4/11/1998

Saturday's fox hunt started at 9:00 am (well, close to it,) from
Theios parking lot. Hunters participating were: Bill & Jodi, KB8ZRE
and KC8ADO, Roger, KC8CGH, Dennis, KB8ZQZ, Leon and Ed, kc8aco and
? (sorry if forgot the call), Cary, KC8JKA, and yours truly, AA8LF.
Don, W8BQD, our previous hunt winner, called me (eh hemm, at the last
minute on Friday), and let me know he was unable to hide because he'd
be working on the installation of the new repeater on 146.700

Anyway, I hid the fox on the Rose Lake research property, on
Woodbury rd., about 1/2 mile N of I-69. Hiding was a learning
experience for me. I knew I had good altitude for getting a
signal out, but had neglected to factor in what good rf blockers
trees can be. It took 7 watts and a beam to get a barely audible
signal out from the parking lot to Theios. This lead to some
well justified complaints (believe me, I've been there) and I
apologize. (future hiders please take note: check out ahead of
time whether your signal will get out ok).

 

Not long after I got my beam set up, I noticed a rather nasty
odor wafting by. (future hiders take note: do not set up near
a dead deer carcass). :-)
Bill, kb8zre was able to get an initial bearing on my signal, which
he shared with the group, and the hunt was on. About 20 minutes
after the hunt started, I was first found by Al, wa8ily. He's our
unofficial winner, as I didn't get his mileage, though he assured me
it was low because I was near his home. Actually he wasn't hunting,
but drove by and saw my beam and wondered what was going on :-)
I'm sure a number of hunters groaned when I announced that the fox
had been found. (well, at least those that could hear my signal at that point)
Next into the parking lot was Ron Riggs, brother of Ralph (n8yqj). He'd
also noticed the beams and wondered what was up.
As the hunters signals started getting stronger I figured it was time to
hide a bit better, and traped off on a trail in the woods a few hundred
(thousand?) feet from the parking lot. There I set up my beam and
proceeded to transmit every minute or two, hmm, yes, the beam did
rotate a bit to throw hunters off. I also set up another fox with
an auto timer on a separate frequency about 100 feet away.

If I recall correctly, Leon and Ed were first into the parking lot, but
Bill and Jodi and Cary found me first. Leon's mileage was 16.0 and
Bills was 16.8. Roger logged in at 19.8, and though he did have a
nice hike, never did find the fox. Dennis disappeared from the known
universe and hasn't been seen since. I keep reminding him to go in
the direction that the signal is strongest :-) I called him
later in the day, and as I suspected, he was trying out his new
doppler system, that does have two draw backs: it needs a strong
signal, and you can't transmit near it without burning out its pre-amps.
needless to say, my signal wasn't strong enough and he opted out.
(sorry). Technology triumphs again? Had I known I would have suggested
a direction or location closer to where I was for him to start, but
remember, he couldn't transmit.
Leon and Ed are our winners at 16 miles, and very special thanks
go out to Bill and Jody for bringing the doughnuts! Our next hunt
is in 2 weeks, on Saturday, 4-18-98, 9:00 am, from Theios. Leon and
Ed will be hiding, with Bill on standby if Leon can't make it. (I plan
on hunting :-) My thanks to all who participated. See you at the next hunt!

John AA8LF

 ps If anyone's interested in actually meeting and talking about
organizing future hunts, please let me know. Perhaps after the
next hunt? If not, we'll continue as present, and I'll plan on
hunting every other Saturday if my schedule will allow

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