[usa2003ardf] (no subject)

[Adam Scammell]

Hello All,

I have access to internet now. This is from our hostás work email
address. I may not be able to send another email for a week or so.

Yes it's that time of year again.

This time the trip will include:
Hungarian National Championships 24th - 25th August.
Training with two Hungarians Gyuri and Csaba and the American team,
between  26th August - 1st September.
World Championships in Slovakia 2nd - 7th September
Following this we will have a leasurily train trip and stay in the
Checz Republic.


Travel: Thursday 22nd August
Borring stuff included a 22 Hr flight to Budapest via Kuala Lumpa and
Austria.

Ground Travel: Friday 23rd August

We were met at the airport by Csaba (Hungarian) and Marvin (Yank) after
a lengthy wait.
 
Our trip took us through the outskirts of Budapest. The roads and
buildings reminded me a lot of China. However with out all the people.
We passed a building in progress that was likeable to a UFO. Csaba
indicated that it was a new stadium. It was interesting to watch the
workers carrying (yes by hand) large sheets of iron above their heads
up onto the roof.

We travelled for about two hours to the HQ at Poradfurd (it's surposed
to have a ' above the 2nd e and two dots above the u…..  but… I am sure
you get the idea).
Here we found a summer camp that was to become our home for the next
few days. Many competitors were staying in tents, however we had a
cabin.

Although we arrived at about 6.30pm it was still light and would be
till 8.30pm as it's summer and daylight savings is in effect. We ate
diner straight away. Next was a equipment tryout. Gyuri translated all
the important information for us. Frequencies etc. The equipment tryout
began with initial confusion and concern. Both Bryan's and my receivers
were acting very strange. We had low range even extremely close, and
very confusing bearings from almost anywhere. We were soon put at rest
when a wisper suggested that we had been given the wrong frequencies.
All was now well.

2M competition: Saturday 24th August

We got up at 7am for a shower and breaky. Before leaving I mixed up
some sports drink which Harley nicknamed the elixer of life. Final
instructions were soon to follow.  The bus soon arrived and the first
group departed. I was starting latter in the field and thus had to wait
for the bus to make one drop off then return. It wasn't too long and we
were also on our way. The trip only took 10 minutes. We arrived 5
minutes after the first group left. Bruce was starting 30 minutes after
the first group, Bryan 10 minutes latter. I was listed as 70 minutes
after the first group, as was Harley Leach (Yank). I took plenty of
photos at the start area. (See below)


The area like everywhere else here was very scenic. I had quite a wait
but the time flew. After preparations and warm-up I was all set. The
map for today was A4 in size and the scale 1;15000 with a landscape
orientation.

The start was central at the top with the finish in the top right most
corner. As has become standard for us I marked the start and finish
transmitter exclusions on the map, then was soon off on my way. My
initial plan was to collect any transmitters that were in the North
East corner of the map. So off down the start corridore I went. I
determined the direction of each transmitter during the first 5
minutes, quickly deciding that my initial plan was not necesicary.
Insead I headed south finding Tx 1 after 16 minutes. Next I decided to
grab Tx 2 as it was reasonably strong.
Howver after 1 cycle I determined it was closer to the start than I
initialy thought.
Insead I headed yet further South to find TX 5 (31 minutes total), I
droped a fair bit of time running around in circles though. I then with
reasonable confidence headed north then latter west to find Tx 2 after
15 minutes. My next port of call was Tx 3 however after some confusion
I headed further south and eventually found it. This was one of the
harder transmitters as it was furthest from the start and a fair way
down the wrong side of the hill. Once found I understood why I had only
previously heard it a few times. Deyhydration started to kick in at
this stage. I am yet to fully understand exactly where I went after
this point. I eventually found myself back on the map. I had to travel
via the finish to get to Tx 4. After running by the compass for 200M, I
found the transmitter whilst it was off. I returned to the finnish
about 1Km from there.
My watch had stopped at 1Hr 16 minutes somewhere in the vacinity of Tx
3 so I am unsure of my time into Tx 3 or Tx 4. I finished in 128.02
this was just over double the farstest time.

I finished in 7th place with Bryan (4tx's) in 14th and Bruce (3tx's)
after timing out in 16th.

After resting we walked back to the camp about 3Km away.

After lunch and showers we travelled to a high point nearby. This was
the location of a TV tower \ lookout and also a ski resort. The views
were a bit disappointing due to the haze that seems to ever present
here (although worse in the afternoon).

