Thank you to the members that were able to assist at the first and one of the few events of our year. The Covid-19 rules had prevented all of our other traditional activities from taking place. As part of the Covid-19 Secure risk assessment the arrival times were staggered throughout the day and riders were pre-booked to avoid any over crowding at the start point. I suspect if they hadn’t pre-booked a lot would not have attended as it was particularly cool in the wind and at times wet. We had around 150 riders taking part with some travelling from as far south as Kent.
We established a good 2m net for the main traffic on 144.650. A small PMR net was also run to the non-licensed marshals that helped at two of the check points.
With little usage over the year several batteries on handhelds failed at control, even having been put on a top up charge the day before. A lesson to check in advance the condition of older NiMH cells. The main sealed lead acid battery used for the repeater unit also suffered a similar fate at around 15:00.
