[ARDF] Mt. Airy 2m ARDF, August 1, 2004

[Matthew Robbins]

This is a write-up I wrote on August 3rd for an August 1 event.  I put
the regular O results and a small ARDF write-up on the ocin.org
website here:

http://www.ocin.org/results/040801MtA.html

But I also wrote the following longer write-up for the three ARDF
competitors and for the ARDF list.  A few corrections.  Bob and Dick
got five, and Brian got three.  But Brian had radio trouble (that I
personally verified, so I know he's not faking).

Bob thought this 2m course had more climb than the 2002 World
Championships.  Now I haven't seen the map for that, but the climb
here was about 240m, so I can't say if the climb here was more.  What
I can say is this:  The climb at this year's World Championships (Day
2) makes this little 2m course look like a walk in the park.

I wrote it originally as an e-mail to them, so I ask them questions a
few times.  I also mention a regular O event I did at the same time. 
It was very short notice, white and 11 advanced plus 9 white controls
for a 20-control score course.  The ARDF started at 10am, and the
regular O at 11am.  It was extremely time consuming.  I placed a few
controls on Saturday, but not enough.  I was in the park just under 11
hours Sunday.  7:20am to about 6:20pm.  Normally I'd get a few more
competitors to help pull controls, but there weren't many competitors.

Anyway, here it is:


I normally spend *a lot* of time planning radio courses.  For this
one, I did the planning in a few minutes here and a few minutes there.
Probably 2 hours of serious planning total.  Almost zero scouting.
As I was setting a few score-O points I put out late on Saturday, I
realized the creek separating MO5 from the rest of the course was
mapped in such a way that it was almost impossible to look at the map
and find a suitable crossing point.  Furthermore, the straightline
route to 5 not only crossed that creek, but also went straight up a
40-foot high earthbank that was clearly impassable (once you got
there, not from looking at the map: vertical at the
top, even overhung), and mapped not as an earthbank, but as
closely-space contours.  I had intended to put 5 on a terrace in the
white open, but realized the slope was *really* steep just below it.
And since I approached it from below (on the really steep part) as I
set it out, and because I
had about 20 minutes until the Ts started and the event was supposed
to start, I dropped it where I did
and took off for the start, where I still had to place MOS.

I would guess that the order was easy to figure out, except maybe for
4 and 5.  The order (given that the start corridor was where it was)
was 3, 5, 4, 2, 1.   I considered starting it the other way, with 1
and 2 first, but I decided to put 3 really close to the start (about
500m) and "encourage" the order 3, 5 first.  I decided our ARDF
practice earlier this year at Mt. Airy was too much like the easier
order, and I decided that the reflections from being in that enormous
reentrant system would be good practice.  The climb was just an
unfortunate consequence of my inability to compromise on course
design. (Yeah. Right.)  (Oct 2004 addendum: I need to make up two
T-Shirts with about 20: "Course Setter Excuses:  I was in a
sleep-deprived stupor.  The climb was just an unfortunate consequence
of my inability to compromise on course
design.  I didn't know the green was mapped one-shade lighter than
normal." One for me, and one for Bill Farrell.)

Since I'm kinda new to RDF in general, and I don't know if anyone else
has already taken the term, I was wondering if anyone has used the
term "Reflection Fest" in an event.  You could call it, for example,
the Mt. Airy Reflection Fest, or the Hueston Woods Reflection Fest
2004, and print shirts and give away as prizes stuff like table top
fun-house mirrors or kaleidoscope images of the map or faceted glass
jars filled with a miniature control point (o'flag, stand, antenna,
and ammo box) so it would look like multiple images through the glass.
(This is an idea for an annual two-day ARDF event:  Day 1: Reflection
Fest, Day 2: Refraction Fest.  Or something.  The bending one.)

Anyway, I did this same 16 contour climb on one of Mike Minium's
courses once (up
the trail toward my number 3, the first T), and it wasn't too bad.
That's 80m, the same as the direct climb to MOH.  (In the OCIN
write-up, I said 95m.  That's 80m to MOH, and about 15m more to the
road.)

I had intended the easy easy course (for beginners) to be 1 and 3, but
none of the regular O competitors had enough time to try ARDF.

2 was a little harder, I figured, because the map doesn't show any
contours on the other side of Colerain Avenue, so you can't eyeball
the contours for possible reflection paths.  I placed it at the
intersection of the streams, where I figured it would be easier once
you got to one of the roads above the streams, since this might be a
control a beginner might decide to try after getting 3 and 1.

