Foxhunting for hamfests. Just a thought.

[KB9CFH]

If someone could build a transmitter about the size of a silver dollar, get an old silver dollar belt buckle, mount the transmiter on the buckle, have someone wear it around the hamfest. Contest would be to locate the moving fox.

[WB6BYU]

There are lots of ways that you can make it very difficult to find the transmitter, often
unintentionally.  For one hunt I did the transmitter was wedged in the bottom of a coffee
cup, upside down on the table.  At least one hunter picked up the cup and looked underneath,
but didn't turn the cup over and look inside it.

I've also seen the transmitter that was put in a bikini top...

But in my experience, making the transmitter too difficult to find is counterproductive, because
people get discouraged when they can't find it.  Better to put out something that isn't too
difficult to find, then keep re-hiding it as needed.  Once people get the confidence to find it
you can make the hiding places more challenging, as long as they can still find it sometimes.

[N4NYY]

We thought about this at our club, and there was heavy disagreement. The people needed to this would take away from the staff running the hamfest, so the idea was killed. Also, they did not want take attention away from the hamfest.

[N6JSX]

Hiding a difficult transmitter is not that hard. 

You need to define the intent of a HAMfest T Hunt; is it to get newbies into the sport or just competition for established Hunters? 

Then there is the safety factor in walking around a HAMfest with sniffer antenna that may poke eyes! 

For a few years now, since Dayton dropped their T hunts, I've been trying to get the Friday T Hunt forum to adopt having a Hara sniffer Hunt starting at the conclusion of their session. Use the last 15min of the session to teach attendees how to sniff using a 2m HT and body-shielding/aluminum foil bag/slotted tin can/frequency offsetting/squelching.

What I'm promoting is a 2m sniffer Hunt using just a HT and body-shielding or aluminum bag/foil - but no sniffer antennas. This equals the competitive field and gives a newbie a fair chance in winning, plus this is a needed skill to learn and master! The no antenna restriction is for safety as the Hunters weave through the HAMcon booths/patrons.

Depending on interests conduct an on Hara grounds HAMcon sniffer hunt each day, limited to HT and no directional antennas.     

[KA7RRA]

At the Yakima hamfest they have fox hunting, everybody uses a hand held radio, with a rubber duck antenna no need to use a sniffer antenna,and it is a lot of fun,at Dryden the fox hunt is out doors and we just use a hand held with a rubber duck antenna every body has a lot of fun

[WB0U]

In my misspent youth, I did a lot of fox hunting on 29.6 MHz FM.  I tried a 2 meter fox hunt and had my head handed to me.

At the Amateur Electronic Supply Superfest, there was a demonstration of 2 meter fox hunting.  Two foxes were hidden in the grass field behind the parking lot.  I was impressed, participants were able to get bearings as close as 10 feet from the fox using measuring tape yagis with offset attenuators.