Oyez!
TWO important announcements. Firstly there are a series of Belfry Working evenings on
WEDNESDAYS. The Belfry needs a lot of
regular attention if it is even to stay as it is, and more if it is to be
improved. PLEASE support the Hut
Engineer and TURN UP EARLY.
Secondly, the next meeting of the Communications Committee
will be on Sunday, 1st May at 11.30am at Dave Searles Cottage. We have made rather a mess of getting the
time and place right in the past, which probably accounts for the low
attendance, but again, PLEASE turn up this time.
NOW AVAILABLE. B.E.C. CLIMBING REPORT. Some
Sandstone Climbs in the
This is a report on climbs made on outcrops of sandstone by
B.E.C. climbers. The justification for
the report is that climbing techniques required on sandstone are different from
those required on the more famous local limestone. The effect of rain is small and on several
occasions it has been possible to climb in this area when limestone climbing
would have been impaired. Copies are
available from R.S. King, 22 Parkfield Bank, Pucklechurch, Nr Bristol, at 2/6
per copy Postage & Packing 6d extra.
Photoessay Competition
As a result of the notice in last months B.B., several
members of club have expresses their intention of entering this competition on
Photoessay lines. The scheme has now
been discussed with them and some basic rules agreed. These have now been expanded into a set of
rules for the competition as follows: -
RULES.
1. There shall be two basic classes. Class A for 2 x 2 colour slides, and
class B for Black & White prints.
2. Any members may send in any number of entries in
either or both classes.
3. Where more than one entry is submitted, the
subject must be a different one for each entry. Thus, the same subject may not be submitted by one member in both
classes.
4. All photographs must be the work of the
exhibitor. The processing may, however be
carried out professionally. The layout,
in Class B must be the work of the exhibitor.
5. The subject may be any aspect of club activities
and may be treated seriously or humorously.
6. Each entry shall consist of a minimum of SIX and
a maximum of TWELVE slides or prints. There ahs been some discussion about this rule and, as a result, entries
having less than six slides or prints will be considered. The exhibitor of such an entry may, however,
run the risk of disqualification.
7. A title shall be provided for each entry.
8. Connecting or descriptive words up to a maximum
of TWENTY words per slide or print may be used. The use of such words is not compulsory.
9. A system of judging will be worked out later by
discussion with the competitors. All
entrants must agree to abide by these rules.
PRESENTATION CLASS A.
Each entry in this class shall comprise a set of slides plus
an optional script. This script shall
consist of the words allowed in the rules plus instructions as to when each
slide is to be changed. The title of the
entry may be written down at the top of the script or be provided as a title
slide. In the latter case, this slide
shall not count towards the total number submitted. It will thus be possible to show 12 slides
plus the title slide if desired.
PRESENTATION. CLASS B
Each entry in this class shall comprise a set of prints plus
an optional script. The entry shall be
mounted on a suitable piece of hardboard, exhibition board or similar stiff
backing material. The entry shall be
titled and the script, if any, laid out with the photographs in any manner
desired. (i.e. can be put between each
photograph and the next under each photograph or in any other manner). Photographs need not all be the same
size. The only restriction is that
competitors are asked not to make their entry too large.
The closing date for this competition is the day of the 1966
Annual General Meeting and Dinner October 1st. 1966.
Reminder
It is not too early to be thinking of said Dinner! If YOU have any ideas of what you like Laid
on within, we would hasten to add, reason let any member of the Committee
know. Just think, You could start a new
B.E.C. tradition! (like buying the
Editor a pint?).
Letter
As most members know, the subject of Cave Communications is
one in which the B.E.C. is actively working. The Communications Committee hopes to be able to demonstrate a working
system at the B.S.A. conference later this year. It is thus interesting to see that our more
far flung members are also interested in this subject, as the following
letter from George Honey shows
..
34, Knightsbridge Walk
Billericay
To the Editor, Belfry Bulletin.
Dear Sir,
On my recent visit to Mendip I found the subject of Cave
Communication was causing much interest. May I add a few words and ask for comments from fellow cavers?
A present, the only way of communicating from cave to
surface or over a long ladder pitch is by telephone. This, of course, is inconvenient as
telephones are heavy and cables soon deteriorate when left underground. This brings up the first point. How large a piece of equipment will cavers
carry? I am thinking now in terms of a
black box the size of a Nife battery.
The other way round the problem is, of course, to use radio,
but we all know that you cant receive even Caroline through five hundred feet
of Mendip. It is possible to use radio
underground, however, in the following ways.
