RADIO
RadiO CorOna BRUCE PATERSON (ARDF)
So what if?
I
t was the beginning of the first lockdown in Victoria - April 2020. How can we keep some sort of COVID-safe RadiO activities going? Something like MapLink for RadiO events. One attempt was made by Ewen to do a long distance direction finding activity entirely from home, with a single strong transmitter. Winner was whoever guessed the closest to the actual location. Previously I’d made a set of mini VHF Sprint RadiO transmitters. Traditional Bush RadiO (ARDF) has 5 transmitters taking turns transmitting for 1 minute each, spread over a typical Bush-O map, so a full cycle takes 5 minutes. Sprint RadiO, however, is more suited to a smaller area with smaller, lower powered transmitters with cycles of only 12sec each, forming a much quicker 1 minute full cycle. These transmitters had a new facility to be set to turn on at a future date, so they could be deployed a day or two before the actual event, without depleting their batteries beforehand. I wondered, what if I could modify the software, so that instead of turning on only on a preset future date, they could instead turn on every day at a preset time, run for a few hours, and then turn off ready for the next day? The lockdown rules then changed again, and with travel not recommended for sporting activities, even that sort of self-serve event wasn’t possible, but during lockdown I took the opportunity to add the every day ability to the code. Just put a * in instead of a date!
Off and Running! Next was Geoff Hudson’s event at Wattle Park which also ran for a couple of weeks. This was properly uploaded to MapRun as a normal event (but again with a purple map). Kristian Ruuska’s Yarran Dheran event had to be cut a bit short as Melbourne entered deeper distance restrictions in the second lockdown, delaying a proposed schedule of new events which members were keen to set. However, the new try-whenever format was working well, and some of these events have had some of the highest turnouts we’ve seen at RadiO events. We also got to the bottom of a software bug, where some of the transmitters were running for 6 rather
ARDF Training Activity – Deakin University
Trial Event It turned out appropriate to test the idea after the first lockdown. The test event was held along Gardiners Creek near Deakin Uni. MapRunF was used for control punching, just like for ParkStreet-O, with a 15m range set around the actual transmitter location. This also allowed the little transmitter to be well hidden, as it was going to be out in public for up to 2 or 3 weeks. The first event used the MapRun TestSites facility, which worked fine, but did mean MapRun didn’t record the results, so I had to rely on honesty feedback. The other complication was we had to try to obscure the transmitter locations on the MapRun map screen. A completely purple map, other than just around the Start triangle, imperfectly hid the controls, but was better than nothing, and we also asked competitors not to use the map screen – just use the printed map. Competitors could turn up and self-start any time within the 3-hour window, but leaving enough time to find them all before they turned off at 7pm. The Deakin event was declared a success, and it looked like MapRun was going to work well for this style of RadiO Sprint event. 24 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2021
Five Transmitters set up and ready to deploy and a sniffer.
