By the looks of things at the August 23rd Rack meeting folks are quite excited about foxhunting and are ready to get involved in learning more about this ham radio sport.  After presenting my 1991 slide show which illustrated just how much fun foxhunting can be, we were then given a presentation by Lyle Juroff K9FIK, who has been foxhunting for years and is considered by many to be the authority in the field of transmitter hunting as well as equipment design.  Just before his presentation Lyle made a donation of several attenuators to be given away as door prizes at the Aug club meeting.   

After his presentation, Lyle discussed the proper use of many different pieces  of equipment that he had brought in as well as equipment that was brought in by others in the club. There were many different equipment configurations shown ranging from the very simple loop, to the more sophisticated Doppler systems.

After the equipment demos, we then moved downstairs to the parking lot where we participated in a Doppler demonstration presented by Lyle (K9FIK) and a parking lot style fox hunt following the demo.

All in all everyone had a great time and seemed eager to move on to the foxhunt that was scheduled for 9:00 AM Saturday the 25th.

August 25th rolled around quickly, and as promised the fox transmitter site was set up and the fox net began taking check ins at 9:00 AM on the club's (147.30 MHz) repeater.

Calls trickled in and the hunters were serious about finding me. I noticed  that some were in one vehicle as a team, while others were going it alone. The fox transmitter was located in a neighborhood which is a fair distance from any main roads and was  running 2 watts output into a 5/8 wave mag mount antenna on my car. The signal was cycled on 30 seconds and then off for 30 seconds followed by my call sign in cw.

The first one in was Lyle,K9FIK, with the Doppler system that we saw demonstrated at the club meeting. His time was a mere 45 minutes from start to finish, and was followed up by the Joe, Randy and Jim's team, all arriving 10 minutes later in Jim's vehicle. Third place was taken by none other than Ron Russell ,K4TJY who was using a loop and some other secret weapon stuff that was pretty interesting.

No foxhunt is complete without the post hunt critique clinic which usually takes place in a local coffee shop or pizza parlor. We met at Shoneys and discussed what the next foxhunt project should be. Lots of food was consumed and a good bit of brainstorming  provided a map for the next project. Look over the pictures and stay tuned to the RACK nets and newsletter for the next fox event. We would also welcome any suggestions or critiques.  Just send them to N4IJL@comcast.net

73's and Happy foxhunting

Jerry Whetstone N4IJL