Nineteen foxhunters signed in at the first southern California radio-orienteering event of 2001, held at Hillcrest Park in Fullerton on Saint Patrick's Day. They came from as far as San Diego and Santa Barbara counties. Ages ranged from 13 to 76.
Since many beginners were expected, including some Girl Scouts, I designed the two-meter course to be relatively "easy," with six transmitters on six different frequencies. In addition, for experienced foxtailers, I put out an undisclosed number of "hard" microfoxes on or near 146.565 MHz, jamming one another. (There were 3 of them, but hunters didn't know that in advance.)
Everyone was timed, but there were no restrictions on which transmitters to find in which order. Probably the best strategy was to look for the "easy" foxes but keep checking 146.565 while doing so, in case the easy-fox route took the hunter near one or more "hard" foxes. Results below are listed in order of total foxes found, then by time.
Name(s) Time Easy Hard
Marvin Johnston KE6HTS 2:01:53 6 3
Jay Thompson W6JAY 1:08:30 6 2
Rick Barrett KE6DKF 1:15:18 6 2
Bob Dengler NO6B 1:28:25 6 2
Gary Holoubek WB6GCT 2:17:30 6 2
Tony Boegeman WA6ZMZ 0:49:00 6 1 with Joe Loughlin KE6PHB
Tom Gaccione WB2LRH 1:54:00 6 1 with Vicki Moll and Missy Hughes KG6CJJ
Brian Welch KF6TTV 2:08:18 5 0 with Michael Welch
Ira Feldman WB6ZXA 2:10:31 5 0 with David Feldman
Richard Thompson WA6NOL 0:42:15 0 2
Cathy Stanfill KS6CW 0:45:50 2 0 with Ken and Mary Stanfill, KF6YGC & KF6YNM
Two hunters (W6JAY and WB6GCT) chose to go out at separate times for the "easy" and "hard" foxes. Their scores above are the sums of the two forays.
The two 80-meter ARDF sets got a workout, as six hunters used them to find the bonus 80m transmitter. Even though it was at the far end of the park, times were very good because 80m signals hug the ground and don't bounce the way 2m signals do. Here are the times for finders of the 80m fox.
Jay Thompson W6JAY 0:08:20 Rick Barrett KD6DKF 0:11:12 Missy Hughes KG6CJJ 0:14:52 Richard Thompson WA6NOL 0:17:15 Vicki Moll 0:18:32 Brian Welch KF6TTV 0:22:40
Thanks to April WA6OPS for timing the competitors and distributing the prizes. Photos will soon be posted at my Web site.
Four of the attendees are in training for the USA ARDF Championships in Albuquerque, which will be 31 July through 4 August. The Championships are open to anyone of any age, no matter how experienced (or inexperienced) you are. If you enjoy radio-orienteering, why not go and take part this summer? Albuquerque is easy to reach by car, plane or train. Early registration is a good idea. More information is at my Web site.
73, Joe Moell K0OV USA ARDF Coordinator www.homingin.com