[ARDF] Report from IARU R1 Ad-Hoc Committee

[Jay Hennigan]

On 11/6/18 1:17 PM, Kenneth E. Harker wrote:

> 27.3 All transmissions shall be monitored to the competitors at the start line and and recorded by the organiser.
> (This is an additional free of charge and a very effective control of the work of transmitters. As we see in many cases the referees don’t  quickly react  on a missing tranmission.

We've experienced something similar to this at Mt. Pinos and possibly 
other venues where the transmitters failed to operate properly. K0OV 
turned on an 80m portable receiver while organizers were dispatched to 
repair the problem. It did give information in terms of relative signal 
strength to the competitors.

World championships tend to be well enough staffed to allow a monitor at 
each transmitter as well as spare equipment to remedy any issues. If 
there isn't an on-site monitor at each transmitter actively looking at 
field strength (to detect antenna issues), early detection 
mid-competition of a problem won't allow things to get fixed much faster.

I'm opposed to allowing the competitors to listen in prior to the start. 
Requiring that the organizers monitor effectively (including field 
strength) continuously should solve this.

> 27.10 The flag shall be no closer than 3 metres to a thick tree or any other object which closes the visibility of it.
> (The flag should be visible from all directions, not to be hidden behind any object because we don’t know where will a competitor come from. This is more important than only the distance from the transmitter.)

Requiring two flags/punches at each fox might alleviate this as well as 
reduce congestion when there are numerous competitors swarming a fox 
punch as it comes on. I can see the reason that this change is being 
proposed. Sometimes the organizers deliberately "hide" the flag behind a 
tree from the logical approach direction. I'm looking at you, HTS. :-)

> 29.3 …..The finish corridor shall be well runnable outside at least along one side of it.
> (Certainly not as in Korea 2018)

This was an issue in Serbia where several competitors came down a road 
and needed to climb a hill to punch the finish beacon. There wasn't a 
good path adjacent to the corridor and several competitors ran up the 
finish corridor and were disqualified. I support this change. It should 
be clear that competitors may cross the finish corridor in order to run 
alongside if there is only one runnable side. Alternatively remove the 
rule prohibiting running backwards through the corridor and make it wide 
enough to do so.

> S7.1 The starting corridor shall be 300-400 m long.
> (So that the fastest competitor was not able to cover it in 1 minute. This will give chance to everybody to listen to all TXs and then start smirching them).

That's a pretty long corridor, up to a quarter mile, for a sprint. I can 
see their point, but faster runners by definition should be encouraged. 
Mixed feelings on this one.

> F26.5 The competitor receives the map in the pre-start area 2 minutes before the start.
> This will remove the stress of the competitor, gives him/her a chance of choosing the right decision (like in Foxoring)

No. Fox-Or is primarily orienteering and stress is part of the game.

>   F27.3 Each transmitter shall be located at the distance not less than 50m. from its nominal position.
> (As we see now in ARDF the competitors from the orienteering take all the top places in Foxoring when the transmitters are located close to their nominal position. This is because they run pure orienteering with a primitive seeking the nonstop working transmitters. Any radioamateur will always be behind them. When the transmitter is enough away from the nominal position, the competitor will need  experience  in tuning to the frequency of a weak signal and this is the privilege of the ARDFer. Otherwise we will soon loose one part of ARDF. Foxoring will go to the orienteering side).

I'd leave this as-is. Fox-Or *should* give an advantage to the 
orienteers. At least in my experience it is difficult to get orienteers 
interested in ARDF. This acts as a bridge between the two sports and 
encourages ARDF competitors to hone their orienteering skills.

-- 
Jay Hennigan - jay at west.net
Network Engineering - CCIE #7880
503 897-8550 - WB6RDV