THE   HOUND
  
  
       The day started slowly, with a few of the Hams gradually arriving .
  It was a beautiful warm Fall day .A perfect day for a Hunt .
       We started off with going over the antennas I had brought , and
  decided to begin.
       Stanley KD4ERF and Peewee KF4ZUX decided to be the FOX . They
  started off with a 2 meter HT as the object of the hunt . Peewee provide the
  ongoing "talk " to give us "hounds" a signal to lock onto .We tried all of the
  four antennas that I had brought , and Todd ,  KF4RRG, took one to start
  tracking the FOX . We also had attenuators , since the signals this close
  would soon be to strong for us to see a difference on the bar scale that is
  on the 2 meter HTs we were using for tracking. 
  We had started out at a picnic area and got a reading in one direction , and
  headed off.
       We next stopped at the amphitheater , and got another reading that
  indicated the FOX was in the western direction, and headed off again. Our
  next stop was at the Mill area, and once again, our antennas indicated the
  FOX was still further West.
  We next stopped at a building a little further down the road , and then at the
  tire repair place just before the railroad track . At this point I was a little
  confused by the readings, and had to consider the possibility the I had
  been misled by reflections, especially due to all the hills in the area . 
       This time the direction was more in an Easterly direction, and Todd
  noted that there was a side road over that direction to the left . 
       So we started down that road in that direction and quickly came
  upon the FOX, and concluded a successful hunt .
       We all had a good time , and celebrated with Lee 's chicken, and I
  hope we can do more hunts soon , involving more Hams in our area , and
  covering a larger area , say, a 15 mile radius .
       73's
  Peter KJ4ND
  


 


  Another view of Peter KJ4ND and his 2-meter foxhunting equipment .....




  
  THE FOX
  
  
       It was a beautiful  early autumn morning in October as Peewee
  KF4ZUX and Stan KD4ERF accepted the challenge of playing the role of the
  fox in the Great Laurel Amateur Radio Society Foxhunt of the year 2000.
  The hounds led by Peter KJ4ND and Todd KF4RRG were present and eager
  to pit their hunting skills against the wiley fox. 
       Being a sporty crew, the hounds agreed to give the fox a few
  minutes head start. They began assembling their antenna collection while
  the fox crew made a rapid get-away in a red Chevy Tracker.  Cruising
  around the Levi Jackson Park area, the fox crew looked for a hiding place
  that would present some difficulty for the hounds   preferably an area that 
  would present objects capable of reflecting radio signal and thus creating 
  false directional readings. 
       Finally, finding an area that was not beyond simplex distances for a
  hand-held 2-meter radio, the fox  pulled up a side road and  had doubled
  back while circling  to the northwest. Selecting an area near some trees for
  cover and with a good view of the area, the fox crew was ready to begin to
  transmit a simplex two-meter signal to the hounds.  As Peewee talked  on
  his hand-held he varied the position of the antenna and varied the output
  wattage in order to try to confuse the hounds.
       Listening on two-meters on a simplex frequency, the fox anxiously
  awaited as the hounds got a bearing on the signal and broke camp to move
  in on it. The process was repeated a few times as the hounds came at one
  time to within a few hundred yards of the fox, but cruised on beyond and
  setup camp near the railroad.   Then getting a new bearing from this
  location, the hounds found that they had gone beyond the location of the
  fox,  and immediately started moving again. This time one of the hounds
  observed a side road in the direction of the radio  signal. Following this
  side road, within a few minutes the red Chevy Tracker of the fox was in
  sight.  It had taken a total of 36 minutes for the L.A.R.S. hounds to find the
  fox!
       Then, the fox and the hounds all retreated to Famous Recipe for
  some chicken and a lot of good rag chewing and were soon making plans
  for another foxhunt in the future with a wider hunting area.  If you missed
  this event, then you missed out on a lot of great amateur radio fun.
  
  
  Stan KD4ERF