Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club 4th U.S. ARDF Championships

2m Vasquez Rocks

by Jay Hennigan, WB6RDV

This venue is a mixture of rugged cliffs and criss-cross trails. The only major man-made features and roads are along the northern edge of the map.

The start was at the northeast corner of the map, with the starting corridor heading almost due south down a trail that extends almost to the southern tip and loops back up northward. The finish was also on the north towards the west.

Logically, continuing south from the starting corridor made the most sense, taking bearings and deciding enroute where to head westerly. The start was downhill and I took off at a fairly good clip. Transmitter number one was almost due south and moderately strong, two appeared to be southwest. T3 and T4 somewhere towards the center of the venue with T4 slightly south of west from my position near the southern edge of the exclusion circle when it came on. I wasn't particularly confident of my bearings on three or four but knew that they were generally to the west.

Transmitter five came on, strong and behind me to the northwest. As I turned to take a more precise bearing, not looking where I was going, I tripped over a rock in the path and fell on my antenna. I use a homebrew log-periodic and had just changed to a design with fiberglass rods as element supports with a surrounding co-ax braid as the radiator. This gives better stiffness than tape-measure elements when running or in the wind, but isn't really designed to support tumbling runners! One half of each of the leading two elements sheared off at the PVC support boom, and the PVC coupler at the second element split in two.

I had two good elements and half of two others, with the braid on the broken elements connected but no mechanical support to hold them horizontal. I was able to jam the stub of the second element into the broken coupling and hold it in place with a twig. The front element stub was sheared cleanly at the pipe coupling. I was able to wedge it between the end of the feeder and the coupling to hold it in place, more or less.

This all took a few minutes to accomplish, I wasn't sure if I really was in a position to continue at all. But, I knew where I was on the map, and the finish was marked. Changing to the finish beacon verified that I still had some directivity, but a fragile rig would slow me down and I hadn't found any transmitters yet.

I switched back to the hunt frequency. T2 was on, cycle number three. Still south and a bit west of me, but with reflections and bounces not a very precise bearing. I don't need to find T2, but knowing its vicinity helps rule it out. I continued south. Transmitter four came on, also west and almost in line with three but a bit weaker. One, three, four, five seemed the best choice. I felt T1 was further south, and I jogged south on the trail. Five came on and was definitely behind me and close to the finish. I switched to the finish beacon frequency to get a relative bearing from five to the finish. I put in near the dirt road between the exclusion circles. Back to the hunt frequency. T1 came on strong and behind me to the northeast. I had passed it. Back up the trail and I spotted the control flag up a hillside. I ran back and got it after it went off, 16:41 according to SportIdent.

At this point I needed to go south and west. Of course the terrain was a number of rock faces and cliffs 90 degrees to the way I wanted to go. Lots of small trails and passages through them, though. Well, I'll probably get lost on the map, but I know which way I need to go. I headed in the general direction of 3, southwest. Paying more attention to the direction I'm heading than identifying features, indeed I lose my place on the map amidst parallel features of rock faces. Three comes on again, now to the west and stronger. My earlier bearings had it further south. Onward. Four is also now more or less west of me.

Next cycle, T3 comes on strong, east and slightly south. I've over-run it slightly. A quick scramble up a huge rock face and I find it as it goes off. Bob Frey is right behind me coming from the other direction. Westward to T4. By now I have a general idea of where I am on the map based on the bearings to T1 and the finish. Up to a high spot quickly before T4 goes off for a better bearing. Yep, west and a bit north. Nasty terrain between me and T4 forces me to go north of a direct path. I find a trail that helps me find my place on the map again. T4 comes on and it's still to the west and south. Stronger and I run like crazy to get in the vicinity when it goes off. Looking around, I walk right by it without seeing it waiting for it to come on again, and head up the hill beyond it to the south. Transmitter five comes on and it's obvious I'll take the northeast trail once I find T4.

Another hunter is in the vicinity also looking for T4. Next cycle we both charge down the hill and nail it. On to the trail to T5. Bearings are a bit hazy but it's northeast for sure.

I come out on a plateau south of the road with strong signals as T5 goes off. It could be north or south of the road, so I look around and wait. Bob Cooley is also looking, he's a bit closer to the road. Next cycle T5 comes on and I see Bob sprint northward. Drat! I guessed wrong, it's across the road. I charge down the hill and cross the road, looking around as the signal is quite strong. More frantic searching and waiting as the transmitter shuts off. So close, it has to be right here! Finally spot it, punch in and sprint to the finish. 1:12:52, good enough for second place. Once again I'm April's customer in the first aid area. That spill at the beginning took some skin off of my knee.

Photo by Richard Thompson, WA6NOL