The Foxhunt Chronicles, May 2012

The forth foxhunt of the 2012 season occurred on Sunday the sixth of May, and the weather was late spring beautiful. The May hunters included the team of Kim and Jim Machamer, KB9’s DOT and DOS, the team of Charles Ward and Fred Gengnagle, KC9MUT and KC9EZP, and the team of Mark Berke, Bob Dean and Dave Spence, WA7NXI, KC9UHU and KB9VTK.

Jim Pliett, K9OMA, Annie Pliett, KA9YYI and Al Burke, WB9SSE served as the fox. The fox itself was a cross-band HT situated in the hollow of a log in the piney woods behind Haverhill Elementary School in Southwest Ft. Wayne.

The Indiana QSO Party effort at the Dolnick Learning Center was great! This was a fitting shakedown run for the new club trailer. It was great unloading and reloading a trailer that didn't require stooping or back breaking twisting. And the trailer served double duty as an operating position as well. Both towers were put into use for holding 4 dipoles. For 20 meters, a hamstick dipole was used on CW. Dinner was fun with some good pizza and pop. Operation was almost the full time, quitting just before 11 pm. We do not have a total score just yet, but over 60,000 is almost certain. Great effort!

Tom, KU8T provided the video below.

The May 2012 issue of the HamNews newsletter is now available from this web site. This and previous issues are available for download by clicking the “Files” link in the main menu to the left and then clicking “Newsletters.”

The Foxhunt Chronicles

The third foxhunt of the 2012 season occurred on Sunday the first of April, and the weather was simply spring gorgeous beautiful. The April Fool’s Day hunters included the team of Linda and Steve Nardin, W9’s LAN and SAN, the team of Kim and Jim Machamer, KB9’s DOT and DOS, the team of Jim and Annie Pliett, K9OMA and KA9YYI, plus Al Burke, WB9SSE, the team of Brian and Debbie Jenks, W9BGJ and KB9ZQG, the team of Charles Ward and Fred Gengnagle, KC9MUT and KC9EZP, and lone hunter Bob Dean, KC9UHU.

Dave Spence, KB9VTK plus Mark Berke, WA7NXI and his son Nathan served as the fox for this endeavor. They were located at a baseball diamond complex northeast of the Hodell Acres YMCA, just south of the south most end of Mason Drive.

The fox itself, according to Dave, was an H/T outfitted with a PIC driven keyer that automatically enabled the push-to-talk of the unit every five minutes and provided Morse code tone keying to the audio input of the H/T. The Morse code in turn identified the unit as the fox and gave its call sign. The H/T, keyer unit and battery were packaged into an ammo box which was located by the side of the baseball complex access road, and was covered by a pile of sod left over from a recent upgrade to the baseball diamonds. However, the fox’s antenna, a J-Pole, was located inside a metal culvert that ran under the access road to the baseball complex. The J-Pole was effectively in the middle of the road, but underneath it in the culvert. It proved to provide some interesting effects.

The April 2012 issue of the HamNews newsletter is now available from this web site. This and previous issues are available for download by clicking the “Files” link in the main menu to the left and then clicking “Newsletters.”