| Located just west of the NC Museum of Art, in Raleigh, Schenck Forest
is a beautiful little woods, just right for a on-foot transmitter hunt
practice. Four transmitter hunters joined the 50+ orienteers navigating
the woods on this cool, sunny Sunday afternoon.
The hunt format was similar to an international-style Amateur Radio
Direction Finding competition. However, the course was short (roughly one
mile), and the controls were all located along major trails running through
the woods, so no off-trail hiking was required. No decoys or other distractions
were placed on the course. There was, however, an unusually large number
of big friendly dogs in this park; most of which seemed to be dragging
human appendages from ropes tied about their necks.
As usual, a transmitter was placed within 10 meters of five of the orange-and-white
control marks on the "white" orienteering course. The transmitters were
the same Alinco DJ-S11 HTs, with Montreal Fox Controllers used during previous
hunts, and they identified with a voice ID.
The hunters divided into two teams. They were given the choice of using
a "normal" map of the forest, or they could choose a map on which the locations
of the white course's control points were marked. The map with the control
points marked revealed the approximate locations of the transmitters, making
the hunt more of a map-and-compass exercise. This is an excellent way to
learn the orienteering aspect of this sport while becoming familiar with
the radio equipment.
Both teams completed the course in less than 90 minutes, and successfully
found all five transmitters. The results are given below. |