Fox Hunt

[Bob McCracken]

Fantastic Fox Hunt this evening, not to hot and no thunderstorms.

Steve and I got set up and started transmitting at 6:45

Randy and Cowels found us in record time (doppler)

Corey and his wife came in second (doppler)

John and his team rolled in for third place (old school yagi)

And doing a fantastic job of solo hunting, Fred made it with 4 minutes to spare. (old school yagi)

Riley had to cancel at the last minute with a work related incident... but, thank you Riley for keeping our Social Security checks coming in.

We did not hear anything from David (TJ) but he too may have had a last minute schedule change.

As a reminder these hunts are held in place of the A.R.E.S. nets. So be sure to turn in your "time spent" to David when asked. The hope is to keep a group of local operators and their equipment ready and in practice "if hands and boots on the ground" are ever needed in the event of an actual emergency. It's about team work laced with communications and fun.

Hope to see you at the next hunt

Bob

n4jgo

[Randy]

Thanks again Bob, always enjoy these.

Randy

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[David Tanks]

I was there! Just not successful in pinning down where that crafty fox was.

One problem: I was using a Baofeng UV-5RX3 HT. Noticed that it did not have a

signal strength meter! Very strange, made it difficult to find the proper direction. 

Had to depend on the audio from the Fox.

Got home, looked at my Baofeng UV-5RIII: it does have a meter, but it is very small

and difficult to read. Got out my Yaesu FT-65; guess what? It has a several-bars-length

signal meter! Guess which one I will take on the next hunt!?!

I used a tape-measure antenna, which is ok, with a stepped attenuator. The closest

I got was figuring out that the Fox was somewhere in the neighborhood behind the

Iguana Azul Mexican restaurant. This after getting mis-leading readings (again). 

It was 7:45 pm, so I headed home. With a tape-measure or other antenna

type system, you are at the mercy of the Fox's timing of transmissions. Whereas

with a Doppler system, you are continously monitoring, and you just stop moving

while the Fox is quiet. I took 7 different readings; one of them was at Central

Virginia Rental; that one should have taken me in the right direction, but it did not!

Went to the Lowe's parking lot, where I had a reading of ~90 degrees; I went to  

Sharp Shoppers lot, took a reading of 0 degrees. Went into the neighborhood

behind CVS drug store, but could not get a consistently strong reading.

One thing I could do is change frequency a little to get a better dip.

Also thinking of an offset attenuator.

I do have a TDOA set-up that I need to finish working on for the next hunt.

Looking at possible purchase of a Doppler unit for the future.

Congrats on the winners and all of the hunters! 

And thanks to Bob for being so crafty!

David AD4TJ

Bob  N4JGO

[Greg, KW6GB]

David,

I use an offset attenuator with my tape measure Yagi to great effect. The combination let's me completely kill the fox signal until I'm nearly looking at it.

Greg, KW6GB

[Baldwin Corey]

One of the tricks I always used on a strong signal or to figure if I was out by 180° was to dial up or down in frequency on the radio until I could barely hear the signal then scan my yagi around trying to find the peak. For instance, if the fox is on 145.575, then dial down to 145.570 or up to 145.580 in the smallest increments your radio allows. It can really help narrow it down and no other hardware is needed. If it is in your null, many times the signal is completely gone, only the main lobe would pick it up. You can also change your antenna polarity to attenuate further by laying your yagi horizontal instead of vertical.

73,

Corey - KO4CTF

[David Tanks]

Thanks, Greg and Corey, for the info! 

I finally found online at hamradiostuff.com, an assembled offset attenuator,

which I immediately ordered! $45.99 shipped!

And I will program into my Yaesu FT-65 besides 146.565, also 146.575 and

146.570 (or just use the VFO mode), along with the 2nd and 3rd harmonics

of 146.565: 293.130 and 439.695. as suggested in the YouTube link below.

More fun to follow! 

David AD4TJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGoosOn-SOg

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