This event was a very frustrating one for me. There was a lot of skywave signal at the start and I thought I'd managed to get a bearing on the ground wave. However, everyone asked for an approximate bearing and 305 degrees was given (I had got 5 degrees so could have made a bad mistake!).

We set off through Henley and along the road to Stonor and Pishill. At eight o' clock, there was still a lot of skywave but my bearing was almost the same as the start indicating that the transmitter was still some way off. This pattern was repeated until about 8:50 with very similar bearings.

We went past Chalgrove and it was now clear that we must be pretty close because we had almost reached the edge of the Aylesbury map. We parked near Cuddesdon Mill and set off in entirely the wrong direction. The transmitter came on and we all turned round and headed off across the fields to the east of the mill. Steve and Graham were there by now. Steve had spotted Peter's car (I can't tell one car from another so had no idea it was Peter's).

Steve led the way across the field towards a long, thin wood next to the river Thame. All three of us were on the main path through the wood when Peter came on and found that here was no null at all. We all dropped down the slope towards the river and began to get bearings. It was clear that Peter was very close to the river but after going up and down the bank a few times we all converged at the same point, which is usually a good sign. We decided that he couldn't be on the bank so all set off up the slope again. I was lucky enough to see Peter's face in my torch beam and managed to get there before the others.

My mistake at the start was caused by the fact that there would have been no detectable ground wave at all because the transmitter was a very long way away.

We then met up again at a rather nice pub in Great Milton, carefully avoiding le Manoir au Quat' Saisons, which is just down the road!

Bill Pechey

A few more words from Peter

The site was about 30 km from the start. Weak signal heard at the start but significant sky-wave meant that an approximate bearing was given.

Most teams proceeded through Henley to Nettlebed along the approximate bearing, with Mark Coventry and John Mullins taking the better option of the M40 to Stokenchurch which would have supplied a good second bearing except:

• Mark decided to leave his car at Stokenchurch (without a cross) and meander through woodland several miles away from the tx for the rest of the evening.
• John got poor bearings and only arrived in the vicinity of the tx towards the end of the contest.

The site was located by the side of the River Thame just south of Cuddesdon Mill.

Steve Stone arrived on site first at about 9pm, followed quickly by Bill Pechey and Graham Phillips. All three teams found their way down through the woodland to the river to near the tx location, where Bill was first in with an ‘eagle eye’ spotting of Peter’s face through the undergrowth.

Meanwhile Alan Simmons and John Mullins had arrived at the side of the woodland but had diverted from the footpath over a cropped field and found their way barred by a high barbed wire fence. They were unable to locate the entrance to the woodland and therefore did not manage to find the tx.

Peter Lisle