Our Cabin |
Hungarian Camp |
Dinner at the camp |
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Bruce's ARDF Reports 2002
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Our Cabin |
Hungarian Camp |
Dinner at the camp |
Map of Parad Area |
Group on Tower |
TV tower on hill |
It's afternoon here in Parad after lunch following the 80m metre
event. Last night had a bit of a chat with some local ARDF'ers who are
also radio amateurs. Seems like the licencing scheme is very similar to
Aussie here. Jack WWW would like the comment one of the younger amateur
competitors made (Chrstian): When I started ARDF the map was just a thing
for putting in my pocket. Now I use it a little more, but still spend a
lot of time pushing through the plants (bush-bashing). ' This can happen
a lot if you don't know where you are on the map (like me at one point
yesterday) and you simply try to head on a bee-line between transmitters.
In Budapest they even used to have an annual car-based radio direction
finding hunt (foxhunt) like our Mt Gambier annual competition, but the
polic didn't like it and banned it. Too many people with their heads out
the windows or something like that ! (not a mention of spikey bits, however).
Well the event today started a little cooler, possibly because it was
about an hour earlier. [Damm the mosquitoes are attacking me here grrr].
We used the same map as yesterday, but a different start location. On the
way there the bus took us straight through the middle of the map, so we
were able to track it's progress and know exactly where the start was when
we arrived. In fact, the organisers asked us if we could re-use our maps
fromn yesterday if they weren't too damaged. My map now has two start locations
marked on it. Again the course setter liked hiding the control flags on
the ground, and I'm told he doesn't like using flags at all and would prefer
there to just be a punch, preferablly painted brown or black :-) I have
no problem with searching out a difficult hidden transmitter if it transmits
all the time, but when you have to wait 4 minutes till the TX you are trying
to find comes on again i it's cycle, this approach is a bit unreasonable.
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In a few minutes we will have the prise ceremony for 80m. The best result is Harley who bumped up a place to 2nd today. Karla should also do well after finding 2 transmitters out of 3 in her veterans category. I came about 6th (to be confirmed) with 96 minutes, Adam about 7th (101 minutes) and Bryan 9th-ish with 122 minutes, all with 5 trasnmitters. We all did them in different orders, so the course could be tackled a number of ways.
One thing I noticed about these championships is they seemed pretty informal. People were asking me all the time where various transmitters were, some even managing the request in English ! The orienteers amongst you will how "not on" this sort of thing normally is, but few seemed to care a great deal. After the ceremony we have to leave to get to Pecs tonight.
[Update]: Just been to the ceremony which was held outside. Karla, Harley
and Gyuri were all awarded placings. There were 72 competitors in this
National Hungarian championships with a good junior contingent (U15,U17
and U19 categories for both boys and girls), so the sport is quite healthy
here.
[Update 2]: In the car (a Renault) following the other Renault and
the Citreon (Gyuri likes French cars), now on the flat after winding down
through the spectacular hills where we have spent the weekend. The cars
here a a curious mix of old style looking (possibly Russian lineage) box
cars abd modern western european cars we would all know. Not sure when
I'll be able to send these reports out, but hopefully sometime this week.
PS: Jodi, distinct lack of O'Henry bars in evidence here.
Finish Chute |
Gyuri wins Silver |
Ski run from tower |
It's the night after our first practice event in the Pecs areas
of Hungary. Another two hopefuls have just arrived (Bod - (loud bob) and
Dick) both from US. They came on the train from Budapest (after flying
from the US). Well, actually a huge mixture of trains, buses, planes and
subways I can't keep track of, plus Bob has become seperated from his luggage.
The rest of us arrived last night somewhat after the expected time partly
due to one of the Renaults developing a fault with the the throttle getting
stuck full on, but it was easily fixed. The house we're all staying at
is great, if fairly compact. There are balconies back, front and upstairs
so plenty of relaxation areas. Breakfast we get ourselves in the house,
but lunch and dinner are catered at a local resturant which so far has
proved to be delicious (especially the soups).
Our Orfu House |
Daniel and Thomas |
Marvin Naps |
This morning was declared a rest morning (recovery after the championships) but this afternoon was the first practice ARDF event on 2m. The area here near the bruce village of Orfu has about 7 orienteering maps all in the same area. They are spread around two china lakes right near town. The event today was on one of these maps, consisting of lots of china sink holes (shown as depressions with surrounding coutours).... great to navigate by as long as you don't lose track, because once you do they all look the same (speaking from experience). A fascinating terrain.
Today's event was on 2m and was set by Gyrui and his son Daniel (a keen local orienteer). His younger son Thomas helped with the Start. Unfortunately one of the transmitters (#5) failed to work, so this one became an orienteering control instead. Gyrui had put out water at a couple of controls, and since it was again pretty hot this made a lot of difference.
Here's what I got up to (skip this bit if you don't want to read the
ARDFy sorta bits):
I started off with a smart move to backtrack to get to a main road
to make it easy to get the TX5 (which was the "orienteering" marked location).
The alternative route meant a big deep gully crossing which seemed wise
to avoid, and also I was higher so hopefully could get better bearings.
As it turned out I never did get #5, not finding it despite careful re-location
since I had mistaken a depression on the map for a knoll. I gave up on
it after 20 minutes since we had restricted time of only 80 minutes and
I wanted to get more of the real controls. It was also a practice event.
Next was #2 which I did ok. My next choice was #1. This was based on what
turned out to be pretty dodgy bearings and was a LOT furthur away than
I expected. I got a bit lost amongst the many depressions (and even considered
going back for #4 which would have been a better 3rd choice in retrospect).
