The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I hear transmitters going "beep",
And miles to go ,  so awfully steep ; 
And miles to go ,  so awfully steep.

- with apologies to Robert Frost

The 2002 U.S. ARDF/Radio Orienteering Championships were terrific in every respect. Laurie, Sam, and all the volunteers did an outstanding job. The courses, the competition, and the food were all first rate! Even the weather, though on the warm side, didn't dampen the DF equipment.

I'm looking forward to the Ohio version of the championships next year!

What a wonderful event you, Sam, and the rest put on; I had a really wonderful time! Everything was very well organized, and I only wish I could get down to Georgia to run more of the ARDF courses Sam puts on.

Many thanks to everyone involved for a job *well* done!

OUTSTANDING!!!

Laurie and Sam did a WORLD CLASS job with the GAOC offering for the 2nd US Radio Orienteering Champs this weekend at FDR Park in Pine Mountain, GA.

Sam set excellent courses for one warm-up day and two competition days. I will let Laurie gives the details... but we had a ball. Folks came from all over the US and from around the world AND they said that Ssm's courses were as good as (and maybe harder) than the World Champs!

The sport owes a lot to Sam... he sure got us off our butts -- with E-lectricity! Wait 'til you see the results... many of our club members are US CHAMPS!

"Outstanding" is right!

Sam's courses were quite a challenge. Laurie was an excellent host and master of ceremonies. Robin, Steve, and Charlie ran the finish line. They were assisted by a host of local hams who came out to help with communications, start-line, and equipment handling. Everything came together like clockwork.

The radio-orienteers are getting serious about training; competition was tough. While I was sitting back admiring my medal from last year, the guys from Albuquerque and North Carolina were out running to get in shape for this year's event. They left me behind, as they raced for the finish line.

For those who are not fond of changing batteries while you're in the woods, the Dominies had a good old-fashioned orienteering meet. ...and some people had the energy to do both events!

The weekend was filled with great racing action, good conversation, and many happy faces.

Thanks again to all of the volunteers from GAOC, SF ARES, BGMRC, and other groups for making the 2002 U.S. ARDF/Radio Orienteering Championships a great success.

From a volunteer perspective, it was very nice to have almost a 1:1 ratio of competitors to volunteers! This meant that volunteers could compete, have an opportunity to socialize, and have some time for site seeing after their job was done. As meet director, I felt very assured having Sam and Steve take care of the courses, Robin take care of the registration and results, Kevin and Charlie on the finish crew, Bill & Martha at the start, and the Nehers cook our picnic, since these folks have come through for us before. It also felt great to have so many ham radio folks on hand, especially the SF ARES group (Ron Smith, Tony & Patty King, Henry Kelly and Rick Mueller) and (the other) Sam Smith, who handled the competitors' equipment with kid gloves, not to forget the special guests who gave great speeches at the dinner AND did volunteer jobs (Sandy W4RU, the ARRL SE region Vice-director, Suzan AF4FO, the ARRL Georgia Section Manager, Joe Moell KO0V, the ARRL ARDF Coordinator, and Dale Hunt WB6BYU, the IARU Region 2 ARDF Coordinator).

With so much help, I actually had time to talk with the competitors and learn a bit about their strategy. It was very interesting given that some competitors were more proficient with equipment but had little orienteering skills, some had competitive orienteering skills but little experience with the equipment, and some had a winning combination of both skills, such as our gold medal winners from GAOC, Bill Farrell, Martha Carr, Charlie Siler. 

About the strategy....

Sergei Storkov, M21, did most of his triangulation in the first 5 minutes.
William Thomas, M21, was from FL so he tried to learn the terrain and keep contact with the map.
Debbie Pendley, F35, never took her map out of her back pocket, she just followed the signal.
Valerie Meyer, F21, just wanted to find 1 control without getting lost. She found 2 and won gold.
Scott Moore, M40, had just started orienteering last year. He found 1 control, way to go!
Jackson Stump, M40, wanted to find 1 control in 2 hours. He did much better and got gold and bronze.
Many others said their strategy was, "Don't drop the radio, don't get lost, drink lots of water."

After the competition, I heard many comments about Sam's course setting techniques, but it's mostly stuff you as GAOCers already know. He sets challenging and competitive courses and you always feel like you get your money's worth. That's what the competitors meant, but it came out more like, "Sadistic Sam, Devious Sam, and a few other choice ribs." It was all in good nature though and we had a good laugh when Dick Arnett presented Sam with a camouflage control bag that his wife made, and Bob Frey presented Sam with a tiny control bag, which were apparently the only things that could make Sam's courses any tougher.

Sam got our pictures developed today and we're working on some nice articles for all of the publications, but I just wanted to get you a little update and to publicly thank the volunteers, competitors, guests, and GAOC for supporting this event.

Sam-It was a blast...even with me being temporarily disoriented. a couple of things. Second since the fresh air seemed to do me no harm, I would be willing to help out in officiating in future ARDF and non-ARDF events that GAOC sponsors, if it fits in my schedule of hamfests and meetings. Let me know.