LMV Radio Check - 21/01/2011

Radio relay station at Shooting Box

Just spent the morning helping out with a very small element of the organisation for Mercia Fellrunners' Long Mynd Valleys (LMV) race, which requires a lot more infrastructure this year because it's an English Championships race.

After a bit of a dicy drive up the Burway Road to the Shooting Box, I helped Colin, John the radio guy and his son (whose name sadly I didn't catch) to set up the aerial shown on the picture above. This was done in a bitterly cold wind, and by the time everything was ready I was pretty cold!

John gave us a briefing on how to operate the walkie talkies and then we split up to test the radio comms from the various checkpoints. I had CP2, in Ashes Hollow where the climb up to Barrister's Plain starts, and CP3, half way down to the bottom of Callow Hollow on the other side of Barrister's Plain.

I ran down to CP2 from Pole Cottage, messed about a bit finding somewhere the radio worked and then jogged back up to the Plain and down to CP3 and did the same. There's no radio signal at all at CP3 but it's only a five minute walk up to Barrister's where its good.

I jogged back to the car and returned the handsets to John and then went to find our RO, Pauline Richards, and give her my "report".

Total today 3.2 miles and 920' of ascent (or about 25% of an LMV!)

Tomorrow will hopefully dawn pleasant and warm with no low cloud for a gentle jaunt round Kinder. Or it could be clag down to Hayfield and four hours lost looking for a checkpoint that isn't there (there being where I think it should be)!