14. Up along the River Bank
When asked to run one of the Mid-Thames Treble Night transmitters by Bill Pechey, Chris Plummer chose a site south of Guildford, in a stream valley between two woods. The woods were bisected as they met at the stream by a footpath, and there were fences with barbed wire at both ends of the path. The stream had cut quite a deep gorge into the local soils as in meandered through the woods. The area next to the stream was quite flat and open being covered by flattened dead bracken and a few patches of brambles.
At one point the stream was dammed by a tree root and had formed a nice bow in its course. On the outside of this bend the brambles and bracken poured over the edge like a curtain, and the profile of the bank and bracken was like a breaking wave. It was under this cover that Chris cut a level platform to take the transmitter, and two crew members. Wire was led out two ways across the stream into reedy type plants, and on in both directions to join onto the barbed wire fence on either side of the woods.
When the competitors arrived they climbed over the aerial (barbed wire) and found only an open area. The TX Crew could have read a newspaper by the light of all the torches and still not be seen. Some competitors even stood on the bank 2’ above the crews heads and still didn’t twig the ruse. Eventually one team, having for some reason brought along an entrascope light, found the site, followed by splashing and cries from many others.