Yes, well that's the question you all want to know the answer to
!
...and at the risk of being a spoiler, the answer is Yes (we
think).
Some rough results (I will confirm more later) are:
Adam 14th-ish (an excellent result for all 5 tx's on a longer
course
than we've ever
experienced before
Me (Bruce) 24-ish (last I looked....)
Bryan 43-ish
We do know Adam's time beats Yuri (the USA previous world
champion from
Hungary), and
my time beats the other USA seniors, so it's looking good -:)
Now, we will have some pictures for you. Peter Fraser has
volunteered to
put them up
on his site, I have emailed them to him. Peter will hopefully
announce
where to find
them when he has !
The pictures might lag the story a bit. Hopefly I will catch up
eventually !
Today was a 5am wake up (groan), breakfast & hopefully grabbing
all the
gear we needed
& out to the buses.
Off we go is a mammoth porcession, complete with Police escort
and
traffic priority
provided. There were police holding off traffic even on a freeway
at one
point so we
could do a strange exit up an entrance lane ! All very
impressive, and
at the same time
the scale of it all a bit unnerving.
Off the freeways we headed down bumpy roads through small Chinese
villages about 1.5 hours
out of Nanjing (don't ask me where !). The villagers were all out
in
force to witness the
spectacle of the bus cavalcade. There were even ARDF posters
plastered
to some of the
walls. We arrived at the destination out behind yet another small
village. All the local
children were out to see the foreigners.
Bryan was first out with the 6th group. Groups are let out at 5
minute
intervals. I had
about a 2 hour wait till I went out, Adam went last about an hour
or so
later. The sun
came out today and it ended up being quite warm and clear. Lucky
I
happened to pop the
sunscreen in my bag. I was in the same group as my Belgium team
leader
friend, Maurice.
I was number 001, but he lucked James Bond - 007.
The course itself was quite long and hilly. There were areas
where it
was very slow
movement, as well as areas of closely spaced plantation that was
possible to move
through reasonably quickly, and a number of tracks, but some
areas of
the map were
a bit inaccurate in ths tracks (some new tracks were there, and
of some
old tracks shown
there was simply no sign and had to be bush-bashed.
Every 2m TX was atop a significant hill. Sometimes you could tell
the
transmitter wasn't
far away, but to get there was quite a different matter !
Unfortunately I did the transmitters in a non-ideal order, having
to
backtrack at the end
to get one, but in retrospect it wasn't too bad a route choice.
It just
toome a while.
I had about 15 minutes left of the 130, and I decided to abort
getting
that last transmitter,
and turned around to head for the finish. Later I found out I was
less
than 200m from the
transmitter, but the time I didn't feel I could risk being late
(which
means instant
disqualification).
I had some trouble with my smart card at the readers, especially
at the
last two
checkpoints. I personally would not recommend this system !
Now I have to go and talk about my post tour details. I will give
you
more results when
we know them, as well as the fastest times (and some pictures).
Bye for now
Bruce
-----------------------------------------------------------------
--------
***** 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 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