On Sunday, May 20th, 2007, I attended a radio-direction-finding event for blind people. The organizers were Bob Frey, WA6EZV; Dick Arnett, WB4SUV; and Brian DeYoung, K4BRI, of the OH-KY-IN Amateur Radio Society. The impetus behind the event was the ARRL.

Imagine a big field, perhaps in a park or a golf course, with 3 to 5 transmitters, each in the center of a 3m radius circle (marked in flour or something), and a start triangle.

There is a person at each transmitter. A competitor who is blind or wearing opaque goggles stands in the triangle with a sighted official. At the start, transmitter 1 is turned on, and the blind competitor finds it with the directional receiver. "Finding it" means getting into the 3m radius circle. When it's found, the official says, "Stop", and the operators turn transmitter 1 off, and transmitter 2 on. (This happens really fast, like in a second or so.) The competitor proceeds to transmitter 2, and so on. If the competitor is in danger of hitting something, the official says something specific (I can't remember the exact words), and guides the competitor around the hazard.

This one was maybe 250m long with 3 transmitters. I think a better one would be 600+ meters with 5 or more transmitters.

18 months ago, I saw a Croatian video of an event like this, and I read the translated rules. I thought it was a neat idea, but I just didn't think it would be terribly interesting.

Having photographed this event (with two blind competitors and one sighted competitor wearing opaque goggles), and having tried it myself (about 6 or 7 of us tried it unofficially), my thinking has changed. I think this would be a really fun game to include at a blind ham get-together or maybe a blind school.

Getting the equipment for this is a moderate burden. It's not expensive, but it's not easily available. At least one good directional receiver is needed. We used one that costs about $200 and is made in Ukraine. We used 3 homebuilt transmitters (fairly easy to build) and 3 of our ARDF antennas (a little more complicated to build, but not too difficult). Once you have the gear, setting this up requires literally minutes---say 15 to 30.

The set-up we used requires at least 3 sighted volunteers, although "fully staffed" would be 1 official, 1 timer, and 1 operator for each transmitter. Hopefully some clever changes to the format can reduce or even remove the need for sighted volunteers.

One of the most interesting things about this was that the shape of the terrain and some nearby powerlines were bending the radio waves such that the competitors would run (or walk) a large arc as they approached some of the transmitters. When I did it, it almost felt like I was going in circles. It was pretty disorienting.

The two blind competitors were Dennis Schwendtner, WB6OBB; and Mark Senk, WB3CAI. The one sighted competitor (who wore opaque goggles to compete) was Jim Mannix, W9EMT.

It seems to me that ham radio appeals to blind people in a practical way that sighted people don't understand. I'm sure the internet is a bigger draw than ham radio, but having some ability to communicate from whereever you might find yourself is a powerful draw.

The one big change I'd recommend for any event where people are travelling would be to have a format that requires several opportunities to get out on a course. It's hard to ask someone to travel across the country for a 3-5 minute event, and with the small number of competitors we saw, it's not too much to ask of the volunteers to spend 4 or 6 or 8 hours to make this worthwhile to the competitors.

We used one "order" for the official competitors, but since the unofficial competitors had all seen the course, we turned on the transmitters in different orders to throw them curve balls. There is a saying among transmitter hunters---"All is fair in love, war, and transmitter hunting", so everyone took the curve balls well. (And I just want to state it clearly---the official competitors all had the same order. When we put on the goggles ourselves and tried it for fun, we "experimented".)

To my knowledge, this is one of the very first times a blind RDF event has been held in the US. I hope some more people try it.

My Photos

Official Website with more photos

On January 7, 2007, Marvin Johnston set a 5-transmitter 2m event at Lake Los Carneros Park in Goleta, California, near Santa Barbara. There was also one 80m transmitter. Results and Photos are here.

Here is a photo of Marvin with an unidentified competitor. This photo was taken by Joe Moell, K0OV, the force behind www.homingin.com and co-author of the book Transmitter Hunting---Radio Direction Finding Simplified.

Marvin and Joe are responsible for most, if not all, of the ARDF events in Southern California, and they attract more regular competitors, and more new participants, than anywhere else in the United States. Here in Cincinnati, we're envious of Marvin's and Joe's ability to get new people to try radio orienteering.

There is one thing I worry about with the Southern California competitors, and that is that the regular competitors rarely seem to set ARDF courses. Here in Cincinnati, we have four regular adult competitors, and all four of us rotate the responsibility for setting courses. Setting is a lot of work, but it makes you think about the map and the terrain and how the transmitters can be used to create interesting courses. It's a good way to become a better competitor.

I've been so busy with other things that I haven't worked on my 2007 resolutions. I will soon. I know I'm going to think about two things for sure: How to attract new people to events, and how to make better, more interesting courses.

I once reversed the battery leads on a transmitter (an ATX-80), with the results you'd expect. It was like a little firecracker. I blew the side off a capacitor, smoked the IC, and fried the FET.

It was my fault. It was my first time setting an ARDF course, and I slept about 45 minutes the night before. In my sleep-deprived haze, I got confused and hooked up the battery backwards.

That did NOT happen to Dick Arnett on Sunday. It wasn't his fault. Honest. Check this out:

How in the world did that happen? It's a brand-new battery!

If you're not sure what's wrong, here's a good battery:

For those of you who have no idea what's wrong, note the negative sign in the bad battery. This sealed, lead-acid battery (SLA) has been manufactured with reversed polarity. I'd expect the battery to be designed so that this couldn't happen. Can anyone offer a reasonable explanation?

Here is a bigger photo of the two together.

On October 15, 2006, the 2m British Championships was held at New Greenham Common near Newbury in Berkshire, UK. The course setter was Bob Titterington, G3ORY.

The results page includes a map; an account by the M60 champion, Robert Vickers, G3ORI; and a course analysis showing optimum orders.

There are also some results, maps, and accounts from other Great Britain events (click, then scroll down).