Organiser's Report

The idea for this event started when I drove past a very interesting-looking site near Ufton Nervet (A place with a name like that should have a great pub – sadly it has never had one). When I investigated closely I found that it was even better than I had hoped with lots of scrubby stuff, bracken and young trees. The trees were too low to put up an antenna capable of reaching one of our usual start sites so I decided to move the start. The start was a car park on Wokefield Common near Burghfield Common and Mortimer. I think we will use this start again; there are lots of good sites in that corner of the map.

Station A was operated by Brian Bristow who had kindly offered to come out of DF retirement and operate for us. His legs are not great and he can’t walk too far so we had the station quite close to a road. It was actually on the opposite side of the common, about 400 metres from the start. I haven’t used that trick for a while and I needed to use my attenuator to make it look as if the station were much further away. The antenna was a long loop of wire about 15 feet off the ground. Having set up the transmitter with Brian, I went to the start to check the signal. It was weak but audible so I was surprised when so many failed to hear it.

Station B was in Burnt Platt woodland, near Stoke Row and Kingwood Common. Colin McEwen was the operator. We had great fun erecting the antenna the previous day. I had put down my poking stick (old telescopic washing-line prop) somewhere and it took us a long time to find it again. Colin was worried that, after that episode, he might have trouble finding the hide. We put some sticks down indicating the right direction, leading to a fallen tree next to the site. On Sunday morning, I had a call from him saying he was unable to “find the ******* site”! Powerless to help, I just hoped that he would locate it in time. Luckily, he did and came on at the right time. He told me later that there are many fallen trees not far from the site…

I was running station C and all was quiet until about 2:45. Brian had told me that eight teams had found him by then. After a few minutes, Matt Clark appeared and almost trod on me. Others followed fairly quickly. I think that everyone followed the antenna rather than the signal. This was probably due to using a 100-metre antenna with a counterpoise.

The idea was that competitors would find Brian and me and then head off to Colin who was closer to the tea site. This happened but I had expected some to come to me before Brian. Some people had a lot of trouble at Colin’s site; it had the same antenna arrangement as my site but the wire was much higher and largely invisible. I think people were drawn to the current antinode which was some way from the Tx. Three teams managed to reach station B before 4:30; Geoffrey got in just before Matt and Justin. Justin managed to trip over next to the site and fell onto Colin. Colin thought that Justin was hurt but, in true DF tradition, he only had a few scratches. Alan and David also found Colin but, sadly, just out of time.

Some people found road closures near to station B. I was aware of them but felt that I could not warn people without giving the game away. I hope that was the right thing to do.

After the event we all met at Goring Heath Parish Hall for a tea laid on by Doreen and her friend Linda. They did an excellent job and there was plenty for everyone. I shall be eating leftovers for a few more days yet…

Once the clocks had been read and the results were calculated, it was clear something was wrong. There were, in fact, three errors. I had made a mistake creating the start list in the DF program and had entered Colin twice. The second error was that cards 6 and 9 were swapped (probably put in the box in the wrong order); this didn't worry me and Brian but Colin didn't know everyone and used the numbers in his written log. Of course the program used the electronic numbers and competitors 9 and 6 were transposed in the results. The third error did not affect the final order but somehow Clock C had been read twice and clock A not at all. I don't know how that happened because I was very careful. It took me some time to get this straight after the event but the results above are as accurate as they can be.

Congratulations to Geoffrey for winning his second consecutive final (and only just missing the one before). As well as the presentation of the trophies for the final to Geoffrey and Matt, Justin was presented with the rose bowl for the 2024 season.

Thank you very much to Colin and Brian for running the other stations and to Doreen and Linda for their efforts in the kitchen. It is nice to be able to have a place to ourselves for tea where we can all have a good chinwag and listen to how others fared. Obviously, it is not always possible to arrange.

Bill Pechey