Porcupine Ridge RadiO Event

Twelve competitors gave RadiO a go today at the Bush Orienteering season opener near Daylesford. Despite some early drizzle in Melbourne the weather at the event was perfect.

Unfortunately not many attempted the full scale 5 transmitter ARDF event, but a few gave the novel Combo (Fox-or+) course a try . The line distance for the ARDF was 7km, but the quite hilly terrain made for a challenging event. Noone found all 5 within the 120 minute time limit.

The Combo course (do the Fox-or but also try to find any two ARDF transmitters) was an attempt to give a gradual introduction to ARDF to those already reasonably proficient at Fox-or style events. In the future a Combo course could be rolled into the standard Fox-or, but with bonuses for finding any ARDF transmitters as well.

The hilly terrain also meant many that attempted to do both a Bush-O and a RadiO were just too exhausted. There are two possible future options here. Those attempting both should be actively encouraged to do a shorter bush-O than normal (to have any real chance at the RadiO at all), or we attempt to always offer a Bush+RadiO course that incorporates a suitably short Bush-O only leg (Hageby style). The latter would require allowing Bush+RadiO starts from the same time as Bush-O (10:00am).

A few small issues:

1. There seem to be only 3 mini flags + punches in the Fox-or bag. Had make do with some Medals as flags.

2. Fox-or #1 started fine, but when it came back it was no longer flashing; it was stil producing a weak carrier. Some people found this one a bit weak. (Unit marked “Dodgy” with duct tape.)

3. The new LCD sniffers can't really be lent out yet. A competitor who had one came back saying it didn't work (for Fox-or) as it was too insensitive.

4. The fudge at the Woodend shop is really fudgy.

Bruce Paterson, Course Setter

Results