CHCCS ARDF
2017-10-22, Fall #4, Foxoring
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].
What a beautiful day for our last CHCCS ARDF event of the fall season. It was a sunny, mild day; perfect for running. Every team going out had experienced members. We were all excited because it was our first foxoring event ever. Overall, there were ten participants from two middle schools (5 students, 5 family members). They went out in three teams. 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. We decided to provide just a single course. Everyone had two hours to find as many foxes as they could. It's not the usual setup. But all registrations were from experienced teams and we thought it would lead to more interesting choices. A foxoring event is quite different from a classic event. The approximate location of each fox was marked on the map. But the transmitters were too weak to be heard from 60 m away using the R3500D receivers everyone was using. There were ten foxo transmitters in the forest. As usual, there was a homing beacon that could be heard over the entire course to guide the participants back to the finish. We used the same area as last time, CNF on the East side of Seawell School Rd. The longest distance across the course area was 1.7 km.
Equipment.
For those interested,
we added a few notes about the equipment in
small web page here.
Thank you to all our helpers. 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.
This was the first ever ARDF event with all experienced teams. We had one newcomer, Paul, who went with Ben and his father. Soon after they were on course, Colton, Blake, and their family arrived. They also felt confident and were soon on the course. A while later, Toby and his family arrived. They had other commitments and couldn't take a full two hours on course. They were off quickly. With all experienced teams, we didn't have a group outing. Kelly and Patrick stayed by the start in case someone else showed up. Charles and Nadia did some course checking. It was super fun to see the teams running back to the finish trying to get back within the time limit.
During the post hunt discussion, it seamed that some of the transmitters had died. In particular, foxes 5 and 6 were not heard by some participants. But during pickup, Kelly and Patrick found fox 5 was transmitting strongly. So the missing signal there may have been a result of a receiver problem. Quite late in the event, one team found 6 with no problem. Charles and Nadia picked up fox 6 and we don't know how strong it was at that time. So we're not sure what happened there. Even with a couple glitches, everyone had a great time. ☺
A big thank you to the parents who came out to help support the event: David, Gregory, Ana, Jason, and Kate. Thank you so so much ☺
| # | participants (school, grade) | finds | time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 foxes | |||
| 1 | Colton (PMS-8), Blake (PMS-6), Gregory (f), Ana (f) | 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 H | 118' |
| 5 foxes | |||
| 2 | Toby (SMS-7), Jason (f), Kate (f) | 1 4 6 9 10 H | 80' |
| overtime | |||
| 3 | Ben (SMS-7), Paul (?MS-?), David (f) | 1 4 9 10 H | 138' |
The entries are listed first by the number of foxes found (maximum possible was 10) and then by the time on course (maximum allowed was 120'). Overtime are listed at the end. The # column gives the results placement for that course. The finds column notes the controls found: foxes 1 through 10 and H for the homing beacon. 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, McDMS 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.
In front: Ben, Paul, David, Kelly. In back: Charles, Nadia. Time to sign in.
Charles, Nadia, Ginger (dog by the tree). Waiting for more arrivals.
David, Paul, Ben. Exiting the start shoot and getting on course.
Kelly, Gregory, Ana, Blake, Colton. Sign in and equipment checks.
Nadia, Kelly. Pink hats, purple shirts, black pants, purple shoes. Waiting for more arrivals.
Toby, Jason, Kate, Patrick. Discussing the map symbols that are so important in foxoring events.
Toby. At one of the foxos. The post with a hanging red punch can barely be seen to the left of Toby. [1]
Blake. Running to get to the homing beacon punch.
Blake. Running back down the finish shoot.
Paul, David (behind Ben), Ben. Arriving at the finish.
David, Ben, Kelly, Paul, Ana, Gregory. Discussion around the main table after the finish.
Kate. Right by the homing beacon punch, just entering the finish shoot. [1]
Patrick, Toby. Toby: "I can make the receiver do R2D2 noises." Patrick: "I don't know.... It sounds like it might be an imperial code."
Toby. At the finish.
Kate, Jason. At the finish.
Toby, Kate, Jason. More discussion around the main table.
Flying ants swarming and starting their nuptual flight. I saw several of these during course setting Saturday morning. Compass in foreground for scale.
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