Hi Barb and Dennis,
I ended up not doing as well as I would have liked, but
considering the course, I did okay. Below is a short report of
the competition.
***********************
Today was the 2Meter competition. We left the hotel about 6:45AM
for a one
hour drive to the competition site. I was lucky and ended up with
a starting
time 2 hours and 25 minutes after the first competitors left.
One thing different about this competition from other
competitions was that
we would be using electronic scoring. This would be done with a
small credit
card sized circuit that would be inserted into a reader that
would
automatically record the time. It really worked well and I found
it easier to
use that a punch card.
After picking up the map and equipment, I headed out to the
starting area. At
the start signal, I headed out North along the trail and started
listening. I
had the rough location of transmitters 1 though 4 in the first
five minutes
(I didn't need to find transmitter #5.)
It seemed like transmitter #4 was the first one to find, but I
didn't find a
trail heading that way until I got clost to #3. While I knew it
was longer, I
picked off #3 which was at the top of a hill a couple of hundred
meters high.
Heading down the hill, I passed through a small village on the
way to #4.
After picking off #4, I went back to the village to a trail that
went in the
direction of #2. #2 turned out to be about 2 Km and in the
process of
running, I fell and ended up with a very bloody hand from a
relatively small
cut. About 15 minutes later, I got to transmitter #2 and climbed
slowly up
the steep grade to find it.
At this point, time was running out and I headed back to #1 which
was also in
the same direction as the finish. As I was running along the
road, I passed
#1 but I was in real danger of being disqualified for being over
time, so I
passed it and headed to the finish. Running along the finish
corrodor, I
punched in with 15 seconds to spare.
Quite a number of people did not find all 4 transmitters and I
ended up at
about 38th place in a total of about 50+ competitors. While it
certainly was
not where I wanted to be, it was better than I did in Hungary so
at least
there was some improvement.
It was indicated the results would be available in an ASCII file,
and I will
forward that as soon as I can get it. Tomorrow is a local tour in
the morning
and shopping during the afternoon. The 80M competition will be
held on Tuesday.
***** Remember, an out of tune piano makes noise, not music! *****
call, (805) 966-7060 .
E-MAIL: dennis(a)rain.org .
*** Bye from the Paradise Playground of the Pacific Beaches.
*** Dennis Schwendtner *** WB6OBB ***
*** http://www.rain.org/~dennis ***
*** Schwendtner Piano and Service ***
WB6OBB repeater web-site ***
As I write this, it's 4 AM Sunday morning in Nanjing, China. I'm
not there, but ARDF Team USA is. I hope the team is sleeping
well, because Sunday is the day of the two-meter competition in
the ARDF World Championships.
Not much in the way of reports from the team so far, but the
first team photo
from Nanjing has arrived. It's posted on my Web site, URL below.
There are over 350 competitors from 26 countries, plus team
leaders, trainers, referees and organisers. On Saturday, our
team participated in the opening Ceremony which was on an island
in the middle of the lake outside the host hotel.
Will also post any other Team USA reports and photos as received,
so keep checking the site.
73,
Joe Moell K0OV
USA ARDF Coordinator
http://www.homingin.com
***** Remember, an out of tune piano makes noise, not music! *****
call, (805) 966-7060 .
E-MAIL: dennis(a)rain.org .
*** Bye from the Paradise Playground of the Pacific Beaches.
*** Dennis Schwendtner *** WB6OBB ***
*** http://www.rain.org/~dennis ***
*** Schwendtner Piano and Service ***
WB6OBB repeater web-site ***
Well here's the 2nd installment.
I can't make this long as we have to arise early (well 5am sounds
early to me!) for the 2m competiton tommorow.
Only Bryan actaully starts anywhere near the first groups. He is
in
group 6. I am
in group 26 (so that's 26 * 5 minutes wait for me) and Adam
starts last
in 43.
Well this morning was a relaxed start.The other two were able to
do a
decent amount
of 2m and 80m practice. I was held up in the team leaders meeting
(only
some of the
team leaders actually compete as well) with interminable
questions which
did seem to
go on for hours.
