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2002 CQ Magazine National Foxhunting Weekend |
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National Foxhunting Weekend Tips The following tips by NFW Coordinator Joe Moell, K0OV, are excerpted from his May 2002 CQ article: Maybe your club members will want to try a mobile hunt. Or they might prefer something all on foot, or a combination of the two. If your club has done two meter hunts, how about having one on the 440 MHz band for a change of pace? (Signals behave differently on 440 than on 2 meters, so it can be a new challenge for everyone. – ed.) No matter what type, your hunt should be appropriate for the skill level of the members, be they experts or complete beginners. Make sure it's well promoted, fun and fair for all. Above all, make it as safe for everyone as possible. (With today’s added focus on security and watching out for suspicious activity, “foxes” should be sure to have their FCC licenses with them at all times, and to secure any necessary permission before hiding a transmitter. You may also want to notify the police department responsible for the area of your hunt that there will be people out with radios and direction-finding antennas on a particular day. May save unnecessary hassles with law enforcement. –ed.) If an all-on-foot hunt is your club's choice, be sure that the kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews of all the members are invited. They don't need driver's licenses or ham licenses to receive and hunt. It's a great way to show them that ham radio is more than HTs, computers and QSL cards. Afterwards, write up the results and send them to me so that we can regale CQ's readers in a future issue. Tell me the date of the hunt, what kind (mobile or on foot), number and frequency of transmitters, how the hunt was scored to determine the winners, plus the full names and accurate callsigns of the hiders and the winners. Don't forget to include the name of your club and the city or area it serves. Readers also want to know what was unique about your hunt and what lessons (positive and negative) you learned from it.
The list of items to report is posted at my Web site (www.homingin.com) so you can copy it into your word processor and insert the information if that's convenient. Or if the report that is printed in your club's newsletter includes all the information, just send me a copy by electronic or postal mail to PO Box 2508, Fullerton, CA 92837. Also at my site, you'll find suggestions for simple RDF equipment to get you and your club started.
________________ © Copyright 2002, CQ Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced or republished, including posting to a website, in part or in whole, by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher, CQ Communications, Inc. Hyperlinks to this page are permitted.
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The 2002 CQ Magazine National
Foxhunting Weekend is scheduled for May 11 and 12, but the dates are
flexible and any club or other group conducting a springtime hidden
transmitter hunt is welcome to submit its results.
