Piedmont Transmitter Tracking

 
Cary Towne Center Mall, Cary, NC
March 30, 2002
It was raining lightly as I put the transmitters into place an hour before the hunt. But by hunt time the rain had stopped, and it was a perfect day for a transmitter hunt. All five transmitters were hidden in the Cary vicinity, each one transmitting for one minute, sequentially, on 146.565 MHz. The transmitters were camouflaged, but not disguised. Little walking was required to get from the hunt vehicle to a transmitter. But, since mileage was a factor in determining the outcome of this hunt, the teams had motivation to do some footwork if it might cut down on total mileage. 

The red circles on this map show the positions of the transmitters. Transmitter #2 was located about 150 feet from the starting point, and was transmitting into a dummy load. At the starting point its signal was the weakest of all the transmitters. Interestingly, no team found transmitter #2. All the other transmitters were found by at least one team.

The hunt started from the west side of the Cary Towne Center parking lot, near the BB&T bank branch. Teams were allowed to start any time between 9:00 and 10:00 AM. The team finding the most transmitters by 12:30 PM was declared the winner. Any tie would be broken by the least mileage.

All the teams did very well. The results are presented below.
Results
Team Members Call Transmitters Found Mileage Score
Darrell Gammon
Dennis Herman
Tom McKee		 KF4URC
KA4ATK
K4ZAD		 1, 3, 5 11 3
David Brown
Paul Folmsbee		 ALØM
K5PF		 1, 4 30 2
Jim Heinis
Gayle Heinis		 WA4RCU
--		 -- -- Practice

Here are some pictures from the hunt. Click on a thumbnail for a closeup view:
 

K4ZAD tests body fade method prior to hunt.
KF4URC prepares for the hunt.
K4ZAD with more body fade practice. 
KF4URC's back-seat instrument rack.
WA4RCU and Gayle return from hunting.

Hudson Belk staging area.
KF4URC checks his tape measure beam and attenuator.
Side view of ALØM's Doppler van.
Front view of ALØM's Doppler van
Inside view #1 of ALØM's Doppler van.

Inside view #2 of ALØM's Doppler van.
K5PF and K4ZAD check out KF4URC's hunt equipment.
Hunter huddle #1
Hunter huddle #2
K4ZAD reveals his "stealth" conductive body-fade undershirt. He reported mixed results with body fading on this hunt.

Taking pictures of picture takers.
KF4URC ready to go.
NZØI refuses to divulge any fox secrets.

NZØI waits for more hunters to arrive..
K4ZAD's fancy dance steps garnered great attention from the photographers.
KF4URC shows what cargo space is for: radios, of course.
KA4ATK poses with the hunt vehicles.
Next time we're bringing some polka music!

The turnout for this hunt didn't reach six hunt teams or twelve participants that would have made the winning team the recipient of a like-new Alinco DJ-S11 2-meter transceiver. So the DJ-S11 prize will be offered at a future hunt. 

It was a lot of fun for hunters and for the fox. Thanks to everyone who participated! Special thanks to KA4ATK and KF4URC for their contributions to the pictures above.

Happy Hunting,
Charles
NZ0I
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