A RadiO course was held on Sunday 20^th May at the picturesque Hanging Rock park, made famous by the Aussie film �Picnic at Hanging Rock�. It was also part of the worldwide �Foxhunting Week�.

The course was a novel format designed to blend into an Orienteering Hageby event run bt Bayside Kangaroos orienteering club. A year or so ago Bryan Ackerly held an RadiO co-event with a Hageby using 3 legs, 80m and 2m FoxOr and a pure orienteering leg. This event built on this theme, using a FoxOr 2m leg, an 80m ARDF leg and 2 different length orienteering legs. This compared fovourably with the orienteering equivalent courses which had 4 orienteering legs.

The park is small, and only a 1:5000 scale, so the challenge is to offer interesting courses without too much risk of stumbling into ARDF controls while you're on another leg ! I elected to be cunning and tricky on some FoxOr legs, but straightforward on the ARDF legs to ensure the ARDF wasn't too daunting for those inexperienced in it's complexities. One of the FoxOr controls, though on the map, was outside the fenced in park area; one way to increase the distance for a leg since you had to run the short distance back to the main gate. Another was behind a water tank that you had to negotiate a complex series of open gates to actually get to the side it was on (unles you're Gary and thin enough to slip past the tank and the wall).

Apologies about all the slippery ash below one of the FoxOr controls. It was beyond my control ! It turns out there was an easy way track route into this control from both directions (not marked on the map), but I didn't know this myself and also had to brave the slippery slope.

When planning the course I pencilled in am ARDF control on a dead tree beside a small lake, but on the morning, when I found the lake was largely empty due to the drought, I relocated it to a treed island.

The event itself was beset by persistant showers and occasional heavy rain, despite it being a fine day in Melbourne, so well done to all the competitors to brave the elements.

Three courses were offered and taken up by the 14 RadiO competitors:

RA had 4 loops; Two O loops (med & short), any 6 of 7 2m FoxOr and all 5 80m ARDFs. ~10km

RB had 4 loops. Two O loops (long & short), any 5 of 7 FoxOrs and 2 of 5 ARDFs. ~8km

RC was one loop, any 15/28 O controls and any 4/7 FoxOrs. For beginners ~3km

Others made up their own courses as suited them, a few doing just FoxOr after an full orienteering course or helping organising the events.

Notes:

• Hogan/Maclaglan had never tried RadiO before, but one had tracked possums, so this was an interesting exercise for them. The YNG sniffers were a lot easier to use than the AM gear she had used for the possums. They did a special course combining FoxOrs with the orienteering PW course (any 20).

• Peter Gossip & son, Phillip, went out to try for 1 FoxOr to see what it was like after their orienteering. They enjoyed it so much that they may try a full RadiO event next time.

• Di Shalders started off doing RC course after assisting with running the orienteering event, but changed it to 7/7 ForOrs since she was enjoying that more.

• Darian Panter went out with Susanne for a couple of controls to help on her first ever RadiO event. Thanks Darian.

• David was not feeling well after his 2nd leg and had to abort during the FoxOr. He's fine now.

• Adam was doing 4 legs for orienteering followed by the two RadiO legs to attempt to get a score for both.