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    Reports >  2005 Report  Tour de Trigs

3/1/06

Up all Hours

It was definitely a case of up all hours when Mid Northants Raynet members assisted Banbury Raynet at the Tour de trigs event in the Banbury area.

Three members of Mid Northants Raynet attended along with one member of North Northants Raynet they were Bob G1UQF,Graham M0GCR, David Reed (North Northants Raynet)G6RCY and the Controller Ian G1BHR. We decided to all travel in the same vehicle to the event, so we met at the QTH of G1BHR on the Saturday Morning at 9.00am then took approximately an hour to arrive at the control centre for the Tour de trigs circular Hike, organised by the Banbury District Scouts. we introduced ourselves and had a welcome hot drink, other Raynet Units assisting at the event were Leicester, Hertfordshire, North Oxford, Warwickshire, Milton Keynes, and I believe a few others, which I can’t recall.

The equipment used was impressive, the Leicester Raynet unit provided APRS units (UiView) all in self contained packages running to an APRS receiver mouse and an external antenna, which were then attached to vehicles with a heavy duty Suction Pads, this enabled the control centre to monitor the complete vehicle coverage of the tour de trigs route area namely the personnel recovery vehicle and the rescue units, using a plasma screen connected to a laptop computer this was attached onto a wall in the control room. Initially some rescue units objected to having the APRS on board, but common sense prevailed and all units were eventually commed out by Raynet with the APRS and voice, complete with operator, we know because Mid Northants members did most of the installation.

This of course meant that units could not get ’’lost’’ and then catch few hours of sleep, while everybody else coped without them ( apparently what has happened in previous years ) it also had the advantage of ensuring that the nearest rescue unit could be dispatched immediately to any emergency situation.. All the equipment used on the vehicles and in the control centre was provided by the various local Raynet Groups and supplied to them by their local Councils.
Just before we installed the comms in the vehicles, we were delegated to the positions that we would be operating during the event, we were all prepared to do whatever we were required and requested to do and were initially appointed to be radio operators on the Mobile recovery Mini Buses ,there being six in all of these. There was a problem with one of the rescue units not having an appropriate vehicle, so one of the Mini buses was seconded to become a rescue unit this meant that the pool of minibuses depleted s by one and meant that the operators then took it in shifts to cover the remaining five buses giving them a rest period every so often.

Ian G1BHR was asked if he would mind being radio operator for the rescue team which he accepted, this meant that he was out all day and night i.e. from about 14.00hrs Saturday to when they returned at approximately 15.00 Sunday afternoon (don’t forget all the Northampton team had been there since 10.00 am Saturday.

The event was organised superbly by Ron G8 and his team, and all went very smoothly, the event was a Circular Hike of approximately 52.3 Miles in length over the north Oxfordshire and Northampton shire country side the majority of which was well off of the roads and on footpaths and bridleways the checkpoints were either in convenient village halls or bespoke checkpoints in the middle of fields or on hill tops, as well as the notified check points there were a number of Secret Checkpoints around the route these were placed at locations only known to the organizers to ensure fair play for those whom were playing by the rules and to highlight any rule bending by others. Rescue teams had the authority to stop any team on route and have a kit inspection as all teams had to have at least a minimum of specified equipment for their own safety.
There was also a roving Marshall whom as the name suggest roved around the route and popped up conveniently to assist in any problem solving that was required, this was undertaken by a Raynet Member from Leicester G8HUL whom has been assisting on this event for many years, There was also a closing Marshall whom walked the route behind the last entrants and was authorized to close the relevant checkpoints as he passed through them, he was charged with and did not pass any of the entrants in front of him and was also involved with sorting out the stragglers on route usually escorting then to the next check point where they could either be repatriated to the control or recuperate, take stock of the area and carry on.
The whole event was an exercise to test the Navigation skills (the route is not disclosed until20mins before their departure) their endurance and teamwork.
The majority of the route is undertaken in the dark. Although they start in daylight and usually are just returning to the hike control as the day is dawning, well the majority of them at least (we were told that the organizers work upon the rate of a 80% drop out rate).
This year due to a change in the envisaged weather conditions more than average amount of hikers made it all the way round the route. The age groups involved were from 14 years up to 25 years but I did see some whom were obviously older so perhaps there is no upper limit.

The volunteers were fed very well during the vent with the mobile operators being relieved at the appropriate hours to get their meals. Ian G1BHR elected to stay out with the rescue team he was assisting as they needed to ‘remain in the field’ so to speak rather than take time to return to hike control and then redeploy, they did eat though, and ended up a convenient Chinese take away in Middleton Cheney, which was in their working area.

After talking amongst the members , after the event we quickly concluded, that all the members had enjoyed the event immensely, had been made very welcome from the organizers and been very well looked after by the units they were assisting i.e. mobile or rescue team. All stated that they were more than happy to do it again next year, and perhaps introduce a few more members to this worthwhile event.