Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Salmoncon 2012 - Fox Hunt

This is the Salmoncon 2012 Fox Hunt Invitation/E-mail sent to the Puget Sound QRP (pQRP) Group.

UPDATE: I added some selected follow-up.


Hello All,

This is a survey of people who are planning to attend Salmoncon 2012, and interested in a HF Fox Hunt.

If interested, please respond with the type of portable HF Receiver(s) that you will use for the Hunt?

Salmoncon Pavilion - MAP: http://goo.gl/6DywX


Our Current Plans:

The current plan is to hold the Main Fox Hunt Events on Saturday July 14th.

We may also hold several warm-up events.

For the Hunt, you may find; a loop antenna, camera, headphones, portable GPS, and/or compass, very useful for some of the events.

Rules, Frequency and other details will be provided the day of the events.

Prizes will be awarded !

Several event reminders will follow on this list.


BTW: Hardware or Item Donations for the Event Prizes are encouraged.


Regards,
Eldon Brown

72 - Eldon - WA0UWH


Eldon,

I would really enjoy a fox hunt, but have neither an antenna or (I don't think) an appropriate receiver.

Sounds like we might solve the antenna problem as a group. A great project!

Maybe you could give us an idea as to what band(s) your looking at to do this on???? I'm thinking right now that my IC-706 would work but be rather heavy and awkward. Maybe a homebrew rx is in the cards.................

Alan K6ZY

Alan, and ALL

For the HF Fox Hunt, we will be in Near Field area of the FOX, and therefore shielding is almost more important than a good Antenna. Although with a well shielded Rig and a Loop Antenna, and using triangulation obtained from the Null (through the center of the Loop) should help provide good directional information, and using field strength as a indicator of proximity. Another suggestion would be use something like a KX3 or FT-817 with a dummy Load at the antenna, using your body for shielding to get direction and proximity.

Personally, I would use a cheap (or small) radio within an Aluminum Foil wrap, with a very short exposed antenna, which could be shielded with my body. Others may have better suggestions.

Some of the most successful Near Field Hunters, use the least sophisticated gear, others that are real "DF Hounds", use very extensive gear on Long Distant Driving Hunts. This is a short, near field hunt.

We will have several FOX Hunt events, so different techniques can be tried.

This is a "HF" FOX Hunt, but I would plan for maybe something around 20, 30, 40 meters. Most P&C and Salmoncon attendees have seen how small and low power my transmitters can be, and therefore should maybe expect some very weak signals.

To be fair, I can not provide any more details until the event.

Happy Hunting !

BTW, with all of my talk and preparations, Tess has become very interested in this event. She can not wait to see the FOX, maybe it will be as exciting as her Ball. Unfortunately, I think she will be disappointed :-)

Regards,
Eldon Brown


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