Radio Orienteering (a.k.a ARDF) in Boston.

The thirteenth annual USA ARDF Championships will take place on the second week and weekend of October 2013 in the Birkhead Mountain Wilderness near Asheboro, North Carolina. This year’s USA Championships are being combined with the Seventh ARDF Championships of International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 (North and South America). The competitive courses will be open to anyone of any age, with or without an Amateur Radio license.

The training sessions, sprints and foxoring will be October 9 - 11, followed by full-course 2m and 80m competitions on the weekend of October 12 - 13, followed by awards ceremonies.

Organizing these championships are Joseph Huberman K5JGH, the Event Director, and Ruth Bromer WB4QZG, the Registrar. Setting the courses will be Nadia Scharlau with radio support by Charles Scharlau NZ0I. Sponsoring organization is the Backwoods Orienteering Klub.

Registration is now open. Latest event information, directions, rules and detailed schedule are in the official 2013 USA/R2 ARDF Championships Web site (www.ardf.us). Transmitter parameters and suggestions for nearby lodging and dining will be added soon. More information about ARDF in the USA is in the Homing In Web site (www.homingin.com).

Joe Moell K0OV
USA ARDF Coordinator

News

I will host 80 meters training on April 7th and 8th at Blue Hills.

1. Saturday start time 13:00 - meet at Houghton Pond Parking lot at 12:30
2. Sunday start time 11:00 - meet at Houghton Pond Parking lot at 10:30

Anyone welcome. Training is free, maps and received provided.

Please let me know if you coming so I can print enough maps and bring receivers.

Local Events

The mountains east of San Diego, California will be the site of USA’s annual championships of on-foot transmitter hunting during the week and weekend after Memorial Day, 2012.

Activities will get under way on Wednesday and Thursday, May 30 - 31, when an optional two-day “training camp” will take place. The official championships opening will take place on Friday, June 1 with practice and equipment testing sessions. The two-meter contest will take place on Saturday, June 2, after which all will gather for a banquet in the evening. Sunday’s schedule includes the 80-meter contest and an awards ceremony, timed to end in mid-afternoon to accommodate those who must hurry home.

Primary sponsor of the Twelfth USA ARDF Championships is the Los Angeles Orienteering Club. Chair of the organizers is Marvin Johnston KE6HTS.

These championships are a qualifying event for ARDF Team USA, which is forming to compete at the Sixteenth IARU ARDF World Championships in Serbia during September. Team members will be selected based on performance in these 2012 USA Championships and the 2011 USA Championships near Albuquerque.

The official event Web page will be available soon with lodging information and registration forms. In the meantime, the latest information is posted at www.homingin.com. For questions and regular updates, you can subscribe to a special group mailing list for participants and others interested in these championships by sending e-mail to usa2012ardf-subscribe[at]yahoogroups.com.

Joe Moell K0OV
USA ARDF Coordinator
www.homingin.com
k0ov[at]homingin.com

News

2012 USA ARDF Championship will be held in mountains, east of San Diego, California on June 1-3. Those dates are firm now. 2 classic races will be held on Saturday and Sunday. Dates for Sprint and Foxoring will be announced later, most likely on Friday or Monday. There will be a training camp on Wednesday and Thursday. For more details contact Marvin.

News

Well, mission accomplished.
I just finished working prototype of e-compass built around 16F887 with +/- 2 degrees accuracy. It mission simply to take a bearing and “color” bearing with the sound when you rotate your thumb (or receiver if you mount it on receiver). All done with one button and minimal components: PIC itself - on PCB PIC16F886 will be used instead of 887 - it has less pins, tilt-compensated compass HMC6343, few resistors and capacitors(8 total), Xtal, push button. This is all you need to build a precise “thumb” e-compass. I spent just few days to go from nothing to working prototype, and never done any PIC design or programming before.
I have to acknowledge if I would not have 20+ years of programming I would not get this project done by simply looking at sometimes confusing data-sheets. I end up with under 100 lines of code to take a bearing, store it, show it on LCD and highlight a bearing with sound for +/-2 degree accuracy(adjustable). Power consumption is about 4mA.
Now everything works as needed  and I have completely functional, tilt compensated compass with LCD attached. I use LCD just for better debugging,  but that was helpful to understand serial protocol. LCD will be removed and not used in “thumb” navigation. I learned I2C, serial communications, PWM, timers, interrupts, “clever button” technique.

