2008 National Qualifier No. 6

03 August 2008

Fifteen teams entered this support qualifier arranged quickly due to the Weston super Mare cancellation.

Station A, G4XWP/P, Colin Boyce was situated on a disused railway line 18.5km from the start with a bearing of 358 degrees, near to the villages of Dorton and Ashendon. Colin's signal was extremely strong at the start with some teams thinking he was not that far away. It was a long walk into Colin's site and we thought it would be best to leave it until last. However, Peter Lisle, closely followed by Geoffrey Foster and Roy Emeny got in on or near the 2:30 transmission.

Station B, G4MDF/P, Alan Simmons was situated in a wooded area just below Tring on the Icknield Way. Alan was 23km from the start with a bearing of 54 degrees. Alan's aerials were more complex than Colin's end fed and stretched across three main footpaths with various gradients to scamper up or down. First person into Alan's station was Steve Stone at 14:44:48 soon to be followed by Colin Merry and Bill Pechey. Alan was hidden up the bank with an easy entrance from the upper field, but some teams preferred to climb up from the bottom.

Thankfully, the rain, which plagued us erecting these aerials, held off at both hides and it was Roy Emeny who found his second Tx at 15:50:39 closely followed after a long run by Peter Lisle.

Tea was held at the Fleur de Lys at Stokenchurch where both teams gave their reports on what went right or wrong.

Roy Emeny and Peter Lisle qualify for the National Final.

My thanks to Colin and Alan for their tremendous support and the DF teams for making it a memorable day.

Brian Bristow G4KBB, BTBDFA Contest Manager 2008

Position Competitor Finish Time A Time B
1 Roy Emeny 15:50:39 14:31:21 15:50:39
2 Peter Lisle 15:52:59 14:29:43 15:52:59
3 Steve Stone 15:56:28 15:56:28 14:44:48
4 Colin Merry 16:04:10 16:04:10 14:50:16
5 Graham Nicholls 16:05:40 16:05:40 14:55:44
6 Geoffrey Foster 16:12:03 14:30:51 16:12:03
7 George Whenham 16:18:03 16:18:03 14:54:04
8 Chris Plummer 16:18:43 15:05:06 16:18:43
9 Graham Phillips 16:23:09 14:49:14 16:23:09
10 Bill Pechey 16:26:32 14:51:43 16:26:32
11 Graham Jones 15:12:44 - 15:12:44
12 Andy Collett 15:14:36 - 15:14:36
13 Mark Coventry 15:16:46 15:16:46 -
14 David Ryan 15:51:05 - 15:52:05
15 Matthew Clark - - -