HVDFA
Fox Hunt Rules
The Hudson Valley Direction Finding
Association's hidden transmitter hunts will be conducted according to the
following rules.
General
Rules
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The Fox will hide only in an area
that is accessible to the public without the payment of an admission fee.
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Events may be Mobile hunts where
participants hunt from their vehicles, On-Foot hunts where participants
use portable direction finding equipment to locate a hidden transmitter,
or a combination of both.
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At the discretion of the Huntmaster,
"Hints" may be given at various intervals during the hunt, and may be accompanied
by a POINT PENALTY for each team still hunting. Hints will be given on
the FOX frequency and on a nearby repeater, if possible. The times any
hints are to be given, along with the penalty value for each hint, will
be made known to the hunters before the start of the hunt.
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The starting frequency on which the
first FOX will transmit, along with the frequencies that will be used for
any announcements or hints during the hunt, will be made known to all participants
before the start of the event.
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Any hunt, or stage of a multi-stage
hunt, will have a Maximum Time Limit, at which time the location of the
FOX will be announced to any remaining hunters. These time limits will
be made known to the participants before the start of each hunt or stage
of a multi-stage hunt.
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So that all teams can hunt with equally
high enthusiasm, the FOX will not announce that the hunters are in the
area or that any teams have found the fox.
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Any of these rules may be changed
for a specific hunt if presented to the participants IN WRITING before
the start of the hunt.
Mobile
Hunts
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At the beginning of every Mobile
hunt each team will record their starting odometer reading, to the nearest
1/10 mile, to be given to the Huntmaster. Hunters will verify their reading
to other participants if requested.
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Effective March, 1998 each
vehicle participating in an HVDFA event should have an associated ODOMETER
CORRECTION FACTOR. This Factor represents the number by which the vehicle's
indicated mileage must be multiplied to obtain actual, true mileage. This
Factor shall be indicated to 3 decimal places.
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If a team enters an event in
a vehicle for which an Odometer Correction Factor is not known, the team
will earn an provisional score calculated without benefit of the
Factor. The Correction Factor must be measured as soon as possible and
will be retroactively applied to all results in which that vehicle has
been used since use of the HVDFA's Odometer Correction Factor began.
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Upon arriving at the FOX each team
will immediately check in with the Huntmaster by stopping in front of the
Mobile FOX, to record their time and mileage.
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Upon expiration of the time limit
for a Mobile hunt the location of the Fox will be announced on the Fox
Hunt frequency and on a nearby repeater, if possible. This announcement
will be accompanied by a POINT PENALTY for each team still hunting.
On-Foot
Hunts
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One member of a multi-person team
will be designated as that team's representative in the on-foot portion
of a hunt. Other members will not assist the designated hunter in any way.
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Before the start of an on-foot hunt
hunters may, from a stationary position, take an initial bearing on the
portable FOX using their mobile equipment. They may not drive around the
area while taking this bearing.
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A team's timing for an on-foot hunt
will begin when the hunter's foot touches the ground, and will end when
the hunter returns a numbered tag to the Huntmaster.
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A portable FOX will have on it, or
as nearby as possible, removable tags or slips of paper, each containing
a sequential number starting at 1. A hunter finding the FOX will take the
lowest numbered tag and return it to the Huntmaster.
Scoring