A couple of guys here in west Michigan have taken a cue from a group of folks in Connecticut on a different way to hold a fox hunt.
It's called "extended Deployment Fox Hunt".
Mike Hill, W8DER explains in this email:
Hi Michigan Fox Hunters, how about trying a new kind of fox hunt? ...the extended deployment fox hunt!
Our version of this new kind of fox hunt will start Monday, September 26th and continue for two weeks.
We expect the batteries to last!
Actually this isn't really new. The CTFoxHunter@Yahoo.com has been doing this kind of hunt for two
summers now. In fact, they have even been running this kind of hunt in the snow! They are located
in Manchester Connecticut and the hunts are generally run by Paul Gibson, N1TUP. The Extended
Deployment Fox Hunt has become so popular that they don't seem to have much time for the 2-hour
hunt anymore.
We will try to run our local hunt much the way Manchester does.
The FoxBox has been placed as of 2:30 pm today, Sep.25, 2016. It is running 2
watts into a stock rubber duck antenna. Since their is no starting
place for finding the hidden transmitter, all you can do try is to bring-up the transmitter
as you travel around the community. When you have tried a certain route with no success,
report your information with an email to the Michiganfoxhunter@yahoogroups.com yahoo group.
Eventually someone will hear the fox signal and report their location and possible direction
to the transmitter.
Your first try may be from home. You do this by going on
the 2 meter simplex frequency of 145.530 MHz, key your
transmitter, ID and then send a DTMF "1". If the FoxBox can hear you
and you can hear it, you will hear its very distinctive sequence of tones. It will
transmit for 30 seconds, ID and then go back to sleep. You can make it
transmit as often as necessary to find the fox.
Once someone has been able to bring it up the foxbox, please report
that information to the other fox hunters. Feel free to reply to the Yahoo Michigan Fox Hunter
group. Do not reveal its, location, just a location from which you are able
to hear the fox. This then becomes a starting point (and a direction if possible) for the other fox hunters to use.
When someone finds the foxbox, they should report the success and time
to the MichiganFoxHunter@yahoo.com group, but not the location. This
gives the other hunters time to find the box. After all, we have two weeks.
This way everybody wins!
You do not actually have to touch the box to claim finding it. Eye
ball contact is sufficient. This week's foxbox is located less than 30 feet from a
safe parking location. This week's foxbox is located somewhere in the southern half of Kent County.
Remember, to make the fox respond, hold your transmit key down and push the DTMF "1" button.
I was able to make the fox respond from my mobile rig today from six miles away. In the Connecticut group, they
often start by testing along the expressway routes and reporting the findings.
Good luck,
Mike, W8DER, Chuck AJ8W
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You can read the emails of the Michigan Fox Hunter group at:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MichiganFoxHunter/infoAs a somewhat experienced fox hunter (over 200 hunts), I can tell you that I am impressed by this type of hunt. It works when a person has the time. And there is no reason to hurry. Take your time, learn your equipment, learn about multipath, whatever. A newbie is not going to feel threatened by the grizzled and sizzled veterans. Its at your convenience. I would encourage all groups across the US and other countries to look at this method. Its fun, and that is what it is all about.
73 de Tom K8TB