I persevered, however, but after finally bagging the distant #1 had no
clear idea where I was. I had to simply head back on my last bearing for
#4 which I found pretty quickly luckily. I had a vague idea where I was
now sinly because my bearings for #4 earlier on had seemed pretty good,
so where they crossed should be where I was (hopefully). They were, and
I was, and I also hit a clearing soon on the way to #3 that certified where
I was (phew!). I got #3 pretty quickly, which was lucky because I was on
my last few minutes before the time limit, and I could not have afforded
another cycle (5 minutes). A mad sprint back to the start and I got there
at 79 minutes ! My problems mainly stemmed from losing proper map contact
#2-#1 (in part due to a mis-estimation of exactlywhere #2 was), and therefore
not picking up #4 when I should have (since I didn't know I had gone within
200m of my guesstimates since I didn't know really where I was). Misreading
the depression for #5 was annoying, but it was poorly marked, and I now
know the mapping style a bit better. Adam also only got 4 TX's (he missed
#4 partly due to it being off frequency a bit), but he got back 4 or so
minutes less time than I did. Practice event so we don;'t really care,
but at least I wasn't alone in having some difficulties.
Tommorow morning we have an 80m practice event, so I'm off to bed now
!
First Practice Start |
Bryan's Foxoring Map Remains |
Dinner in Orfu |
This afternoon Gyuri is setting up a fox-oring event which should be interesting. Fox-oring is a mix between ARDF and orienteering. You are given a map with a number of china circles on it. You have to orienteer to each of the circles, and once withing the circle you should be able to hear a low powered transmitter that is somewhere in the circle (not right in the middle of course). I will truly get to see how I orienteer amongst the sink-holes since we're using the same map as this morning. Continued below.....
For this morning here's my ARDFy bit again !
Many of the bearings from the start were in a similar direction, so
not much could be determined there, except that #2 seemed stronger. I had
temporarily removed the speaker from Ian's sniffer so that I could attach
a compass onto the sniffer itself (using an old toothbrush as a strut).
This made getting bearings less confusing and quicker than during the championships
on the weekend. Headed straight down the hill to #2, but when I reached
a major road and #3 came on it became obvious I was already behind me to
my right. It seemed a good idea to head back to #3 since getting it later
would be inconvenient. I did that but took a couple of 5 minute cycles
to actully get back up the hill to it. It was right on the 750m exclusion
zone circle ! Next was #2 where I had narrowed it down to a particular
gully. Sure enough it was there, but a little furthur down it than I expected.
I now had a choice of staying up on this side of the main road and heading
to the more distant #5, or crossing the road and going an unknown distance
up the hill on the other side for #1. I plumbed for #5. Weaved through
some sink holes on the way there but eventually got there. Had to wait
another cycle to find the thing hidden in a sink-hole itself. Now since
I'm now past the finish down the other end of the map I head across the
main road now to the equally distant #4. Didn't take too long on this one
even though it was in another sink-hole. My later bearings on #4 were good,
but the original ones from the start weren't good at all (it was weak so
I had to use the sniffer in modulation rather than whoopee mode which gives
a vaguer bearing). Back past the uphill side of the finish (near the main
road) to #1. Unfortunately it turned off just as I was approaching it,
and in the meantime I wasn't lucky enough to look in the right sink-hole
depression. Snapped it as soon as it did come on and sprint to the nearby
finish. In retrospect leaving #1 till later was the right decision. My
time was 66 minutes, much better than yesterday. Adam was 82 minutes (he
did #2 first then went back to #3). ......
It's now evening (we just made a sudden time shift). Well fox-oring was fun. Gyuri and Daniel had set a short course of 10 controls. Start and finish were at the same place as this mornings finish and the course was set in a complex sink-hole area. You can do the controls in any order (spanish score). As it turned out Gyuri hadn't tried this antenna with the mini 80m transmitters (little more than a CMOS oscillator) and the ones he had set down sink holes didn't get out quite as much as expected, so for a good part of the course it was more a pure orienteering event with really vague control circles (the circles were about 150m in diameter) rather than a direction finding hunt. The transmitters Danny had set were somewhat higher and 3 of these I actually was able to DF before I actually saw the flag. I must have spent nearly half the time at a single control that had a well hidden flag right on the circle boundary. I was not alone as nearly everyone was there at one stage ! Other than a bit of vague wandering about once within the a circle looking for a signal or a more often the flag itself, I enjoyed the event and the concept, and I'm keen to try something like that back home. Just asI was finding my last control (#8 as it happens), and incidentally this was one I was able to hear and DF, the storm that I had been hearing in my headphones for most part of the event (ouch that one was LOUD!!) finally broke. I made it back to the car just as it started to pour (not that it would have mattered). Bryan wasn't so lucky and we later saw his miserable excuse for what was left of his map....
For the 2nd time we had somehow managed to muck up giving the house key to the wrong person, so I had to repeat my trick of clambering up to the 2nd storey and getting in the (luckily left open again) balcony window. Susan, Gyuri's wife, is the director for a new school in Pecs, so in this pre-term period is going mad orgainising impossible schedules and so forth, but she was able to help this evening for ferrying people around and replenishing the brekky supplies.
Tommorow we are promised a harder/longer 2m event in the morning, and
various strategies to use in the afternoon. So till then, Bye All ! The
next day we attempted to find the minibus that passes through Huanghua.
We did eventually find roughly the correct bus stop, but an English speaking
chinese gentleman was able to inform us that the bus wasn't running today
due to the rain. We caught a bread-box taxi (a very bruce bread shaped
mini-van) driven by a Chinese woman. It was a bit of a slow day for the
bread-boxes, so we were able to negatiate the trip down to Y40 from Y60
we'd been offered earlier. For a 70 minute or so drive, A$10 between 3
of us sounded a pretty good deal.
Bruce and Adam
