Signal strength reports from net check-ins indicated that the Fox transmitter was in the vicinity of downtown Hillsborough. Five hunters attending the OCRA breakfast formed four teams, and headed into town.

It didn't take long for all the teams to arrive in the vicinity of last year's (and this year's) OCRA Field Day site. The main transmitter was located on the grounds of Cameron Park Elementary School. This transmitter was running 1.5 watts on 146.565 MHz. Its antenna was a dipole suspended from a sapling evergreen tree on the edge of the school grounds. Two additional transmitters, running 50 milliwatts on 147.50 MHz, were stashed in trees near the playground.

Results

All the hunt teams did an excellent job. The top three finishers each found all three transmitters in well under an hour. Signal reflections from the downtown buildings foxed the fourth team, and led them well west of the transmitter.

This hunt was intended mostly for fun and practice, but an element of competition was added. The team finding the transmitters while logging the least automobile mileage was declared the Fox for the next bi-monthly hunt. The team reporting the most helpful signal report during the hunt was awarded $5 of Bojangles gift certificates. The results are shown below.
 

About twenty minutes into the hunt, KG4CFX gave the winning signal report, describing the fox signal as coming from a direction northeast of the intersection of Saint Mary's Road and Cameron Street. This bearing plotted on a map results in a line that falls right on top of the transmitter. Congratulations, and the Bojangles gift certificate, go to Chris Pope, KG4CFX!

K4SAR won the lowest-mileage award, and agreed to serve as Fox for the next hunt. Congratulations, Joe!

Lessons Learned

KG4CFX noted correctly that the short distance of the transmitter from the start location strongly favored the team that was most willing to park the car and hunt on foot. For the benefit of future "driving distance"  hunts: a greater distance from the start to the fox will help make the outcome depend more on each team's navigational skills, and less on physical fitness. 

The homemade chocolate chip cookies were appreciated by the hunt teams. It was suggested that the sweet rewards be announced in advance, so that everyone can prepare their appetites. Also, it seems, placing individually-wrapped cookies at each transmitter might provide an additional incentive to the hunters.

To avoid providing any hints to the hunters, I kept my vehicle well away from the transmitters until the hunters had all arrived on the scene. This prevented me from being able to witness each hunter discovering the transmitters. In situations like this, it might be good to place cards, labeled with random numbers, at each transmitter. Each hunter upon finding a transmitter would then take a card. A hunter could then provide the cards as proof of having found each transmitter, or the random numbers could be reported over the air to remotely provide proof of finishing.

Congratulations to all the teams, and thank you to everyone who participated on the Orange County ARES net.

The Next Hunt

The next hunt will be in May, or as close to that month as Joe Simpson's schedule will allow. Details of the hunt will be up to Joe to decide, and will be announced on the Piedmont Transmitter Tracking web site, and on the Piedmont Trackers e-mail list, once they are known.