SBARC ARDF Hunt Saturday, November 10, 2001

The Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club will be sponsoring another Southern California On-Foot ARDF hunt on November 10th, 2001. ARDF (Amateur Radio Direction Finding), also called Radio Orienteering, is a timed event where 5 transmitters are hidden and competitors use radio direction finding equipment to locate them. This free informal event will be held on Saturday, November 10th at Lake Los Carnaros Park in Goleta, CA.

Bring your two-meter hand-held or scanner plus a portable beam, attenuator, and compass if you have them. A limited amount of RDF gear will be available for loan. An orienteering map at a scale of 5000:1 was just completed of the area and will be available for participants. Several people who competed at the 2001 US ARDF Championships are also expected to be attending including Sergei Zarubin of Ukraine, who won gold on the 80m competition and silver on the 2m competition in the M21 (prime) division.

Practice transmitters will go on the air around 11:00 with the main 2M transmitter hunt starting at noon. There will also be at least one 80M transmitter on the air.

A tri-tip BBQ will follow (reservations requested) at a cost of 3.50 per person.

Talk-in will be on the K6TZ repeater; 146.79(-), pl 131.8.

Location - This event will take place at Lake Los Carnaros and will start at the Stow House Parking Lot just off of Los Carnaros Road. From US 101 about 1 mile north of Goleta, take the Los Carnaros exit, head north about ¼ mile and turn right into the parking lot.There should be plenty of free parking.

Transmitters - There will be five transmitters, each transmitting on 146.565 MHz in round robin style for 1 minute each. Each transmitter will be identified by an Orange/White Orienteering control flag.

Course - Orienteering maps of the area will be available at a scale of 5000:1. The course itself will be between 2 miles and 3 miles and can easily be completed by walking in well under the 2 hour time limit. Transmitters will be at least 200 yards from each other.

Classes - Beginner and Advanced. Teams will be allowed with the condition that only one DF unit be used per team and the people on the team stay together.

For more information, contact Marvin Johnston, KE6HTS, at marvin@rain.org.