[ARDF] My first ARDF event as Director...A tale not for the weak of heart...

[Matthew Robbins]

    How was my first ARDF event as director?

    It was terrible.  I took Friday off so I would have plenty of time to do 
everything that had to be done.  But Thursday night, I found out I would 
have to watch my niece and nephew on Friday (teacher in-service day) instead 
of debugging the Pic-Cons and putting out controls at the park (just 
antennas and flags, no boxes---It's a quiet rural park, but the boxes aren't 
mine, and Joe Moell and Dale Hunt have got me scared about theft).  Since my 
sister wouldn't be back on Saturday, I had to find rides for them to 
Saturday practices, and places for them to stay afterwards.  Luckily, my 
nephew got a ride to football, and his dad agreed to pick him up after 
practice.  Katie, my niece, couldn't find a ride to swim team, but she was 
really great about going to the park with me, and having her dad pick her up 
after Brach's football practice.

    I finally got started with the PicCons about 8pm Friday.  I own five, 
one assembled, but mine are the new model.  Bob Frey sent me an e-mail 
explaining how he programmed them, but they just wouldn't work.  I could get 
two of five going, but not all five at once.  I went to the ARDF Archives 
and found Joe Moell's and Marvin Johnston's e-mails about their programs.   
I downloaded a copy of the version 1 manual to make sure I was using the 
right codes and to check for differences to my newer manual.  I ended up 
with a different program from all of them.  Not too different, just a little 
different.  I programmed my HT with the codes:  For each PicCon, I'd play 
memories 6, 7, 8, and 9.  And then I'd send one of 1-5, which had the 
particular codes for MOE-MO5.   Looking back, it's obvious there were 
connector issues.  (One thing the manual is weak on is one place explaining 
what the LED does at different times.  I'm still not exactly sure.)  
Sometimes they wouldn't power up when plugged in, and other times they 
wouldn't flash during the DTMF.  I got them working nicely about 2:30am. I 
had a second HT for the 80m program.  I packed everything into my sister's 
SUV, since my car couldn't carry everything and Katie.  I didn't even try to 
sleep.  I was too busy.  We left the house at 6:20am.  I had planned to 
leave at 5:00am, but somewhere through the night I realized that since we 
recently had an equinox, the sun comes up and goes down about 7:30, and 
getting to the park in the dark wouldn't help.

    There was beginner's instruction at 9:30, with the briefing at 9:45.  
Terry Hudson, Dick Arnett, and Bob Frey were there at 8:30, when Katie and I 
returned to the start area after placing 1 and 2.  I did get the whole 2m 
course in place and back to the start by 9:28.  Brian DeYoung was there by 
then.

   That was it for the whole day.  Four people.  Which I half expected, so I 
wasn't disappointed.  They seemed to really enjoy the event, once I had it 
working.

    At 9:45, I was supposed to send a DTMF "1" to start the Pics.  I totally 
screwed up.  This is so bad:

    I had my HT in the wrong mode, so when I hit "1", it sent the number 1 
DTMF memory, which was A10000, the cycle delay for MOE.  It took me about 1 
second to cringe, because now all the Pics were going to start on minute 1 
of the cycle.  I did send the one, and it was very interesting.  Lots of 
multipath.  I decided to go to 2, 3, 4, and 5 and reprogram the A10x00 
sequence.  I shut them off before I went out.  Which wasn't very smart.  As 
we'll see later.

    40 minutes later, I got back to the start, and wanting to take no 
chances, had someone with a 50W mobile send the "1".  I think number 5 
started.  Somehow, in my first troubleshooting pass, I had managed to screw 
up 4 of 5.  I decided to run to 1, get it working on cycle, then run to each 
control and to not leave it until it was actually transmitting.  The four 
competitors would wait until "enough" were running, and then start 
themselves.  It took me about 50 minutes, I think, to get them all working.

