Fox Hunt 31
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Saturday, November 9, 2024
Starting @ 1130 Hours
Fox Hunters, Please Meet Up @ The W2MMD Clubhouse
Somewhere in Gloucester County
Family Fun Fall Fox Hunt 31
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
What a great weather day for the family fun fall fox hunt! Following the morning’s Tech Saturday Forum session on November 9, 2024, your Club kicked off a hidden transmitter hunt starting from our Clubhouse. Alex Duboski KB2YEF was the “Fox” this time, hiding somewhere in Gloucester County, New Jersey, with a cell phone and the transmitter he would turn on at the designated time.
After a brief introduction by Jim Wright N2GXJ in the Clubhouse parking area, 8 different hunt teams consisting of first time and experienced hunters formed up and checked in (so we all knew who to expect at the finish). Then a cell phone call was made and Alex the fox put the transmitter on the air!
With radios tuned to 146.565 MHz, could anyone hear it from where we were starting at our Clubhouse location? Those who had squelch turned on could not hear it. Nor could those with simple “rubber duck” antennas. Those with directional antennas could hear the signal as they moved away from the Clubhouse and started sweeping their antennas back and forth, but they were still not sure from which direction the signal was arriving. Could that be due to reflections? Maybe! That’s part of the in-the-field experience! To make sure everyone was on the right track before teams got in their cars, an initial clue was given : “Drive out to the highway and turn right. It is not before the water tower”. After this, teams got in their cars and started out. The hunt for the fox was on!
After getting to the road and turning right, the signal did seem to start getting stronger. A half mile or so on the way towards Mullica Hill the received signal became strong enough to break squelch, and seemed to be strongest when driving past the Ella Harris Park. Driving beyond this park, the signal became weaker again. It had to be in there somewhere. The thing about this park is it has entrances on multiple sides. Some drove past the park on the East side and then came back to the park on the East side, parking there. Some went past the park, then came back approaching it from the West side, parking there. To the delight of the fox, teams were entering the park from multiple directions. An on-foot scramble commenced as teams exited their cars, radio gear in hand, hoping they might be first to find the hidden transmitter.
Al Arrison KB2AYU and Frank Romeo N3PUU and his crew were first to get to the general area in the park where the signal seemed to be coming from. They figured out at about the same time that the signal seemed to be coming from an old tree stump they had found just off a walking trail within a wooded portion of the park. In tight competition, Al gets credit for being first to the radio, when he saw it first while hand digging through dry leaves that had collected inside the open tree stump. Turns out that clever fox had purposely buried the transmitter in dry leaves inside the tree trunk so that only its nearly invisible thin black antenna wire was sticking out. Nice job Alex!
After finding the fox, they stepped back to watch and smile at the other hunters that soon began arriving in the area. Using a variety of techniques, including “body fade”, “tree block”, and third-harmonics with their hand-held radios, everyone was eventually able to find that tree trunk, and then with great delight, the radio hidden in it.
Great fun! Well done and congratulations everyone, especially first time hunters! You’re veterans now!
When the hunt was over, we exchanged hunt stories and posed for a group photo. Afterwards, some of us headed over to Marino’s to catch a quick bite to eat. What a nice day for a family fun fall fox hunt!
Participants :
By Jim Wright, N2GXJ
What a great weather day for the family fun fall fox hunt! Following the morning’s Tech Saturday Forum session on November 9, 2024, your Club kicked off a hidden transmitter hunt starting from our Clubhouse. Alex Duboski KB2YEF was the “Fox” this time, hiding somewhere in Gloucester County, New Jersey, with a cell phone and the transmitter he would turn on at the designated time.
After a brief introduction by Jim Wright N2GXJ in the Clubhouse parking area, 8 different hunt teams consisting of first time and experienced hunters formed up and checked in (so we all knew who to expect at the finish). Then a cell phone call was made and Alex the fox put the transmitter on the air!
