2011 National Qualifier No. 5

07 August 2011

The event took place on the Bristol and Bath map; a change from the more usual W-S-M map which would hopefully make the venue a little nearer for some teams to get to. The starting point for the 10 teams competing was the car park and picnic area in Leigh Woods near to the Clifton Suspension Bridge and accessible from Junction 18 on the M5.

The day started with very heavy rain which died down by the start of the event however unfortunately some quite heavy showers developed later in the day though luckily only for short periods.

Station ‘A’ (G4XWP/P) operated by Colin Boyce was 13Km NE of the start near to Pucklechurch. He was hiding in an overgrown hedgerow in an area known as Shortwood. This area was an early coal mining area and was covered with a number of old disused railway tracks and industrial remains which could be seen as the teams approached the area that Colin was hiding in. A deep ditch and hedgerow of Ash Trees and brambles made access to Colin difficult. The easiest access was by getting into the ditch via the wooden bridge (a railway sleepers bridge on the footpath), however most teams fought their way through the hedges instead. The antenna was a long wire with a number ‘tee’ joints tied of to various points along the hedge row.

Station ‘B’ (G3TRY/P) was operated by Graham Jones and was located 12Km west of the start between Clevedon and Portishead in an elevated country park known as Walton Common. Most teams went to this station first then used the M5/ M4 as the link root to the ‘A’ station, though the Bristol ring road could also have been used.

Three possible footpaths from the North, South and East all gave a run in of about ¾ kilometer though the shortest route taken by Brian Bristow’s team from the B3124 enabled him to locate the station after only 4 transmissions. Cover was sparse and the push-pull loop antenna had a number of ‘spurs’ leading into bracken helped to slow down a few competitors. Rosie was nearly second into the site however after missing Graham hiding between two tree roots; she decided to explore the bracken again! Alan Simmons was second into that site after its 5th transmission quickly followed by Rosie.

Tea was in the Wishing Well Inn (very close to the M4 for a rapid exit), however owing to heavy traffic on the M5/M4 due to the A370 being closed after an accident, it took a while to get the ‘B’ clock back.

Thanks go to Colin Boyce for his hard work earlier in the week erecting the antennas and Dave Dyer and Bob England who also assisted him.

Graham Jones

Position Competitor Finish Time A Time B
1 Brian Bristow 15:38:46 15:38:46 14:24:33
2 Rosie Merry 15:53:19 15:53:19 14:47:39
3 Alan Simmons 15:53:51 15:53:51 14:44:20
4 George Whenham 15:58:03 15:58:03 14:51:13
5 Graham Phillips 16:21:00 16:21:00 14:50:33
6 Steve Stone 16:21:06 16:21:06 14:51:41
7 Geoffrey Foster 16:21:16 16:21:16 14:50:52
8 Paul Clark 16:26:33 16:26:33 14:46:12
9 John Mullins 15:28:49 - 15:28:49
10 Bill Pechey 15:45:28 15:45:28 -