Are we ready yet? Possibly not!!

Seven teams braved the very dark but pleasant evening to hear M0MRY (John Mullins) start this year's contests with a positive signal at the start. With slight sky-wave movement most teams plotted a bearing of around 70 going across towards Gerrards Cross.

The warning to check our torches did not get across to me and one other team as my Ni-Cd head torch went out at the start. However we all proceeded in the general direction towards Gerrards Cross, I decided to plod across the normal roads whilst most others drove up the M40 to gain more distance. It appeared that my bearing near Beaconsfield was perfect (did not know it at the time) and the others at the 8pm signal had some rotten bearings. On arriving at Burnham Beeches, I found Peter Lisle parked up waiting for John to transmit. With signal on, Peter took his bearing and drove off without plotting it on his map, while I took time and found the bearing passed through Egypt Woods. After driving round to the possible area, I came across John's car and Alan Simmons just getting out to run off.

After looking across towards the woods, I spotted torches proceeding towards the woods and both teams decided to go for it. After entering the wood, John's fourth transmission came on and the rush of blood that somehow appears when you already feel exhausted came through. It was great to see a group of torches all coming together and with just a few metres to go John switched off (b-----r it). Then with frantic searching, I spotted Bill Pechey just acting a bit strange and on shining my torch across the wood spotted John's cover. On passing my key to John's clock enquired what time did Peter Lisle get in; to my surprise he had not found John although he had passed very close minutes before with fading torches!!

In all six teams managed to find Mr Y in the allotted time.

Brian Bristow.

Operators Report

As this was my first solo transmitter operation, I was a bit apprehensive about what might go wrong. My first worry was banished as the weather turned out to be fine and dry. The site chosen was in Egypt Woods, an area of woodland just north of Burnham Beeches (NGR 947862) with a couple of footpaths through it. There were a number of other permissive paths that weren't marked on the map! There wasn't too much in the way of the sort of cover that Tx operators seem to like, such as thick clumps of Rhododendrons, Brambles, Holly bushes, Nettles and other prickly plants but as it was going to be dark for the contest I wasn't too bothered. I found a spot by a fallen tree that would give some cover. It was in a hollow that was the start of a stream which meant a good earth for the Tx. The aerial was set up the day before using the Graham Phillips method of catapulting a weight attached to a string into a high tree giving a 30ft vertical to the aerial. My second concern didn't materialise either as the aerial was still there the next day. It was also still there the following day when I went to take it down. It seemed to work as a good signal was apparently heard at the start. By 20:30 I was beginning to worry as nobody had appeared. During the next transmission at 20:40, four sets of torches appeared from various directions, all converging on me. This was followed by much thrashing around and searching around the site by the four groups. I thought I had been spotted quite early but Peter Lisle walked past me even though I was just sitting on the trunk of the fallen tree behind a camouflage net. I was eventually spotted by Bill, closely followed by Brian, Alan and Peter. To be fair, any of those four could have been first in. A little later, Graham appeared and duly clocked in. At this point I'd lost count of the number of cards I had clocked so I wasn't sure who was still to come. Steve Stone appeared around the 21:00 transmission and clocked in. We reckoned that there was one other group still to find me so I carried on transmitting until 21:30. Despite giving the location over the air Mark didn't make it. From subsequent discussion in the White Horse at Hedgerley, it appeared that Mark was quite close at 20:15 but decided I was at least 2 miles away and went searching in another wood. Anyway, the beer was good. It always is at Hedgerley, hence the reason for choosing a nearby site.

John Mullins