2011 Collier Cup Round 4

01 July 2011

Because the start was delayed by ten minutes, the times in the results have been changed by that amount so that the scoring works out correctly. The times in Andy's piece are the clock times - Bill

It's often said, "Third time lucky". After an enjoyable evening out on a club DF hunt, I can look back and say for sure it was third time lucky for me...

A fish and chip supper at the start always makes for a great way to prepare for a DF hunt, and so it was again this time around as we all gathered on a lovely sunny evening. The signal at the start proved tricky to track down; tune to 1950 or 1900? No worries however, with a strong signal received and a bearing of 46-deg plotted, North East I thought and headed for the B-road towards Aylesbury thinking I need to make good time as the station was likely to be beyond Princes Risborough.

I arrived in the middle of the RAF Halton campus to take a bearing at 8:10 and marked a suitable cross on the map designed to give me a cross on my start bearing. Something wasn't quite right however, with fields either side of me and not the buildings as per the map - I was in fact, smack on top of my start bearing! No worries as the null at the start was plus/minus 5-deg or more, so I had already decided I needed another couple of bearings to pin down the hidden station. Time to get lucky...

The signal came up and I had to wind down the RF gain to minimum and aerial tuning such was the signal strength. Crikey; must be "I'm on-site"!! After taking a quick bearing of something like 35-deg, I shot off about half a mile down the road and took another of 9-deg. Yep, I had parked up for my second bearing (and third!) more or less at the best spot to run in. Get it right tonight and surely I could find myself bagging my third win in a row!

Bearings suggested the station was hidden just to the North of the canal which itself was on the Northern side of the MOD/RAF grounds. Lucky for me there was a narrow road heading right up to a bridge over the canal, the best way in I'm thinking... but no, the road led only the Officer's Mess. Tempting as it was to show my face with a brass band playing Reach For The Sky (appropriate, somehow) there was a hidden station to be found! I parked at the end of the public footpath and ran towards the canal finding myself standing on the bridge over the canal waiting for a signal at about 8:20.

The signal at 8:25 had me heading over the bridge and to the right thinking I'll DF myself straight in. This proved a tough call with only 10-sec of transmission, and so much cursing followed!!! Mind you, would anyone else have taken a bearing with just 10-secs of signal? (Apparently, they did, Peter!) I hacked through the wood where it turned out he was hiding, crossed the field to a clump of woodland with much cover and began the usual thrash. A few minutes later the signal came up and had me heading back to the bridge where the signal strength peaked, but could I find an aerial??? I started looking in the woody bit by the bridge, saw Peter Lisle on the bridge looking a little lost, cursed some more, and then came across an aerial... Six feet to the left of me a well-hidden voice told me I was first in!! I tried to fool Peter, but as usual he was wise to my antics and was in soon after me shortly followed by Bill if I remember correctly.

Friday out was great fun made all the more enjoyable for me with a huge slice of good fortune - it'll not last, I'm sure. Good to see the A-Team still have 'the nose' for DF, albeit the other half of the team considered stopping for a game of tennis on his way to the station site. What was that all about?! My thanks to the transmitter operators and organisers for the good work finding and setting up the station site and putting on a great hunt despite the technical difficulties along the way, and getting seven teams in to find the transmitter. Well done, thank you.

Andy Collett

Competitor Time Adj. Time Time Diff. Score Bill North
Andy Collett 20:25:28 20:25:28 00:00:00 -5 10
Peter Lisle 20:30:02 20:30:02 00:04:34 6 6
Bill Pechey 20:31:20 20:31:20 00:05:52 8 4
Steve Stone 20:51:23 20:51:23 00:25:55 29 3
Graham Phillips 21:03:04 21:03:04 00:37:36 42 2
John Mullins 21:06:36 21:06:36 00:41:08 47 1
Ray Goodearl 21:07:35 21:07:35 00:42:07 49 0
Mark Coventry NF 21:30:00 01:04:32 72 0
Brian Bristow NF 21:30:00 01:04:32 72 0
Karlis Ozols NF 21:30:00 01:04:32 72 0
Dan Andrews op - - - 4