1. On a long Ladder pitch like Gaping Ghyll or in
any very large chamber almost any form of Walkie Talkie will do, the cheapest
at present are transistor W/Ts which work in the 7 to 9 Mc/s band and cost
about £8 a pair. They are, however,
quite useless through five hundred feet of rock.
2. If a discontinuity can be found, like vertical
fault, it seems very possible that Very High Frequency can be propagated along
the line of the crack. This method is of
academic interest only as the cost of equipment is likely to be prohibitive.
3. Communication by induction is quite
feasible. Already one successful
experiment on Mendip has been carried out. I feel an extension of Prews system would be to run an insulated wire
from the surface through the cave. Only
one wire would be needed but what would cavers think about leaving wires ion
the caves? The whole idea is to build a
system similar to the paging systems installed in hospitals. The main equipment would of course be on the
surface and all the caver would have would be something the size of a small
transistor radio.
4. The final system which is well worth
investigating is the use of low frequency radio waves which would suffer less
attenuation when passing through rock than do frequencies we listen to a radio
station on. There are some problems
here, though. A suitable frequency would
be 20 30 Kc/s and the aerial for such a system would have to be several turns
of wire right round the edge of a field above the cave or a vertical wire several
hundred feet long hanging down, say, a mine shaft.
James R. Wait of N.B.S. (
I would be pleased to hear from all cavers on their views of
what they want a communication system to do.
George H. Honey.
Easter 1966
by P.A. Kingston
Most of the members arrived at Heirwith Farm or Greenclose
Cottage on Thursday night with the exception of the Bennetts and Phil
Kingston, who spent Thursday walking over Ingleborough looking at Gaping Ghyll
and the so-called dry shafts of Newby Moss, all of which were taking streams.
Friday morning saw party of ten assemble at Bull Pot. After a bit of trouble with an un-booked
party, the pot was descended. The first
pitch of thirty five feet led to a wet pitch of fifteen feet. This was followed by a dry fifty foot pitch,
the first twenty feet of which is very similar to the Entrance Rift of St.
Cuthberts. The next pitch fifty feet
and extremely wet considerably reduced the numbers in the party. Roy Bennett and Phil Kingston descended and
Alan Thomas after descending most of the way, found his hands were too cold to
climb and returned up the pitch. Roy and
Phil then continued into a dry series and carried on happily to the bottom via
a pool with a deep mud floor. When the
return journey was started, considerable difficulty was encountered. After an hour of combined tactics, the bottom
of the fourth pitch was reached and ascended. The second pair (Trevor Birkbeck and Martin Hutchins of W.S.G.) reported having similar difficulty in a wet
passage at the bottom of the Fourth Pitch.
The evening saw the B.E.C. at the local hostelry. The next day saw a large party led by
Norman Petty descend Upper Long Churn and Alum Pot via Lower Long Churn. The waterfall from Diccan Pot into the final
chamber of Alum Pot was extremely impressive. Meanwhile, the Bennetts and Alan Thomas found a useful contact for
future trips behind the
Easter Sunday saw a vast number of cavers descend via Bar
Pot to Gaping Ghyll Main Chamber with excursions to West Chamber, Old East
Passage, Pool Chamber and Sand Caverns. Dave Irwin remained at the head of the hundred foot pitch to lifeline.
This badly timed trip resulted in arrival on the surface too
late to visit the pub, but we were saved from an evenings abstinence due to
Tony Meadon pleading his case to the landlord of the pub and thus obtaining one
large bottle of mead which was gratefully consumed in Norman Pettys tent at
1.30 in the morning.
A weekend in which more people caved than was expected, the
weather more miserable and the Northern Pennine Club more violent than at the
equivalent weekend last year.
Owing to demand for Belfry
places by visiting clubs, and the need to accept them whenever possible in the
interests of good relations and maintenance of Belfry Funds, members are
strongly advised to BOOK IN ADVANCE whenever possible. On Bank Holiday weekends, THIS IS ESSENTIAL.
Readers will no doubt wonder what has happened to the Caving
Log recently. We assure them that it is
not the fault of the compiler, but that it has happened that the right sort of
space has not appeared in the layout of the B.B. We hope to be publishing a larger number next
month, with plenty of room for this brought right up to date and other
articles. Thought you might like to
know.
Alfie
Cartoon
The last page of this B.B. contains another of the cartoons
by Jock Orr which have been appearing of recent months.
