording method: Maprun app

Please make sure you are using the most recent version of Maprun from your app store. Please do not use MaprunF.

If you have never used the Maprun app before please see these friendly instructions.

To find the event go to “Events near me” and make sure you select the 2026 course.(MountGambierARDFSprint2026)

Each transmitter is worth 20 points (100 is the maximum points for this event)

There is no physical marker or punch at each transmitter. You do not need to actually find the transmitter, you just need maprun to register that you were close enough.

Warning: If you pass close to the start/finish then your event will automatically finish. Please only go close to the start/finish when you intend to finish. Keep in mind that GPS can be very inaccurate.

Special thanks to Bruce and Mark for their assistance with creating this event.

Transmitter locations

Results

Will be added to this page at the conclusion of the event.

NamePointsTime
Monica8025:18
Bruca8028:34
Mark4028:36
Suzanne0 (-60 late)35:46
Posted on

2m Sprint ARDF results

To give those going overseas soon some more practice, I set one of those Any afternoon Covid style events on 2m.

The 2m TXs turned on every afternoon at 1pm and ran till 5pm (4 hours) on 145.300MHz. It was a half-sprint, in that there were only the 5 transmitters. There was no Homing beacon – you had to navigate yourself back to the Start (sorry Jack!). 1 minute full cycle (12s per TX).

The time limit was 60mins.

Maprun

Using Maprun, you just needed to get close enough to hear the Maprun beep, you did not need to sight the actual transmitters, which were concealed. Did anyone hunting ever see one of the transmitters?
Controls appeared on Maprun screen once you found them, so you can keep track of which ones you’d found. 20pts/TX, 10pts off per min over 60mins.
The Maprun event name is: nettleton ardf. Located in Victoria/OV-Clubs/ARDF if Events-Near-Me doesn’t work for you for some reason, but it did for me.

The Map now with TX locations

It was set in a much smaller area than the recent 80m half-sprint event.

nettleton_ardf_txDownload

Summary

Commencing: Saturday August 1st
Finishing: Thursday August 15th
Start Location: NW end of fence on oval, Nettleton Park (red triangle on map). The tall black fence can be seen in photo above, next to the playground.
Frequency: 145.300MHz. 5 TXs. 1 min full cycle
Time Limit: 60 mins
Transmitters on: 1pm to 5pm daily
Maprun event name: nettleton ardf

The Results

https://results.maprun.net/#/event_results?eventName=nettleton%20ardf

Well done to Kris who zoomed through the course in only 24 minutes, with only one curious diversion to the north west.


1st female was Monica (2nd outright), with a credible 45 minutes, particularly as I’d added extra challenge by stealing away #2 on her (to replace the failed battery). Luckily, she happened to be just passing the location of #3 when she contacted me, so she was able to register all 5 – if you look at her track, you can see she clearly deserves to get 3. Not so clear was what went on with #4, which if you follow her track carefully, you see some heartrending noodles.

Of the four who found all 5 TX, noone did them in the same order (even backwards). Some of your other tracks are equally noodle-y to Monica’s. It’s a tough call, with some truly worthy contenders, but I think I’ll have to award the best Noodling Award to Douggie. Henk did the best close encounter – a few had trouble with #4, with this TX probably causing the most noodling and near misses, but Henk went right past it and never came back.

Sorry there were no TXs actually in Nettleton Park at all. That was perhaps a little misleading. There were two surveyed locations in the Park itself that didn’t end up getting used in the final iteration. Perhaps if it was a full sprint?

The technical timing issues with #3 have now been explained – it was a substitute TX that had never been used for ARDF before (and its battery died too, just to make things messier)! I will test the field resync mods though, so if we do experience too much of a drift over a week or so, there’s something easy to do to fix it whilst keeping the event going.