The British Caving Association

This is to confirm that the CREG Spring 2018 field meeting will take place over the weekend of Saturday 28th April /Sunday 29th April.
We will be based at Snailbeach Mine in Shropshire.

This old lead mine offers good access to underground and suitable surface locations for the wide range of activities that we expect.

This represents a change in geology from our usual field meeting locations and it is already known that HeyPhone performance is relatively challenging here, so it will be interesting to see how other systems perform, especially those using other frequencies.

I’ll update on what we believe people will be bringing along / planning to do a little closer to the weekend.

For those staying the weekend, there are bunk barns, YHA and pubs offering accommodation in the vicinity. I’ll post details in a few days.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, or plan to bring something along, please let me know.
Rob
creg-editor@bcra.org.uk

The upcoming CREG Field Meeting, scheduled for 28th/29th April is promising a wide range of technology if it all comes together as planned.

Accommodation:
Unlike recent field meetings there is no convenient ‘turn-up and doss’ caving club bunk barn nearby. However, there is a nearby YHA https://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/bridges which also offers camping. Other accommodation options are available in the area.

Technical activities:
a. HeyPhones, Micro HeyPhones etc
b. A trial of FreeDV (digital voice transmission) over cave radios
c. Some SSTV (image transmission) over cave radios
d. Bat detectors and loggers
e. A TTN LoRaWAN gateway and node to review how well 868MHz transmission could be used to link surface sensors to the Internet
f. Very low carrier frequency speech cave radio
g. Radiolocation with Brian Pease-designed kit
h. ABC-MRT – a demonstration of an automated speech intelligibility assessment system not requiring human listening panels
i. IR photography using a simple Raspberry Pi-based camera. An outside chance of thermal imaging equipment, but no promises
j. Acoustic sounding experiments, looking at propagation of audio frequencies in passages
k. HF radio underground – more trials of data transmission over high frequencies between a surface station and more distant locations
l. LED illumination for underground photography
m. Whatever else anyone cares to bring along…

If you are only able to join us for one of the two days, let me know if you have a specific interest and we’ll try to arrange things accordingly, though no promises!

Rendezvous:
Friday evening – a number of us will be eating/congregating at The Bridges pub in Ratlinghope.

Saturday – Parking is somewhat limited at the mine and so we intend to set off from Snailbeach Village Hall car park (postcode SY5 0NZ) at 0930.
Late arrivals are advised to call me on 07768 030322 or follow the public tarmac road up the hill to the top. From that point you should be able to see us if we're at that point. There may not be room to park there by then, so it may be a case of returning to the village hall, but we can act as a taxi, if necessary.

This link should take you to a marked-up map: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mdm05b3xf4wwi ... 9.pdf?dl=0
Failing that, please email me at creg-editor@bcra.org.uk.

Sunday – Pretty much as Saturday, though call or email me to check that we haven’t changed plans.

Contact:
Coverage maps seem to suggest that there should be good mobile network access in the area. My number is 07768 030322 if you can’t find us on the day.

Look forward to seeing everyone.
Rob
07768 030322
creg-editor@bcra.org.uk

I've attached a better map of the Snailbeach Mine area, showing the car park and most likely location for surface activities.

We are planning to meet at the Village Hall car park at 0930.
If you are planning to come along and arrive later during the day, the best plan will be to find the surface party, as the mine entrance is kept locked.

Rob
07768 030322