On the way back to the camp we stopped for a ride on the go-carts.

After Dinner we chatted with some local competitors before heading off
to bed.

80M Competition: Sunday 25th August

This morning was an earlier start than yesterday. After breaky I
prepared all my gear and fluids. This time I decided to run with a
bum-bag containing a water bottle. I was glad of this latter.

I was again on the second bus, and again listed as starting with
Harley. We used the same map and so were able to follow our location
all the way to the start. We arrived after just 10 minutes, and just
before the first group left. Bryan was in the first group, Bruce 25
minutes latter, I was 20 minutes after that. My start again creaped up
on me.

Todays start was shifted to the centre of the map to the South. The
finish remained the same.

Csaba, Harley, Marvin and myself all discussed strategies at the
beginning and it worked well for me. I headed west only stoping
occasionly for bearngs. After 9 minutes I was where I should have been,
however I didnt move quick enough and failed to find Tx 4 on its first
cycle. 5 minutes latter and I discovered it only 50 meters away. I then
made route choice error by running above the start to Tx 1. I should
have ran along the road below the start. This cost me alot of time.
Bruce ran this leg in 14 minutes, whereas it took me 28 minutes. Some
time after this I had equipment problems, I was unable to change the
range control. This severley limited directionality of the receiver. It
wasn't too bad though, I discovered I could hunt in audio mode,
sniffing peak until it overloaded then reverse the antenna and hunt
null.
I was lucky to be able to follow others at times also. I found Tx 5
after some initial messing around. From here I headed southwest to Tx
3. My bearings for this transmitter crossed about 400M east of where it
was. This was surprising as the transmitter was atop of a large hill. I
then headed east to Tx 3 before sprinting for home.

My time was better today, however still maintained midfield status with
7th place 2 behind Bruce (5Tx's) and 6 ahead of Bryan (5Tx's).

Food, Shower, packing, awards and departure all followed.

We are now travelling in convoy 3 car's 9 people to Pecs (again there
shold be a ' above the e) Once there we will be training several times
each day. We are all really looking forward to it.

---

We arrived at "the lodge" at about 8.30pm. After unloading the car we
headed straight down to the home style resturunt. Dinner included soup,
chicken, pasta and salad, desert was biscuit's and fruit. We latter
found out that Lunch and dinner would be here most days.

Everybody was nursing injuries and or general aches and pains. A few of
us decided to walk back. This helped with the stiffness.

Gyuri arrived with his wife Suzi, and son's Danny and Thomas. We were
infomred that we would have the following morning off. Lunch would be
at 1pm followed by training at 3pm. A short 2M course would be set on a
nearby map. Many maps around this area would be used over the next
week, all are within 25 minutes of here.

2M Training Monday 26th August
 
We used most of the morning preparing our equipment and studying the
map's that were dropped off earlier. We were transported to the start
in two trips, as Csaba's car was being repaired. The trip only took 10
minutes.

At the start we were informed that we had an 80 minute time limit,
also that Tx 5 was broken and should be treated as an orienteering
contol. Ie it was marked on our map, and we should simply navigate to
it.

The map for today was littered with strange sink holes that varied
between 1 and 20 metres deep, and 3-50 metres in diamter.

Since I was still very sore I had planed to walk / jog. I was the last
starter, I chose the same tactic as Bruce, heading back down the map to
the edge and then following the road to TX 5. This control in it's self
proved to be a challenge, all of us assumed it was on the side of a
hill, however as I soon discovered, it was actually a depression. It
had tag's on the centre and a horseshoe shaped contour nearby.

After leaving here I found a marked track that was very overgrown with
blackberries. My second and third attempts on both sides of the track
was fruitless. I headed further south and found a good route via an
open forest. I was not too far from Tx 2 when a deer ran past. I stoped
and watched it dissaper into the distance. This was a buzz for me, I
have only seen one other deer in the wild, that was on an ARDF course
in Canada. After this short distraction I headed off and found Tx 2,
then headed west on a fast road. (I latter found out that I ran
straight past Tx 4 on this road) My plan of not running kinda fell
apart here when I decided if I did walk I wouldn't find too many.

I headed yet further east collecting Tx 1 just after Bruce and before
Harley. I then headed north, then west for several cycles finding Tx 3
just after Bruce. I then headed for the finish, waiting at a clearing
just long enough to check Tx 4 location. It was still quite week, and
with only 6 minutes left I decided to head for the finish. My finish
time was quickest for 4 Tx, although it was only a training exercise. I
found out over diner that Tx 4 was 20KHz off frequency. I found out
also that Tx 4 was 20KHz high This explains why when passing within
100M of it I decided it was too far away.

