More Foxhunt Notes

[Randy]

Transmitter hunt notes from 9/25/25.

Reference the image below or, for those interested, there's a google earth kmz file with more detail attached.

Cowles and I started in the parking lot at St. Paul's Church on Rt 262.

When the signal first appeared, it seemed to be coming from the east, we started that direction on Rt 262. As we approached Springhill Road, the bearing was starting to shift more to the north and we considered turning on Springhill. The signal wasn't real strong here and the thought was to stay on the main roads as much as possible until we got closer. Approaching the intersection at Rt 11, the signal was definitely coming from the north and we turned that way. 

The directional indication was north from this point on the Doppler unit until we came to the point marked as "parking lot". We stopped there for a minute, noting that the signal was coming from our left or, north west on the map. From that parking lot, we can see a ridge about a half mile distant in that direction and were guessing the transmitter was on the other side. So, how do we get there?? Ugh, using a map on a cell phone is difficult for me under ideal conditions and this was no exception. Bald Rock road would be a possible path so we doubled back on Rt 11 to that intersection. Once there, and along the way back down the hill on Rt 11, the signal was getting weaker and had returned to the northerly direction. We made a U turn at Bald Rock Rd and headed back to the north on Rt 11 to Willow Spout Rd. 

Turning left there, the signal was getting stronger and we appeared to be heading in the correct direction. The signal became full scale on the S-meter as we approached Lea Port Rd, remaining such until the end of the hunt. The directional indication was to the left, southwest, as we approached Lea Port Rd and we turned that direction. There was quite a bit of multipath starting in this area and it remained a significant detractor until the end.

Approaching the Y intersection with Bald Rock Rd, it was a toss up as to which way to go and we went right. When in doubt, turn right, yes? We didn't make it too far down this road until it was clear that we had made the wrong choice. After a quick U-turn in someone's driveway, we went back to the Y and took the other path. We knew we were close at this point and the directional indication was still all over the place. It wasn't until we were within line of sight with Bob that the reading started to stabilize. 

From the rough drive path entered into Google Earth, we traveled 12.7 miles. I think I remember hearing Bob say we arrived at 7:05. If you look at the elevation profile of the drive path, there's a relatively large hill on Willow Spout about halfway between Rt 11 and Lea Port Rd, I am surprised we didn't have more trouble with signal strength through this area - the terrain certainly created a lot of multipath.

As always, I really enjoy the hunts. RDF was one of the big attractions for me as a kid wanting to get into ham radio and it has remained my favorite aspect of the hobby.

Thanks again to Bob and to everyone else who made this possible.

This was the first real hunt using a homebrew pseudo Doppler type RDF. This particular version was started in 2022 when the hunts were going strong and ended up being tossed into a box for a couple of years. It needs to be repackaged into a form factor more appropriate for use in a vehicle but this worked well for bench testing. The layout was made to evaluate three different display types and, due to the semiconductor supply chain issues at the time, it supports a couple of different micros. The "highly customized hi-tech" mounting system shown here includes a piece of "super-insulating hand-crafted" cardboard securely taped to the back of the PCB to prevent a short circuit against something on the dash of the car, or elsewhere should it happen to fall off, and "space-age super-sized-extra-long" pipe cleaners, meticulously wound through the air vents.

Yes, repackaging needed indeed. :)

 

Randy