With radios tuned to 146.565 MHz, could anyone hear it from where we were starting at our Clubhouse location? Those who had squelch turned on could not hear it. Nor could those with simple “rubber duck” antennas. Those with directional antennas could hear the signal as they moved away from the Clubhouse and started sweeping their antennas back and forth, but they were still not sure from which direction the signal was arriving. Could that be due to reflections? Maybe! That’s part of the in-the-field experience! To make sure everyone was on the right track before teams got in their cars, an initial clue was given : “Drive out to the highway and turn right. It is not before the water tower”. After this, teams got in their cars and started out. The hunt for the fox was on!
After getting to the road and turning right, the signal did seem to start getting stronger. A half mile or so on the way towards Mullica Hill the received signal became strong enough to break squelch, and seemed to be strongest when driving past the Ella Harris Park. Driving beyond this park, the signal became weaker again. It had to be in there somewhere. The thing about this park is it has entrances on multiple sides. Some drove past the park on the East side and then came back to the park on the East side, parking there. Some went past the park, then came back approaching it from the West side, parking there. To the delight of the fox, teams were entering the park from multiple directions. An on-foot scramble commenced as teams exited their cars, radio gear in hand, hoping they might be first to find the hidden transmitter.
Al Arrison KB2AYU and Frank Romeo N3PUU and his crew were first to get to the general area in the park where the signal seemed to be coming from. They figured out at about the same time that the signal seemed to be coming from an old tree stump they had found just off a walking trail within a wooded portion of the park. In tight competition, Al gets credit for being first to the radio, when he saw it first while hand digging through dry leaves that had collected inside the open tree stump. Turns out that clever fox had purposely buried the transmitter in dry leaves inside the tree trunk so that only its nearly invisible thin black antenna wire was sticking out. Nice job Alex!
After finding the fox, they stepped back to watch and smile at the other hunters that soon began arriving in the area. Using a variety of techniques, including “body fade”, “tree block”, and third-harmonics with their hand-held radios, everyone was eventually able to find that tree trunk, and then with great delight, the radio hidden in it.
Great fun! Well done and congratulations everyone, especially first time hunters! You’re veterans now!
When the hunt was over, we exchanged hunt stories and posed for a group photo. Afterwards, some of us headed over to Marino’s to catch a quick bite to eat. What a nice day for a family fun fall fox hunt!
Participants :
- Al Arrison, KB2AYU (First To Find The Fox - Not In Group Photo)
- Jim Beury, KE2DRN
- Ron Block, NR2B
- Alex Duboski, KB2YEF (The Fox)
- Karl Frank, W2KBF
- Angela Metzger, KE2DRJ and Craig Metzger
- Earl Moore, KC2NCH
- Aimée Ortiz, K9RVT
- Frank Romeo, N3PUU, Kathy, and Jonathan
- Jim Wright, N2GXJ (Organizer & Group Picture Taker - Not In Group Photo)
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Fox Hunt 31 : Fall Fox Hunt Fun
Saturday, November 9, 2024 : 1130 to 1230 Hours By Jim Wright, N2GXJ Fall Fun For The Whole Family! No prior experience required. Meet at the W2MMD Clubhouse at 11:30am after the Tech Saturday Forum session on November 9, 2024 with your hand held 2 meter radio. Team up and check in with me in the parking area, so I’ll have a list of those that will be hunting. After everyone is checked in, I’ll have some brief instructions, then the Club’s foxhunt transmitter (See image on right) will be switched on at a nearby park by Alex Duboski, KB2YEF (the fox). Us hounds will then drive over together to try and find it. The basic idea is that the closer you get to the transmitter, the stronger the signal. The first to find it has the privilege of hiding it for others to find next time. Those who find it will step away to allow others to keep hunting for it. If anyone has not found it within an hour, we’ll help talk them in to the finish, where we will pose for a post-hunt group photo, and share hunt stories together. After the hunt, for anyone interested, there will be the option to head to Marino’s to continue exchanging stories and get something to eat there. Sound fun? It really is! Hope to see you there! Transmitter Frequency :
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