2012 BCRA Cave Technology Symposium - Update

[David Gibson]

2012 BCRA Cave Technology Symposium - Update
9th/10th June 2012, Priddy, Somerset

Message posted on behalf of Mike Bedford

Since the BCRA Cave Technology Symposium is now only three weeks away, it’s appropriate to provide some additional details for those who are already intending to join us and perhaps persuade those of you who haven’t yet decided that you really need to be there.

The event will be held in the vicinity of Priddy, Somerset, UK, over the weekend of 9th/10th June 2012. As a companion to the Cave Science Symposium, this event concentrates on areas of cave technology. With the growing popularity of the Cave Technology Symposium, now in its sixth year, we have decided to extend the event from one to two days to provide opportunity for practical demonstrations in addition to talks. The practical sessions will take place on Saturday 9th June and the formal presentations will be on Sunday 10th June. Admission is free to BCRA members and speakers or £3.00 for non-members for either or both days. Accommodation has been reserved at the nearby Wessex Cave club (BA5 3AX) for the Friday and Saturday nights.

We’ll meet on the Saturday at the Wessex Cave Club, Priddy (BA5 3AX) where changing facilities are available and from where we’ll walk to our underground venue. Please be there, ready to leave, at 10:00. So far, we expect Graham Naylor to demonstrate the new Nicola 3 cave radio system and Footleg will be using his LED-based photography and video lights. In addition, Mike Bedford will have some specially rugged and waterproof digital cameras to put through their paces and there is still opportunity for others to bring equipment to demonstrate. Later in the day we plan to visit the Templeton Shaft dig to see cave technology / engineering on a large scale.

On the Sunday we’ll meet at the Hunter’s Lodge inn, Priddy (BA5 3AR) from 9:00 for a 9:30 start and will finish at 16:00. Coffee and tea will be provided at nominal cost and meals are available in the pub at lunch time. We have an interesting and varied selection of talks on the programme but we might be able to fit in an extra talk if you’ve some exciting project you’d like to share with the caving community. Talks already planned cover the Nicola 3 cave radio, laser scanning of large cave chambers, the measurement of force and extension parameters on a rope test rig, LED-based lighting for photography and video, a new single-wire telephone, earth resistivity surveying for finding new caves, a review of new cave surveying software, and the use of high-frequency radio for cave communication.

For further information or to offer a talk, poster presentation or practical demonstration, please contact the Lecture Secretary, Mike Bedford, at BedfordMD@aol.com. If you’d like to book accommodation, please contact Allan Richardson at allanr@caving.demon.co.uk.If you haven't already done so, you might also like to consider subscribing to the mailing list for the Technology Symposium – see http://list.bcra.org.uk – or check the CREG forum, http://bcra.org.uk/cregf for further announcements.

Please note that the dates referred to in this announcement replace the earlier advised dates in April.