FOX HUNTING

A fun club activity

The Fox transmits on the ARDF frequency (for 2metres that's 145.300Mhz) and we all rush about in different directions and try and find him.

The club held some 'show and tell' sessions on foxhunting and an antenna workshop to revive this great amateur radio sport.

Now we can go hunting.

We began at a very basic level, using signal strength meters to narrow down the fox's location and this worked 'ok' for a while. To really zero in on a signal an Attenuator can be used, which reduces the signal strength once you're near the fox. This helps to narrow the direction of the frequency you're chasing.

We held a couple of meetings and looked at cheap antennas, learned about simple attenuators and tried our hand at the circuits and metalwork.

Then a workshop to build a yagi was needed to build a lightweight antenna suitable to throw in the car and go hunting.

We've run a few Saturday Fox Hunts where someone hides in the bush and transmits bursts of Morse Code for 1 minute, every 5 minutes.
Hunters head out and every 5 minutes, halt the car, listen for the morse signal and spin the antenna around listening for the loudest signal.
Jump back into the car and repeat the process heading in a different direction. Finally we zero in on the general direction and then bring the Attenuator into play to refine the search. It's fun!

We also run some month-long static fox hunts where it is hidden in a building, but only transmits once an hour for a few minutes... people seek... notifying the Hunt Master with their 'best guess'. At the end of the time the 'finders' are announced.

If this is something that you think could be fun for your club or friends, you can get into it for a few dollars and have some enjoyment from this facet of the hobby.