I was able to establish that the distances between transmitters
will be
adhered to
in this comp. 750m from the start minimum, and 400m between
minimum.
What seems a long time limit of 130 minutes has been set. Might
be a
long course !
Now I did promise pictures. Well I do have them all ready to
upload, but
for some reason
I seem to be having ftp difficulties. So not tonight.
This afternoon I had a chance to at least test my equipment
worked on
two tranmitters just
outside the hotel. After that it was all into a huge queue of
buses (22
buses at least)
to get to the Opening Ceremony which was on the island in the
middle of
the lake
outside the hotel.
There are over 350 competitors at the world championships from 26
countries, plus team
leaders, trainers, referees and organisers. This is a BIG event
to
stage.
I have some good photos of the amazing dancers and acrobats. Some
so
young (almost
pre-school) it seems hard to imagine it is possible. You will
just have
to wait
for the pictures I'm afraid.
(If I can't get ftp to work, I might look for a kind volunteer to
put
them up for me
somewhere, tell me where, and I'll send them by email.....anyone
?).
As far as I know the link from here is fast.
The team leaders were presented with floral arrangements and the
whole
thing was like
a mini-olympic opening ceremony (complete with marching band).
This evening after some preparation for the event tommorow, I had
to go
to the team leaders
banquet (the others had a normal plebebian banquet -:) Actually
the
hotel food is very
good.)
Team Leaders banquet was a lavish affair with that evil rice
wine,
bottomless drinks
and a seemingly endless processions of delicacies. Very nice
indeed. I
have got to
know Maurice, the Belgium team leader quite well (you see,
Belgium is
next from
Australia in the alphabet !) since we end up sitting next to each
other.
Also a university student sat at our table to help translate. She
is
studying languages, in
particular English, so with so many different English accents it
would
be a good
test of her new abilities.
Anyway, I must go to bed. Don't want to disturb Kurt too much -:)
Cheers,
Bruce, VK3TJN
-----------------------------------------------------------------
--------
***** Remember, an out of tune piano makes noise, not music! *****
call, (805) 966-7060 .
E-MAIL: dennis(a)rain.org .
*** Bye from the Paradise Playground of the Pacific Beaches.
*** Dennis Schwendtner *** WB6OBB ***
*** http://www.rain.org/~dennis ***
*** Schwendtner Piano and Service ***
WB6OBB repeater web-site ***
Hi All,
Here is a note from Marvin from China,
I have just forwarded his message.
Skip all the signature from my e-mail.
Thanks,
***** Remember, an out of tune piano makes noise, not music! *****
call, (805) 966-7060 .
E-MAIL: dennis(a)rain.org .
*** Bye from the Paradise Playground of the Pacific Beaches.
*** Dennis Schwendtner *** WB6OBB ***
*** http://www.rain.org/~dennis ***
*** Schwendtner Piano and Service ***
WB6OBB repeater web-site ***
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 20:32:18 EDT
From: Freyra(a)aol.com
To: dennis(a)rain.org, johnston(a)sbcc.net
Subject: Hello from China
Hi Dennis and Barb,
I am using Bob Freys AOL account to send this as it seems much quicker than
telneting into my account. All went well for the trip over, and it could not
have been a smoother trip!
We got into Nanjing about 1:00 PM and got to bed about 2:00. After getting up
at 6:15AM or so, we went for Breakfast and am sending this from Bob's room
(he has a computer and Internet connection in his room!
The schedule for today is a practice session to check out our equipment at
10:00 AM, lunch from noon to 1:30 and the opening cerimonies at 3:50 PM.
All for now, and I'll fire off more as it becomes available.
Marvin
Hi!
Jamboree on the Air for the Scouts takes place next weekend (20-22nd
October). There will be many stations active around the world, many
now using slowscan.
One such station will be the World Scout Bureau, operating from the
Satigny Scout Centre, on the outskirts of Geneva. callsign will be
HB2S and the station will be active from 2200GMT on the Friday night.
Equipment is likely to be an FT920, 100watts to either a 3 ele
tribander, or G5RV, depending on band and who gets to the aerials
first! The station will be active on voice around the Scout freqs on
all bands from 80mtrs to 2mtrs. All calls appreciated.
