At the start of the Collier Cup round 6, there were eight competitors who all reported hearing the signal clearly and reading fairly sharp bearings. Most people thought the signal so strong that the station had to be somewhere close – Graham Phillips suggested up to 5 miles. Nothing could have been further from the truth! The site was actually some 21 miles away. Peter Lisle stopped for various bearings on his way North to North West only to find the signal coming from further on. He was so convinced he was at the right wood at one stage that he was surprised to find his bearing at a right angle to his expectation and on up his start bearing. He and others described their progress as hedge hopping up the map.

Just before 21:00 hrs, and as the operator (John Champion) was beginning to wonder if he had gone too far (excuse the pun), Graham Phillips and Peter Lisle turned up at his site in Kirtlington Quarry (disused). Once on site the aerial was easy to find and follow, despite John’s feeble attempts to distract with an extra earth spike and fence loading, those that got to the quarry tumbled down the steep slope to the TX without too much searching.

Afterwards, the signal was variously described as ‘Stonking’, ‘Incredible’ and ‘Unbelievably strong’. John put this down to his excellent site/aerial design but was soon put in his place by the technical experts who put the signal strength down to a ‘Stable Sky Wave’!

John Champion