    The lesson, I think, is: When you're having problems you don't 
understand and the event has already started, forget about the fancy delayed 
starts and remote starting, and just get it transmitting on-cycle.  If the 
program has a delayed start or even a 1-4 minute cycle delay, know how to 
reprogram it to start transmitting instantly when you press SW1.  Once you 
program it to start with the button push, test it before the cycle starts, 
or you'll have to wait five more minutes.  The longest time I spent at a 
transmitter was about 6 minutes.  I reprogrammed it in about 1 minute 5 
seconds, and had to wait 4:55 to start it.  When the connector was working 
fine, I could send the whole 5 memory program (6, 7, 8, 9 and, 1) in about 
10 or 12 seconds.  (The 1 meant it would start right on the button push, 
like MOE, even if the Pic was set to send MOH, for example.)  One test I 
want to run with PicCons is: How important is it to reset (SW1+0) and set 
ARDF mode (SW1+Dn)?  I was having so much trouble I did it almost every time 
(manually, not in the memories), but I'm thinking it might not be necessary. 
  I did include several codes to ensure some flags were not set, like B400 
(I think).  On 80m, I used B432 (Instant start at power-on), so I wanted to 
make sure that was cleared for 2m.)

    Another thing I learned is that when you use your HT to send the DTMF, 
you should (1) set low power so you don't run your batteries down, (2) 
change frequencies so the other PicCons don't get reprogrammed at the same 
time, (3) charge your battery pack before you go so it doesn't run out 
mid-sequence, and (4) have a back-up battery.  I made all these mistakes and 
more.  Luckily, I had an AA battery pack and fresh AAs in the car.  (When 
the batteries are failing, the DTMF either (1) sounds distorted or (2) just 
stops altogether as the HT stops the transmission.  MOE never sounded right 
because it missed some of the lesser programming codes (later in the DTMF 
memories).  It was on-time, but I never figured out what it was sending 
rather than my call.)

    When I got back to the start, having been around the course three times, 
everyone was out-on-the-course, so I started setting up the 80m equipment.  
Bob Frey had recommended in an e-mail that I use the power-on start feature 
(B432?), and get the boxes working with dummy loads at the start, then place 
them in the woods (carrying them transmitting into the dummy loads).  Before 
I did the final pass through the 2m boxes, he recommended each person take 
one 80m control and place it, so we could do it more quickly, and be able to 
leave sooner.  That was fine with me.

    As they were finishing 2m, I was starting the four 80m TXs.  (We needed 
one more PicCon to make it 5.  I got the fifth Pic from the nearest 2m TX 
after everyone finished.) When Bob finished, he checked the boxes, and 
discovered that only two were running.  One wasn't oscillating, and needed 
to be touched to start it, and we discovered several Bad connectors on the 
PicCons (these were the old style with telephone style connectors.)  I also 
managed to hook up the power backwards to an 80m TX (no piccon, thank 
goodness), and make a really nice cloud of smoke.)

    We got three boxes working, 2, 3, and 5, and three of us headed out to 
set them up.

    In the end, everyone said they had a good time, and everyone also said 
that disasters like this had happened to them.  I'm not sure I believe them, 
but I think if I were there to compete, and the delay didn't cause me to 
have to leave early (no one left because of the delays), I would've had a 
good time, too.  It's really hard to spend so much time planning and 
scouting the park for good places, and then to screw up and have nothing 
work.  And to have planned a really ambitious day (5 TX 2m, and then 5 TX 
80m, both short courses (~3km)), and to see it all fall apart, is equally 
hard.

    Overall, it was a success.  Everyone had fun, including me and my niece 
(who is 10).  5Tx 2m course (as planned), 3Tx 80m course (not as planned, 
maybe 750-1000m shorter than planned).  I'm not even sure of the results.  
Everyone helped getting stuff out-of-the-woods (Thank You, Thank You!), and 
we were all gone by 3:30pm or so.  I was there only 20 minutes after the 
last person left.

    Maybe "Terrible" isn't the right way to describe it.  It was definitely 
a learning experience.  There's a lot more to go wrong than in a regular 
O'meet.  I'm really glad it was a short course, or I'd probably have had to 
call off the event.  I'm sure I had more exercise than the competitors.  I 
think it'll be 4 or 8 months until it's my turn to do it again.  I'm hoping 
to redeem myself.  (Of course, I'll do it sooner if someone asks...)

    Special Thanks to Bob Frey and Dick Arnett for advice and especially for 
the use of their gear, and to Mike Minium of Orienteering Cincinnati for 
gear and maps.  Thanks to my niece, Katherine, for helping me carry gear 
into the woods, and for offering encouragement during my entire second 
troubleshooting pass.  Thanks to my sister, Sarah, for the use of her SUV.  
And the most thanks of all to Terry, Brian, Bob, and Dick for showing up.

Matthew
AA9YH
Cincinnati, Ohio, 29 September 2003

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