Training Log Archive: cedarcreek

Event: US ARDF Championships 2012
 

Last ARDF practice before Mt Laguna. {Edit: The GPS track is for a fraction of the time. I didn't use it while putting out controls, and it wouldn't lock under the canopy when I starting taking the course down. Distance is about right, time---no idea.}

We used Brian's new 80m transmitters. I think it is this design, but Brian sourced the boards.

We used the full-size 20ft crappie pole antennas, so I was grumbling several times, but decided after taking it all down that our design is basically good. I would love to make some changes, though, in the interest of speeding things up and not having so many things to tangle. If you don't know, we use a fiberglass fishing pole that extends from about 4 feet to 20. There is a single strand of lampcord wire that is wrapped around the 4 foot section. You have to unwind that, then extend the pole section by section, detangling the wire after every section goes up. Then you get a set of radials, which is 3 single strands of the same lampcord, each about 20 feet long, and you attach it to base of the big antenna at a screw-on connector, and then you spread these out in three directions, at approximately 120 degree spacing. And you try to get it under any vegetation so people won't trip on it.

What I discovered today, which is probably completely obvious to anyone but me, is that you really need to slow down and put everything away nicely as you take the antenna down. When the antenna is deployed, basically nothing is tangled. Anything you do to try to get out of the woods faster is just tangling the cords, and you'll spend more time later detangling. I just methodically put everything away, and although I did not achieve perfect wrapping of the vertical element, I'm pretty happy with the result.

Finished God Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise. Really enjoyed it. It talked about "Shock Doctrine" type political battles where the disaster aftermath was exploited to drastically change things: Away from community control of schools, closing down of some housing projects dating from the New Deal, and a plan to demolish 70 acres (looked like 2 huge blocks) of historic homes and businesses to make space for 2 new hospitals, rather than renovating the one they already had. I'm basically convinced the people making these changes don't understand how much they are threatening the entire character of the city. (Full disclosure: I've only been there once or twice, so what do I know?) The documentary even shifts gears and spends at least a half hour on the BP oil disaster. New Orleans has a strong historical connection with Haiti, and Spike Lee makes the point pretty well that New Orleans is turning into "Haiti in America". The projects demolition was particularly damning. Sure there was crime there. But is the solution to tear down 1930s brick buildings that were literally built-to-last and put up cookie-cutter apartments with stick frames and drywall? In a hurricane zone? And what was done to stop the crime?---Nothing. So the demolition company got rich. The construction company got rich. It's not even clear they hired local people to do the work. So now they've got nice new apartments that are going to need replacement when they go out of style, and crime is probably going to be the same as it was before.