Gyuri gave us the run down on tomorrow: It will be a slightly longer
course on the 80M band. We would begin at 9am.

Diner was very nice, however there were some time constraints in place
so there were only 3 of us ate at the restraunt. We collected the food
for everyone else and headed back to the house to wait for them. Gyuri
collect two more americans from the train station, Bob Frey and Dick
Arnett soon to join us. Gyuri headed off again to pick up the remaining
competitors. They soon returned here for a re-heated meal. Course
discusions occured soon after and many ideas were thrown around.

We eventualy retired to bed at 11pm, Bruce was still writing his
report.

80M Training, and Fox Oring: Tuesday 27th August 

We woke early this morning, and were collected at 9am, Csaba's car was
still being repaired so we again made the trip in two groups. I was in
the second group, this afforded me sometime to nock together a receiver
mount for a compass. We arrived at the start location in about 15
minutes. Today's map was new, however it still had the weird sinkholes.
The start was in the bottom right corner of the map, and the finish in
the top left corner.
My order was Tx 2 at 18 minutes
Tx 3 at 26 minutes
Tx 5 at 51 minutes
Tx 4 at 71 minutes
Tx 1 at 79 minutes
and the finish at 82 minutes.

Optimum order was 3,2,1,4,5 Bob Frey ran this order in 88 minutes,
Bruce finished fastest in 66 minutes with a different course.

Lunch was soon to follow, here it is the largest meal of the day and
today was no exception. We had Soup, then a platter of fried rice,
fried eggs, beef and chips, desert was chocolate covered ginger bread.

At 3.30 we were picked up for Fox Oring training, our first. I was on
the first trip, and left as the fourth competitor. Those that are
unfamiliar may be interested in a description. Fox Oring is very
similar to Orienteering. Control locations are shown on the map, they
represent 50M diameter on the ground, somewhere in the circle
competitors will find a low (1nW EIRP) power transmitter. Our course
was about 4Km in length, included 10 Control's and was a scatter
course. This means that we must chose the order to visit the 10
controls. This was tricky as the controls were placed in a circular
shape, with the deciding control being in the centre of the circle.

I found out very quickly that my receiver was not as sensitive as my
eyes. I saw most transmitters well before I heard them on the receiver.
I wasn't able to receive the transmitter form any great distance, so I
for the most part treated it like an orienteering course. Gyuri has
indicated that he will extent the antenna length. Hopefully also
extending the range to perhaps 40M distance.

I chose to go to the outside, then return via the control near the
start to the centre control, then to all the outside ones. This was to
my advantage, as when I returned to the outside circle I found Bruce
and 3 other people walking around in circles, doing the hard work of
finding the transmitters. Here I wasted 7 minutes before Bryan led us
all into it. I found this one, my fourth transmitter after 21 minutes
total, and remaining 6 in a further 20 minutes.

I finished first and in the best time, and lucky for me it was just
before the storm came. We then pilled into the cars and returned for
showers and preparation for dinner.

Dinner included a real yummy fruit soup. I couldn't work out if it was
a soup or a desert.. so I had it as both...

After dinner we discussed tomorrows plans. We would be running on
todays map, a longer 2M course. After Lunch we would have an inside
discussion of orienteering navigation and tactics.

We were collected early. The start and finish were in new locations. I
had quite a few reflections in close today. I found Tx 5, Tx3, Tx1,
Tx4, then Tx2 (behind the finish).
I had reflection problems on Tx 5, I navigated well to Tx 3 and Tx 1.
Tx 4 was difficult for me as I didn't see it from within 10M and spent
a further 3 minutes looking, finding it just before it turned on again.
I found Tx 2 quickly and finished with the quickest time.

We returned for another nice meal at the resturunt. After lunch we had
a discussion on tactics and ways of minimising reflections.

Dinner was also great ..  (Editors note: find a better way of saying
food here is good)

I found out today how hanging bowling works. The pins (9) are line up
are lined up (like a 9 on a dice) on the ground.  The ball is hanging
by a string from a pole 2M above the ground. You pull the ball back and
release it. The plan is to knock all balls over in the fewest shots.

I spent most of the evening modifying the images and preparing them for
publishing.

Tomorrow we will be sightseeing in Pecs and also getting access to
internet. 


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes
http://finance.yahoo.com