Those people taking part in The Waendel Walk or The Dantre Dawdle may remember seeing some guys and gals
sporting yellow tabards with the word RAYNET written on them and wondered RAY who?

Radio Amateurs emergencY NETwork is a National force of licensed Amateur Radio operators who work alongside
the emegency services such as Police, Fire and Ambulance to take care of communications whenever needed.
Groups are formed into County or District segments and usually work within these segments unless requested to
help in other areas.

The group at The Waendel and Danetre Walks is Daventry Raynet Group and have helped with these walks since
the mid eighties.

The original duty was to be able to make sure that the organiser was kept aware of any problems on course particularly
First Aid or course marking not present.

This meant sitting at a checkpoint watching the 2000 + walkers passing by during the morning then moving on to another checkpoint to do the same.
All pretty boring. Then doing the same on the second day.

As this is an International event and the pubs along the route being open all day and were brim full of walkers taking a breather it soon became
obvious to check that all was well in these places! It also became VERY obvious that, until we became mobile, a lot of reportable things were
missed. No water at a checkpoint, route markings vandalised, walker needs returning to start point etc,etc.

We then altered our M.O. We split the courses into areas and patrolled that area with one mobile (given that there are 10km,20km and 42km walks
plus cycle routes, the distances covered by RAYNET personnel  is around 100+ miles each day plus the
50 mile round trip from home each day). We also sent a radio with the water supply van complete with operator, and also supplied shadows for the
organiser, the sign repair crew and initially with the First Aid coordinator. We even went onto footpath sections to find missing persons.

Eventually the walk had to be relocated to the Castle Theatre in the centre of Wellingborough.
This opened up a whole new can of worms. Surrounded by buildings, sitting in a basin, how do we get a signal out?

Sorted. G4 SFB had built a trailor mounted retractable mast, so for a couple of years he had to tow it at speeds of no more than 30mph max
(due to speed wobbles-honest) on the evening before the walk, then leave home next day at around 06:45
to get to Wellingborough for around 07:30. By the time we got up and running the walk was well under way.
Not a good situation.

The answer was staring us right in the face. Right across the road was a multi story car park. Permission was given to us
for access at 07:00 both mornings. We then park a spare car (usually mine) on the top open floor. Fit a Talk Through unit with mobile antenna all
powered from a spare car battery and leave it there. We access the unit by using low power U.H.F. This is received at the car and converted
into V.H.F and transmitted at higher power. A similar idea is used at Daventry except that the Talk Through unit is housed in a rebuilt windmill on
a hill overlooking the town.

Because of the amount of radio traffic the spare car battery takes a hammering and it always becomes necessary to finish
off the afternoon using the main car battery (MY main car battery)!

Event over day 1, pack up kit, disconnect T.T,unit and go home.

Sunday morning. into car park, meet up with G6 EGO to set up T.T. unit. Now remember these words. G6 EGO's job, amongst other work true,
is to recharge the spare battery.

The day progresses ok until I am asked to return to base as my car has run out of petrol?! I am in the water vehicle !!
Back at base it all becomes apparent. Guess what job G6EGO had forgotten? Quite soon after the start of day 2 the almost certainly dead
spare battery became the definately dead battery so the others had connected up to my main battery but to keep going had to keep running the
engine to recharge and ran me out of petrol.

Having found out the plot I replenished the petrol and left them to continue the recharging process. Something else I should not have assumed!!!

At the end of the event I remember saying "You go home lads, it's been a long weekend, I'll pack up the T.T. unit and follow on soon." WRONG.
My car battery is as flat as the proverbial pancake! and it is pouring with rain. I am on the OPEN top floor of a multi story car park but at least
I should have no trouble bump starting the car. WRONG AGAIN. The access road down is at the other end of the car park!
Aren't cars difficult to push on a level surface, on your own and the rain PERSISTENTLY running down your neck?

As well as controller for Daventry Raynet Group I am Chairman of Ise Valley Vagabonds Walking Club
who help with the Waendel Walk. This was an article I submitted to our quarterly news medium Spring 2001.