[ARDF] [ardfteamusa] Welcome back

[Charles E. Scharlau]

Hello Joe,

We got back from Bulgaria about 9PM last night. It felt like 4AM, so we went
straight to bed.

It was unfortunate that Internet access was so restricted in Bulgaria. They
had one Internet room with 6 computers and two Ethernet hook-ups for
laptops. Usually the wait for access was not very long, but we were
restricted to 20 minutes of Internet time if others were waiting, and the
room hours ran only until 10PM.

I am very proud of Nadia's performance on both days. She was not very
confident in her ability to compete in these championships given the amount
of on-the-air practice she had, and the fact that some of her competition
was 10 years younger than she. But Nadia's performance in the 2M
competition, in which she was only two transmit cycles from the leaders,
convinced her that she could compete. She went into the 80M competition
feeling more confident, and it showed.

Nadia had an excellent run on 80M finding all four fox transmitters in less
than 65 minutes. After finding the last of the foxes she tuned to the homing
beacon frequency to guide her home... but the beacon was not to be heard.
The homing beacon had failed seconds earlier, and the organizers wouldn't
correct the problem until about 15 minutes had passed. Nadia knew
approximately where she was on the course, but not so precisely that she
could run the 1.4 km directly to the finish line. She wasted precious time
tuning her receiver in search of the beacon signal, and running an indirect
path to the finish, finding the entrance to the finish corridor in about 15
minutes. Nadia estimates that the non-functioning finish beacon may have
cost her as much as 3 minutes in her overall time. The top finishers in her
category (none of whom was affected by the malfunctioning finish beacon)
tended to take 10 to 12 minutes to get from the final fox to the finish
corridor. The second place finisher completed the course just 2 minutes and
20 seconds faster than Nadia's time, so the beacon malfunction likely cost
Nadia an undisputed silver or bronze medal finish time.

According to Harley and Karla, the international jury deliberated for
several hours that evening, discussing how to rectify the unfairness
inflicted by the failed beacon. The decision arrived at was to deduct 1
minute and 9 seconds from Nadia's overall time, thus tying her with the
third place finisher. Two bronze medals were awarded, and Team USA achieved
its first ARDF medal.

It was great having my parents in attendance to cheer for Nadia at the award
ceremony. The entire team did an excellent job competing on two very
difficult courses. Illness, minor injuries, and equipment mishaps took their
toll on Team USA, as they did on the other teams. But I believe that in the
end, we proved ourselves to be better prepared than at any previous
championships. If we continue to improve, and can recruit new talent
especially in the younger age categories, the future looks bright for Team
USA at future world championships.

73,
Charles E. Scharlau - NZ0I

PS - For those who ran Nadia's courses she designed for the 2006 USA ARDF
Championships, and wondered if the WC courses would really be that tough,
Nadia has four words: "I told you so!"



> -----Original Message-----
> From: ardfteamusa at yahoogroups.com [mailto:ardfteamusa at yahoogroups.com]On
> Behalf Of Homingin at aol.com
> Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 2:10 PM
> To: ardfteamusa at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [ardfteamusa] Welcome back
>
>
> Congratulations to all Team USA members for your enthusiastic
> participation in the World Championships!  Thanks to all who sent
> photos and updates.
>
> BFRA has finally posted he complete results and I am updating my
> Web site accordingly.  I also am on deadline for CQ-VHF and ARRL
> articles, as well as a presentation for the ARRL SW Division
> Convention in San Diego this coming weekend.  For all of these, I
> want to tell as much of the story of the 2006 USA and World
> Championships as I can.  I certainly could use more photos, and I
> would welcome the opportunity to talk to any and all of you to
> get your stories and thoughts.  Feel free to call me in the
> evenings after 7 PM Pacific time, or let me know when is the best
> time to call you.
>
> Also, ARRL HQ hasn't received repayment checks from three of you,
> so please take care of this as soon as you can.
>
> 73,
> Joe Moell K0OV
> (714) 879-6895