Five teams took part in this final Collier Cup event of the season. The transmitter was located at Branch Wood, Downley, approximately 12 km from the start. A modest signal with plenty of skywave was heard at the start which encouraged the majority of teams to over-estimate the distance and thus find themselves the wrong side of High Wycombe on the second transmission. Alan Simmons was the first to arrive on site at approximately 2045, and was joined by Steve Stone and Bill Pechey shortly after 2100. The tx proved difficult to find, hidden in a hole behind an uprooted tree with plenty of other potential hiding places in the vicinity and plenty of aerial wire to follow. Steve was the first to locate it, pulling on the aerial wire but somehow missing the outstretched arm of the transmitter operator who was convinced that he had been seen. He therefore wandered off to beat up another area and shortly after this Bill correctly interpreted the aerial system and found the tx first.

Congrats to Bill and also to Peter's nephew, David, who was operating for the first time and enjoyed the experience, which was made the more memorable by a family of three mice making their way across the hide in the middle of the event, followed a few minutes later by a fox literally jumping over him!

Brian Bristow