I already explained my mistake placing 2 (on the website link, above),
but I didn't think the OCIN
readers would want to hear too much ARDF Geekiness, so...

My real regret was the placement of the flags.  I've been on a crusade
to keep the flags out of low visibility fight.  I've been putting off
sending a post to the ARDF list to see what other people think, and
especially the team's experiences with big competitions.  To recap: I
think placing Ts in low visibility areas is unfair because early and
late starters have to find it themselves, while middle starters tend
to have a large number of people around.  If the competitors are
bunched up, they will find it faster than single competitors.  Which
is unfair.  So my idea is to hang the flag in the clear so anyone
close will find it and clear the area.  (Oct 2004 addendum: The Worlds
had control locations you could see from way off.  I think this is the
way to go.  Another reason I like easy-to-see controls is that it
keeps competitors from standing around for four minutes recovering not
only their breathing and heart rates, but also their ability to think
clearly.)  (That was a joke.  But not really.)

And I did that (visible placements), mostly, at my Hueston Woods
event.  Here at Mt Airy, I wanted to mimic
the "big meet" placements, and, not knowing what the big meets do, I
decided to mix it up with some high visibility controls and some low
visibility controls.  But when I placed them (again, in my
sleep-deprived stupor) I sort of put them all in low-visibility
locations.

Another one I messed up was 3, the first one.  I knew the 200m by 200m
area I wanted it in, and I actually ran down the trail from the start
to decide (a) where
to put it, and (b) what minute (2, 3, or 4) it should transmit on.  I
timed myself running comfortably up the corridor.  I found that the
area I wanted took just over 3 minutes to reach.  So I stopped at
exactly three minutes, then later placed MOS about 50m past that
point.  I wrote in the course notes to run for
several minutes and to not stop to take bearings (I put 1 and 2 in
locations behind the competitors and over hills so the bearings
weren't useful anyway.)  I don't think everyone read the course notes.

Dick started first, then Brian, then Bob.  The way it worked out, they
all found it at the same time.  Not the same elapsed time, but
literally within a minute of each other.  So Dick found it in about
12+ minutes, Brian in about 8, and Bob in about 3.  What I had
intended didn't work.  My intent was to give away MOS but take way (a)
bearings to 1 and 2), (b) the thought to turn around and take the
"trivial" route backwards (which would probably have been faster
overall, but they couldn't have known that), and get them winded so
they'd (c) not be thinking 100% clearly.  What didn't work was that I
hid it just a little bit too well.  I think Dick and Brian passed
really close to it and missed it.  Bob almost certainly saw Brian and
Dick first. (?)

I'd really like to hear your experiences with 5 and 4.  I think I
understand why the bearings from the abyss up to 4 were off in the
direction they were.  I'll run it by you this weekend at Brian's 80m
event.  I want to know if you thought I wouldn't put the 5 across the
road and creek like I did, that is, that you thought it might be a
reflection.  And I really want to know how you crossed that d**m
creek. 

The mapping of this creek is bad, and I don't think it's because the
map is 11 years old.  (Oct 2004 addendum:  At the 1996 US Champs (at
Mounds and Hueston Woods), I realized (from empirical evidence, ha
ha), that crossing reentrants and streams, especially in poor footing,
can waste a lot of time.  So ever since, I *really* pay attention to
the mapping of streams and small reentrants.  I always try to file
away in my head the actual crossing difficulty versus my "predicted
difficulty" from looking at the map.  This makes me, I think, a little
too conservative sometimes, but overall, I think I save a lot of time.
 Sometime, remind me to talk about Victor Romanov on practice day in
Brno.  Think of "The Matrix".  Imagine Neo crossing a 10 foot deep
erosion gully.)

I thought MOH would be the hardest point, but I thought the reflection
would be to the north rather than the south.  If the signal were right
on or to the north, you'd have to pick a spur to climb.  If you picked
wrong, the penalty was 6-ish contours straightline or at least four
(?) if you contoured.  As it was, with the reflection to the south,
that forced you to climb a really long, really steep slope.  (Sorry about
that.)  I meant for you to climb the hill, just not there.  (Did any
of you add up your total climb?  If if was way more than 240m, please
let me know what pulled you off so I can add more of that to my next
event.  (Just joking!))

That's all I can think of right now.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I hope
it helps you (helped you) at the Worlds.  And I hope your memory is
short for the
next time you set a course that I have to run.  (Although you have to
admit that an 82 minute winning time is pretty good for guys like us.
What's the Gyuri or Vadim time for this course?)

Matthew
AA9YH
Cincinnati, Ohio USA