CHCCS ARDF
2017-10-01, Fall #2, 80m Classic
Carolina North Forest - East
Event Report
Island Creative TimeThe family website of Kelly and Patrick Sears
This page is an event report for one of the Chapel Hill - Carrboro City Schools ARDF events directed by Kelly and Patrick Sears. For comments, suggestions, and questions; please contact Kelly Sears [ksears (at) chccs (dot) k12 (dot) nc (dot) us].
Our second 80m classic of the fall season was held on a beautiful day - cool and sunny. This time, we held the event on the East side of CNF. We had a total of 11 participants, 5 middle school students and 6 family members. It was a mix of experienced and newcomer participants. All had a good time. If you find a mistake or need some information changed, please let me know [ patrick (dot) r (dot) sears [at] gmail (dot) com ].
The course. The 80m classic course was a bit longer this time, 3.0 km for all 5 foxes. The orange level course (3 foxes) was 1.8 km, foxes in one good order: 2 1 4. We no longer give the optimum order for courses with more than three foxes. The longest distance across the course area was 1.7 km.
Equipment. We used our usual 80m classic setup. Most transmitters worked well. One exception, transmitter number one couldn't be heard from the start area. We think it was an antenna tuner failure. Not sure yet. Either way, that got fixed before noon by changing the transmitter (which didn't help) and removing the antenna tuner. Removing the tuner suddenly made it strong enough to be heard over the entire area but at a lower level than the other foxes. We also got to experiment a bit with our new course timing system. We were just registering starts and finishes with it. There were a few glitches with that so the times reported in the results are from the hand written records. The card punch system that we started using this season worked well again and drew some praises from some of our experienced participants. Finally, during pick-up, we thought we were going to loose one of our antennas, snagging high up in the crook of a tree. But a bit of work by Charles (one of our volunteers) saved they day.
Thanks to all the middle school and high school teachers and staff who helped get the word out to the students: Rachel Hopler (Science Teacher, Culbreth Middle School), Christine Lippy (Science Teacher, McDougle Middle School), Al McArthur (Technology Facilitator, Phillips Middle School), Haley Wamble (Science Teacher, East Chapel Hill High School), SaCola Lehr (Media Specialist, Chapel Hill High School), Libby Diesel (Library Assistant, Chapel Hill High School), Kara Watson (Media Specialist, Carrboro High School). Thanks to Charles and Nadia Scharlau for help during the event and with control pickup. Thanks to Greg Kopsch (Park Manager at Carolina North Forest) for the use of CNF.
We were really excited to get our number of participants up to 11 and to add a school. Toby arrived first and, after a bit of discussion about antenna gain patterns, went out on the course for all 5 foxes. Ben arrived a bit later and also went out for all 5 foxes. It was the first time for Cecilia and her family. They started with the class. Colton and Blake and their family arrived around this time and joined in the class. Soon Cecilia and her family felt ready to go. They wanted the full challenge and headed out on the course on their own. Very cool ☺ The rest of us continued with the class and headed for fox 2. That one was not too hard. It was right off the main trail and we found it on-cycle. Then on to fox 1. That one was a bit harder to find. It was weaker and the brush was denser. Still, though, no problem. We were going to go on to fox 4 but Colton was up for more of a challenge and convinced everyone we should also try for fox 5. So off we went to find number five. After finding that one, we turned east to find fox 4. It was only mountain bike trails in this direction and so mostly through the brush. We found it off cycle. Colton, Blake, and their family continued in toward the homing beacon on their own. Excellent. At this point, Patrick left the group to help at the finish. Back there, groups were coming in at regular intervals and many stayed around to talk for a while.
A big thank you to the parents who came out to help support the event: Jason, Scott, Greg, Ana. And kudos to Maria who is in elementary school and went out on the course with her family.
| # | participants (school, grade) | finds | time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course: 5 foxes (all) | |||
| 1 | Toby (SMS-7), Jason (f). | 1 2 3 4 5 H | 74' |
| 2 | Ben (SMS-7), David (f). | 1 2 3 4 5 H | 126' |
| Course: 3 foxes (1 2 4) / known order | |||
| 1 | Cecilia (PMS-7), Maria (es), Scott (f). | 2 H | 108' |
| Course: class, 3 foxes (1 2 4) / known order | |||
| 1 | Colton (PMS-8), Blake (PMS-6), Gregory (f), Ana (f). | 1 2 4 (5) H | 85' |
The entries are listed first by chosen course. Those starting with the class group are listed at the end. Then entries are listed by the number of foxes found on that course and finally by the time on course. The # column gives the results placement for that course. The finds column notes the controls found: foxes 1 through 5 and H for the homing beacon. Foxes numbers in parentheses were not on the chosen course. The time column is the time on course. Students are listed with their school and grade. We use the following schools abbreviations: PMS Phillips MS, SMS Smith MS, McD McDougle MS, CMS Culbreth MS, CHHS Chapel Hill HS, ECHHS East Chapel Hill HS, CaHS Carrboro HS, f family or guest friend, es elementary school, s chccs student (no school info).
Clicking pictures will bring up original full-sized versions. All participants are listed as seen in the picture from left to right. Pictures are generally listed in chronological order trying to keep groups together.
Patrick, Greg, Maria, Cecilia (green shirt), Scott. Before going out.
Toby, Nadia, Jason.
Patrick, Toby. Discussing the gain pattern and how it changes when going from regular to "sense" mode. [1]
Toby. Punching one of the fox controls. [1]
Toby. Approaching one of the foxes. You can see the control flag in the distance. [1]
Toby. Punching fox-5. You can see the number on the tab hanging down just next to the punch. [1]
Toby. Approaching a fox. [1]
Ben. Punching his card at one of the fox controls. [2]
Ben. Searching for a fox while on-course. You can tell by the way he's holding the receiver that he's searching for the null. [2]
Ben. On-course, inspecting his map. He's probably planing a route for the bearing he measured with his receiver. [2]
Cecilia and Maria. Out on the course. [3]
David, Ben. Coming through the finish shoot.
Colton, Ana, Greg, Blake. Coming through the finish shoot.
Colton, Greg. Coming through the finish shoot.
Greg (in back), Ana, Colton.
Maria, Scott, Cecilia.
Kelly, our director. Folding up a control flag during pick-up time.
Patrick. Carrying the transmitters and antenna spools during pick-up.
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