Look forward to seeing you all next week
73 de Frank, M0AEU
______________________________________________________
Amateur Radio - If you're not having fun, you are not doing it
right!
The Official ARRL Santa Barbara Section Web Site:
http://www.qsl.net/arrlsb
E-mail your questions to: ad6ad(a)arrl.net
__________________________________________________________
Hi all,
Bruce here from the Australian ARDF team in China. If you'd like
to see future installments of this bulletin, I'll ask you to
subscribe to the melb-ardf for the duration (only this first
posting will go to foxlist). This is
because this is likely to be an very biassed account of events,
with dollops of parochialism, so
I'm noy going to subject everyone to it if they don't want to !
(Hey, is it a co-incidence my name is "Bruce" also ??)
You can subscribe to melb ardf by sending message (in the body)
containing
subscribe melb-ardf
to majordomo(a)planet.net.au
There will be pictures too ! They will be uploaded to a web-site
somewhere and the
reports will point at them. Coming soon......
[My ICQ seems to have died temporarily, but when I get it going
again
you can message
the Australian team direct on 32015991]
Anyway, on with the story;
I have just got back from the team leaders meeting. Australia is
first
alphaetically so
I was first to pick a number out of a paper bag to determine our
team
start positions
for the 2m event. It also meant I was last (had no choice!) for
the 80m
competition
draw. We got 8 and 18 respectively. This doesn't mean a great
deal at the end of the day
since it only determines the start group for the first competitor
of a country. The others are spread through the field.
By the way, there are 26 countries in this world competition.
Only the USA team didn't seem to be at full strength, still
missing their team leader Dale and some others. There are
varying numbers of competitors for each country. We have only a
team of 3 in the Senior
(Open division).
Some of you may recall my mention of Kurt, from Belgium, in my
previous
missives from
Korea. Well it turns out I'm rooming with Kurt.
Today it was warm, with occasional rain. We travelled by Bus from
Shanghai to Nanjing, a
distance of about 400km by bus with the Yugoslavians and
Bulgarians (and
a couple of
Yanks). There will be some photos later, but one thing becomes
obvious
as you travel: you
never really get out in what we'd call the country. Near Shanghai
it is
dead flat, and only
late in the journey did we start to see some hills which surround
Nanjing. There is almost
always a building (usually a block of flats) to be seen, and
ususally a
continueous row.
Otherwise there are rice fields, canals and dams and occasional
other
crops. Very little
ground is left to waste
The Hotel in Nanjing is excellent, and after some teething
troubles we
now have permenent
ethernet (hey this is better than at home!!). After our arrival
here we
went out for what
turned out to be quite a long walk around the nearby lake. There
is an
old city wall which
circled old Nanjing which borders the lake (see photo soon -:))
Caught up with some friends from Korea and Townsville. Yes, Jack,
madam
Butterfly is back.
At the meeting we were shown the electonic tagging system they
will be
using for the
ARDF events. Each competitor has to carry a Smart Card around and
insert
in the reader
when they find a transmitters. The times are stored on the card.
They
aren't too worried
about rain, but point out sweat might cause problems with the
reader.
Hmmm, not quite
up to Sport-Ident standards, but we'll see how it goes !
Tommorow we have what is called a Model event. It isn't really,
since it
will be on
completely differnet terrain to the actual events, but it does
give a
chance to make sure
our gear still works. They have scheduled a team leaders meeting
at the
same time !!
Obviously there aren't too many team leaders like myself who also
compete, so I hope
there will still be enough time after for me to test my gear.
That's all for now. Feel free to ask any questions.
Cheers,
Bruce, VK3TJN
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*****.*****...
***DS!*****...
***** Remember, an out of tune piano makes noise, not music! *****
call, (805) 966-7060 .
E-MAIL: dennis(a)rain.org .
*** Bye from the Paradise Playground of the Pacific Beaches.
*** Dennis Schwendtner *** WB6OBB ***
*** http://www.rain.org/~dennis ***
*** Schwendtner Piano and Service ***
WB6OBB repeater web-site ***