Site was Gillott's Field near Henley on Thames, around 16K from start. It's been far too long since I sat on a Tx station but it soon all came back to me why I enjoyed DF. The site was not clear on the map as only one footpath is shown, but there were umpteen paths. When I arrived, the first idea was to radiate into the power lines, but I discovered the amount of aerial wire I brought along was much too short. So I found a fallen tree with a big hole at the root end. I attached the aerial wire to the top of the barbed wire fence, then took the wire across the edge of the field to act as a counterpoise. I knew the signal at the start would be fairly weak so just hoped the teams would travel way further than where I was hidden.

To my surprise, no teams arrived on scene until after the 20:40 transmission and found that when on transmit they had difficulty in tracking me down. However with Tx off, search team Graham Phillips found a midge-bitten operator crunched up in the tree roots. Some time later, Bill Pechey also found tracks trampled and came in.

After the 21:10 transmission, I heard Peter Lisle running across the field towards the Tx site with dear wife Ruth very close. To help them in, I fired up the TX only to see Peter run off across the field and eventually come in through the gate and find the tree. (Oh how the mighty have fallen?) With continuous transmission, a phone call from John Mullins stated that he would not make the site, so closedown was implemented.

It was great to catch up with old DF friends at the local pub.

Hopefully look forward to doing a bit more next season!!!!!!!

Brian Bristow