Comments from the Organiser

Moving this exercise to the last weekend of June certainly proved more popular with entrants this year and the poor radio conditions didn’t dampen your enthusiasm. Bridlington School CCF were the clear winners by some 90 points, with only 15 points between 2nd (Essex ACF), 3rd (Hampshire & IOW ACF) and 4th (Sutton Valence School CCF). 1213 Sqn ATC, Merseyside ACF and Reading School CCF (in 5th, 6th and 7th respectively), were separated by just one point – and log sheets were cross checked and very closely scrutinised. Sir Roger Manwood’s School CCF put in their usual appearance and it was good to see Humberside ACF taking part again after an absence of several years.

Our ‘Western extremities’ were represented by Dyfed and Glamorgan ACF and what a pleasure it was to hear that lone voice from Dollar Academy CCF finally get off the starting blocks. (Early in the exercise, when the skip distance was relatively short, his signals reached Northern England only.) One ATC station submitted their log sheet from RAF Halton and Devon ACF took the very sensible decision to close down in view of extremely heavy lightning strikes.

The standard of log keeping showed a marked improvement and I commend, particularly, Hampshire & IOW ACF on their excellent presentation.

My thanks to Col(retd) Townend and Mr Wresdell for their most helpful and very detailed check logs.

Some of Your Comments

Essex ACF – This year’s competition was run by the County Signals Wing and supported by 10 cadets (4 girls & 6 boys). The team’s skill base ranged from Flaggies through to VHF and HF advanced signallers; we also had 3 of our “Rolling Thunders” on the team.

Cadets used our newly allocated County callsign for the first time and set up on Friday Woods PTA at Colchester. We operated out of a 10 x 10 tent and rigged a 4-antenna array. We had no generator for the night phase, so we were in “Cylume Order” during the graveyard watch. The weather was fine during the day, but at from 2200hrs to 0600hrs Sunday rain hammered down. The rain was followed by very strong winds – and at times we were hanging on to the tent for all we were worth, otherwise it would probably have ended up in Belgium! Conditions were good right up until 10.00hrs on Sunday and then things seemed to get difficult. The team totally enjoyed the competition and cannot wait for the next one.

Bridlington CCF – Bridlington CCF deployed to their field location at Bracey Bridge Farm, East Yorkshire for the exercise duration. The weather held off most of the time and never dampened the cadets’ willingness to participate fully in the competition. The whole weekend was a training success.

Devon ACF – At the weekend we were using a PRC320 and dipole set up. The young cadets with little experience in signalling, gained a great understanding of HF radioo experience in this exercise. Rain, wind and more rain. We had to close the net from 2359hrs to 0800hrs Sunday due to lightning. I praise the cadets and adults for their hard work and attitude over the weekend.

Competition organiser – Maj(Retd) T Sugdon