13A. Facial repairs.
On one National Final event in the seventies, George Whenham and Chris Plummer, ran one of the transmitters, in Salcey Forest, just ¾ mile from the start. This was a time before the design of a DF specific transmitter with variable power, so George and Chris put up only about a ¼ l of wire and used a single transistor 250mW TX with a Carbon mic. in the emitter lead to modulate it. The site was extremely thick forest, with thorn and bramble undergrowth. It took them 2 hours to put up the aerial due to the undergrowth, and 20 minutes to wriggle in about 100 feet into the thickets.About an hour after the start Brian Bristow dragged himself into the station, bleeding profusely from facial wounds. We did a quick sticking plaster repair and sent him on his way. We later found out that he had seen wire overhead and dived into the undergrowth to follow it, only to end up upside-down head first in a bramble filled ditch, thus the blood. We swear that latter competitors followed the trail of blood. However, when they emerged at the end of the contest, the thick seemingly impenetrable undergrowth was trampled flat all along the aerial path, so it took only 20 seconds to get back out of the site, and only 5 minutes to recover the wire.
Well done to Brian, as his determination was rewarded by an early win for that years final.