It’s been a while since the last Internet Table-Top Rally; apologies if you’ve missed them, sometimes other matters intrude on my leisure time for ITTRs and fund raising. But maybe you welcomed the break as I did, but it’s time to re-charge your navigation and plotting skills. The “In Spheight Of All The Danger” TT rally will be running in February. This will be a refresher and warm-up for the annual Table-Top Rally Championship later this year.

The “In Spheight Of All The Danger” Internet Table-Top Rally is so named for two reasons. As a Beatles fan, “In Spite Of All The Danger” is a significant recording in the Beatles history; Google it, if you are interested. More appropriately it is a table-top rally using navigation based entirely on sp(ot)heights, which will define routes through or close to Danger Areas on OS maps.

Spot heights will be used as primary via points (to be passed through or avoided) and secondary, where a spot height number or location is used as a means of defining other non-spot height via points. The resulting navigation will be straightforward, but attention to choosing the shortest and correct route between points will be required.

The Hint System will be used whereby a modest penalty will be applied to have the route fully revealed. So it will be easy to answer the twelve Route Cards, all of which will count to decide overall positions.

There will be No Entry Fee. There should enough reserve in the ITTR bank account to cover hosting/routing fees, and a few prizes for the top competitors. BUT as always you are encouraged to show your thanks by making a self-certified donation to your favourite charity. Any amount that you are comfortable with will do, but £10 (or more!) would be great. Your nominated charity will be shown on the Entry List but the amount will be kept private.

For the duration of the event, every entry will be given free access to OFCAWS, my on-line mapping application. You may find it useful generally or specifically for solving some Route Cards.

 

OFCAWS is a browser-based mapping application that uses maps from various providers: Ordnance Survey, Google, Open Street and others.

The core of the application has been used for 8 years in the Table-Top Rallying website. As a private, standalone mapping tool it has been used for route planning, rallying and geocaching. This public version was released in August 2020 and the majority of subscription fees are donated to charity.

In July 2020 Ordnance Survey rolled out its new digital map series (OS Data Hub), and OFCAWS was one of first applications to use this technology.

OFCAWS has access to the full set of current UK OS 1:50000 and 1:25000 maps, as well as map layers that zoom into street and building detail. Map sets from other providers are also included such as Google Road, Google Satellite, Open Street and specialist maps for cyclists, railways and history.

Features within OFCAWS include the ability to search for place names, postcodes and points of interest; find locations from map references, latitude/longitude and what3words; add markers to the maps; use Google street view; the import and display of files containing routes and geocaches; saving and printing map extracts; coordinate conversion and projection; a magnifying window to examine map details (Spy); and a measuring tool (Roamer).

The application will be a valuable tool for anyone that uses UK or World maps on a regular basis.

For geocachers, geocaches can be imported from GPX, GSAK and Pocket Query files. Cache-type markers are placed on the displayed map, which when clicked will display the cache details and logs. Screen and printed reports from the cache list are also available. Linkage with a geocaching.com account allows the extraction of personal notes and corrected coordinates for display, which can added to an updated GPX for download to your GPSr.

A FREE 24-hour trial is available by clicking OFCAWS. Thereafter a subscription for a year is £25 (minimum) - £20 (minimum) to charity and £5 to cover hosting/routing fees.

Your subscription will add to the £37,000 that has been donated to Cancer Research, Alzheimer's Society, Multiple Sclerosis Society, MacMillan Cancer Support, Motor Neurone Disease Association, Ramblers Association and NHS Charities Together since 2004.