National Foxhunting Weekend

[K0OV]

Did any of you participate in this year's National Foxhunting Weekend on May 8-9 (or just about any time this month)?  Let's hear about it!

[WB6BYU]

NFW happened to fall on the weekend when I was putting
on a mock ELT search for the local ARES and SAR teams
so we decided to count that.  We ended up with 5 teams
in the field plus a crew at the command post looking
for 2 practice ELT beacons in rugged terrain.

Short summary of what we learned:

1.  People need more DF practice/experience.

2.  People need to be more conscientious about keeping
track of their location on a map.  Some areas were a
maze of logging roads, and it was easy to get confused.
(Yes, we got everyone home eventually!)

3. In rough terrain, even bearings from high points
can be way off - errors of 30 degrees were not uncommon
(besides the problem of reading the wrong end of the
compass needle!)  None of the plotted bearings came
within 2 miles of one of the beacons, and the signal
"on the ground" was only audible for a mile or less
from the actual beacon location.

4. Ham equipment that receivers the aircraft band may
not be a good choice for hunting ELT signals.  Many
radios had very low sensitivity, and often an ELT signal
could not break the squelch, regardless of how strong
it was.

5. Everyone had a great time and wanted to do it again!

[K2GW]

This report's a little delayed, but the regular monthly hunt sponsored by the Delaware Valley Radio Association (www.w2zq.com) happened to fall on this weekend.  We had about eight hams participating in a combined mobile/foot hunt.

73

Gary, K2GW

[K0OV]

Very good.  Need your report (and some photos, if you took them) for the writeup in CQ Magazine.  Info for sending in reports is at www.homingin.com

73,
Joe Moell K0OV

[WB6BYU]

And a reminder that National Foxhunting Weekend is coming
up again on May 7th and 8th this year.  Is your club or
group going to do anything for it?

If you are interested in trying it out, but don't know of
a local group that is active in DF, check the list of
contacts on K0OV's web site at www.HomingIn.com

Happy hunting!