Piedmont
Transmitter Tracking |
|
William
B. Umstead State Park, NC
April 16, 2000 |
For the second time in 15 days a record was set for the number of transmitters
in a North Carolina transmitter hunt. William B. Umstead State Park,
between Raleigh and Durham, was the site for this Raleigh Amateur Radio
Society event marking National Foxhunt Weekend. Observers and participants
added up to fourteen individuals, easily outnumbering the six transmitters
hidden in the park.
The format for this hunt was in some respects quite similar to an international-style
Amateur Radio Direction Finding competition. Umstead Park is, in fact,
large enough to host a genuine ARDF hunt. But for this hunt, the area was
restricted to a region roughly 500 meters in diameter. All the transmitters
were placed within 20 meters of a foot path, so that no serious off-trail
hiking was required. (Which is not to say that some hunters didn't take
some serious off-trail hikes!) The six transmitters were divided evenly
among two different frequencies: 146.565 MHz and 146.500 MHz. A 30-second
transmit period was used, so hunters needed to wait only one minute for
a transmitter to come back on the air after completing its transmission.
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Photo © KN4AQ
Matt Cooney,
Chris Lawless,
Jacob Holbrook,
Rick Holbrook, strategize before the hunt. |
Photo © KN4AQ
John Swartz, James Heinis scrutinize signal strength. |
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The transmitters consisted of five Alinco
DJ-S11 HT's with built-in antennas running 50 mW, and one crystal-type
Wilson 1402SM HT with rubber ducky, running about 1.5 watts. Each transmitter
was controlled by a Montreal
Fox Controller, with customized
software that allowed the transmit interval to be adjusted. The transmitters
were placed in the park on the morning of the hunt, and individual travel
alarm clock turn-on circuits activated them all simultaneously 15 minutes
before the hunt started.
Photo © KN4AQ
Decoy or real McCoy? |
Photo © KN4AQ
Chris Petrich "logs" another find. |
Photo © KN4AQ
Hmm, which bag would you bag? |
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For beginning hunters, two of the transmitters were placed within 150
feet of the starting point. To make things interesting, a dozen decoy transmitters
were spread out among those two transmitters. Each transmitter, and each
decoy transmitter, had a 3 x 5 card with a unique 2-letter "control mark"
identification printed on it. Participants were awarded a point for each
transmitter's control mark they recorded on their score card. A point was
deducted for any decoy transmitter control marks they recorded. |
Photo © KN4AQ
This decoy was a real stumper. |
Photo © KN4AQ
Chris Petrich bags a live one. |
Photo © KN4AQ
"Is your radio saying what my radio's saying?" |
The remaining four transmitters were located in wooded areas within
the park, between 200 and 400 meters from the starting point. The red circles
on this map show the positions of
the transmitters.
Many participants were experiencing their first taste of on-foot transmitter
hunting, and as the results show, everyone experienced the taste of victory
over at least one transmitter. |
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Results |
Individual |
Call |
Club |
Real Foxes |
False Foxes |
Score |
Time |
Fred Decker |
N4IXL |
RARS |
6 |
0 |
6 |
90 |
Chris Petrich |
no call |
- |
5 |
0 |
5 |
89 |
John Swartz,
James Heinis |
KB1DLB,
WA4RCU |
- |
2 |
1 |
1 |
88 |
Chris Lawless,
Matt Cooney,
Jacob Holbrook,
Rick Holbrook |
no call |
OCRA |
2 |
1 |
1 |
97 |
Byron King,
Mark Gibson |
K4NGJ,
N4MQU |
JARS |
1 |
0 |
1 |
100 |
Renard DellaFave |
KC4AQC |
- |
1 |
0 |
1 |
110 |
John M. Guerriero |
KG4HDT |
- |
Observer |
- |
- |
- |
Dave Humphries |
G4ETG |
- |
Observer |
- |
- |
- |
Gary Pearce |
KN4AQ |
RARS |
Observer |
- |
- |
- |
|
Photo © KN4AQ
KB1DLB, WA4RCU
prepare their hunting gear. |
Photo © KN4AQ
KB1DLB, NZ0I,
WA4RCU |
Photo © KN4AQ
Chris Petrich makes some technical adjustments. |
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Equipment used by the hunters ranged from body-fading, to a four-element
log periodic beam. Most hunters favored the WB2HOL tape measure yagi and
an offset attenuator. Tracking the third harmonic was a helpful technique
for several hunters. |
Photo © KN4AQ
John Swartz needed three arms. |
Photo © KN4AQ
Chris Petrich, map, and score card. |
Photo © KN4AQ
KB1DLB,
WA4RCU set off. |
|
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My sincere thanks and congratulations go to everyone who participated.
Special thanks to Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, for capturing the action with his
digital camera, and to the Raleigh Amateur
Radio Society who sponsored the event. Thanks also to the Backwoods
Orienteering Klub, of Raleigh, NC, for providing custom orienteering
maps, and to Superintendent Martha Woods, and Ranger Bob Davies, of Umstead
State Park for their support before and during the event. |
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