[ARDF] How did I do in Brno?

[Matthew Robbins]

Marvin,

    If you could scan the maps with the routes drawn on it, I'd love
to see them.

Sam, Marvin, and all,

I had awesome punches.  I always knew which direction to exit.  Unless
I was going uphill, I was in and out fast. Somewhere there is video of
me at control 1 on day 1, and I'd love to see that.   It was as fast
as I've ever punched and gotten out-of-there. The guy had a wide-angle
on the camera and was about 8 inches from the bag.  I'll bet it was a
really cool composition.
I'll try the drill with the watch.  Here in the land of big reentrants
and big spurs, I don't need to stop as much to look at my map (bigger
meets excepted), but when the small details are important, I can't
make sense of it when I'm moving.  I've been trying to ignore smaller
details and focus on gross terrain features, and that really helps,
but still, the thing holding me back is my fitness.  A year ago I
almost didn't make orienteering mistakes because I was always going so
slow.  Now I'm faster, and I'm having to re-learn some on-the-fly
skills.  In ARDF way more than regular O, I lose contact usually when
I'm pushing to get in place for the next cycle.

    I want to try some different "work flows".  By that I mean I want
to look at the ways other people keep track of where they are, and how
they manage to hold and operate the radio and how they manage the map
regarding drawing bearings.  I use a map board for 80m, but I saw a
large number of people with folded maps.  I've done that (because Sam
recommended it), but I mess up the order unless I can see the drawn
bearings.  The best thing about folding the map is that you can use
your thumb to keep track of where you are.  I can't do that on a
board, unless I'm near the edge.  It saves a lot of time to not have
to search with your eyes to find where you are each time you look at
your map.  It also saves you from parallel errors if there are similar
features.

    I tend to draw my bearings from where I am all the way across the
map.  I think Dick Arnett just puts a little tag with the number and
the written bearing drawn from where he is but only for an inch or so.
 It unclutters the map a lot.  The problem I notice with my method is
that I tend to place too much emphasis on bearings that I took from
really far away, even though those bearings are often signficantly
off.   I heard or read that Gyuri recommends waiting until you're
closer to draw bearings for the distant Ts.

    Another thing I've noticed about 80m is that if you stand still to
take the bearing, it can be off significantly.  I'm going to try to
take 80m bearings while running, like for 2m.  There aren't
reflections, but maybe localized bending of the signals.  I don't
know.   I do know that when I stand still, no matter how careful I am
finding the null and drawing the line, it's occasionally wrong by 10
or 20 degrees.

Matthew

On Fri, 24 Sep 2004 12:37:58 -0400, Sam Smith <sam.smith at ece.gatech.edu> wrote:
> Marvin and Matt, glad to hear everyone had a good time at the World Champs.
> 
> The regular orienteers practice the control procedure as a seperate
> drill. Running in, punching, folding their map and running out in one
> smooth motion.
> 
> You can think of the time spent at the control as a constant that never
> varies. The competitor needs to make that time as small as possible. One
> drill that is useful is to use a wristwatch to record how much time you
> spend running as opposed to stopped or walking. Start your watch when
> you begin. If you must stop, stop your watch. When you start moving
> again, restart your watch. At the end compare your total time to the
> time on your watch to see what percentage you spent standing still. That
> can be a very sobering drill.
> 
> Sam N4MAP
>