Schematics attached to this post. If you are not going to use headphones and use just a PCB mount Piezo, you don’t need amplifier part and can connect Piezo directly to P1B pin.

compass

2009 US ARDF, Equipment, News

15th ARDF World Championship - My 80 meter route at Garmin Connect - Details.

News

15th ARDF World Championship - My 2 meter route at Garmin Connect - Details.

News

The ARRL Fund for the Development of Amateur Radio Direction Finding is now accepting monetary donations to support deserving groups and individuals as they expand international-rules ARDF activities in the USA.

This fund was first established in year 2000 with “seed money” from the Colvin Award, the ARRL Foundation and the ARRL General Fund. In its first five years, payments from the fund were made on behalf of 18 individuals to help defray the cost of their participation in three ARDF World Championships. Grants from the fund have also been made to the organizers of two USA ARDF Championships.

No further contributions are anticipated from the original sources, so the fund has been opened to contributions from individuals and clubs. All contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law and will be acknowledged by ARRL, a registered 501(c)(3) organization. Contributions may not be designated by donors to be granted to any specific recipient, individual or group.

Grants from the fund may be requested by groups sponsoring ARDF events in the USA and by individuals who have qualified to represent the USA in ARDF competitions sanctioned by the ARRL or the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). Requests for grants should be submitted electronically at least 60 days in advance of need to Mary Hobart K1MMH at ARRL Headquarters (mhobart@arrl.org). They will be reviewed by a committee that includes ARRL’s Chief Executive Officer, Chief Development Officer and ARDF Coordinator.

You can help support ARDF in the USA by sending a donation to ARDF Development Fund, c/o ARRL, 225 East Main Street, Newington, CT 06111. Checks should be made out to ARRL with “ARDF Development Fund” on the memo line.

The not-for-profit American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association of Amateur Radio operators, founded in 1914. ARRL is a member society of the IARU.

Joe Moell KØOV
ARRL ARDF Coordinator

2009 US ARDF

While I was on business trip in Kiev/Moscow I was able to compete at the Ukranian Championship held in Lutsk, small town located only 90 kilometers away from Poland border. This year M40 category has to find all 5 transmitters - same number as M21. I marked in RED members of Ukranian Team, who competed last year at the European Championship in Bulgaria. Valeriy Gerachenko won both day in M40 category in Bulgaria. In general I was not loosing too much even to M21 leaders but lack of constant ARDF trainings does not allow to get closer to leaders at this point. Below are results for both days for M21 and M40:

 80 MetersResults, M21:

M40 Results:

2 Meters results, M21:

M40 Results:

2009 US ARDF

Hi everyone,

It’s time to order US Team uniforms for the new year! I made some arrangements this year, and we can get same team uniform as US National Orienteering Team.

Here are some things to note:

1. All US Team members are encouraged to wear the latest Trimtex stuff at elite-level international events (e.g. World Cups), but not necessarily local events or trainings. It is encouraged but not required to wear Trimtex stuff at national events.
2. I’ve attached the design files for the US top and US jacket.
3. If you have old uniform, you do not need to order anything this year, unless you’d like to, but we will look better if everyone will have same uniform.
4. Uniform available for team members as well as for team supporters.

The available items for purchase in 2010 are:
1. Extreme Top $58
2. Extreme 3/4 O-pants $42
3. 3/4 Tights $42
4. Basic long O-pants $32
5. Trainer Extreme Jacket $73
6. Trimtex Socks $18
7. Trainer Extreme warm-up pants $55

PRICES:
- we get free printing and a 40% discount on Trimtex clothing (as long as we order at least 10 of each item)
- the prices above are inflated by 25% to cover exchange rate fluctuations and shipping

HOW TO ORDER:
1. Email me your order, including sizes. For the tops and bottoms, available sizes are XS,S,M,L,XL. For the socks, available sizes are 36-40 and 41-45 (European).
2. Send a check for the full amount you owe to “Tom W. Carr” at the following address by Feb 1, 2010:

Thomas W. Carr
9647 Trailview Dr.
Dallas, TX 75238

This year we ask that everyone pay up front - so make sure Tom gets your check by Feb 1!! Along with the check, please send your full name and return address, so that Tom can send you a refund check later on in the spring.

DISTRIBUTION+REFUND CHECKS:
- The clothes will be distributed upon order arrival, approximately in April-May.
- If there is money left over after Tom pays Trimtex (and we expect there will be), we will send refund checks to everyone who ordered clothing. This will be somewhere in the range 5-15%.

As usual, email if you have any questions(vadim.afonkin[ @ ]gmail.com).

Attachements: us_jacket,us_top

Vadim

2009 US ARDF