The November 8th 1998 Fox Hunt
Stations everyone. The transmitter beacon is now transmitting. Well everyone
got " transmitter beacon is now transmitting". The first clue "stations everyone" got stuck
in my head and never made it to the mike to be transmitted. Oh well, what event ever goes off as planned? But that
only makes it more fun. 1 ding ding ding wooo wooo wooo ding ding ding
This foxhunt started on Saturday with some last minute testing. I've never tried to activate the beacon from more
then a few hundred yards away. This time I was planing to start it from five miles away. So I set it up in the
back yard and drove off to see how far away I could activate it. TWO MILES! O'boy, and I don't have any more time
today to test it. I'll just make some adjustments and hope for the best.
Saturday night. Change of plans. I'll get a good friend of mine Jeff to sleep over. Then Mary, Jeff and I can get
up early, go set up the transmitter, and then meet Hugh (N3SOQ) and his wife Cathy for breakfast. So the plans
are to be out of the house by 8:00. NOT! 8:20 we're heading for the car and the phone rings. O.K. Give Hugh directions
to the restaurant and jump in the car.
Revised plan number 2. We'll set up the transmitter and then meet Hugh and Cathy at 9:00 for breakfast. Breakfast
shouldn't take more than a half hour. Then we'll start the hunt and if the beacon doesn't start up we'll drive
over and start it manually. Then leave Jeff there to watch over the thing. Oh no, the waiter can't write and the
cook can't read. 9:30 STARTING TIME and we haven't Even got our coffee yet.
Revised plan number 3. Hugh and I go out to the cars and get the hunt started. And return to our table hoping that
our food would be there. " This is KA3VKU Fox net control. I'll start by taking check-ins. Etc. etc. etc.".
Time to start the beacon. The adjustments worked! The beacon is up and working. O.K. Hugh let's go see if our food
is ready. Well some of the food was there. And it only took till 10:00 o'clock to get it all. Have you ever watched
five people try to rush through a meal that came to them a little bit at a time. We managed to get out of there
by 10:20. Hugh went looking for the doughnuts. And I headed for the transmitter sight to drop off Jeff. "It's
10:30. I hope no one is moving to fast or they're going to catch us here". Drop off Jeff and head for the
finish point at a nearby park. And who does Mary and I find not but a ½ mile from the transmitter? Doug (N3JRE) And
Bernie (N3RJD). Did we make this hunt too easy? Where the Morse code messages too simple? " I guess we should
stop and see how they are doing". Because they are doing better than I expected. O.K. with a little bit of
conversation I think we confused them a little. That should give us some more time to get set up at the park. After
all they have to find the transmitter to get the directions to the park. Well things are starting to work right
now. But what are Al (KA3YCG) and Randy (N3LJE) doing here at the Park. They couldn't have found the transmitter
already. Could they? ……….
Nope, just stopped here to take new bearings. Well that takes care of two teams. Let's check up on Bills team.
"K3MFI, KA3VKU hissssss Click." "K3MFI, KA3VKU hissssss Click."
Oh 'boy we've got Bill and his team lost out in the countryside again.
It's now 11:00 o'clock and still no sign of any hunters coming in for coffee and doughnuts. Looks like the transmitter
is hidden better than I thought. 11:15. Finally, Doug
and Bernie are on their way to the park. With all that
went wrong at the beginning I think the hunt worked out just great.
Here are the cw messages the beacon was sending:
2 this is a warc transmitter hunt.
3 Lat 40 20 27
4 Long 75 00 85
Here are a few of the things that I got at the park as the hunters slowly showed up.
Doug and Bernie got to the transmitter
site first. But it took Doug 30 minute to discover that
the transmitter wasn't a weed. And the train station would like to thank him for knocking down and pulling out
all those weeds. It will save them a lot of work in the spring.
Al (KA3YCG) and Randy found it next. And it only took them 20 minutes. They may have found it sooner but Al was
worried about some man around Mary's car. How he determined that it was Mary's car, we don't know. There are six
or seven cars that look just like it in that area.
The third team on our list was Bill K3MFI and AL WI3Z. ("Bill take a good look at the pictures on the web
site. One of them is the transmitter. See if you can figure out which it is.") But I must give their team
some credit. As time ran out for Bill they recruited Joe N3EMA to pick up where they left off. So their team did
find the Transmitter. ("But Joe, that first place you looked is for more advanced hunts in the future.") (see web pics)
And there was a fourth team I forgot all about. My apologies to you. You checked in when we were back at the breakfast
table. The only paper we had was a napkin. You can guess what we did with our napkins then left in a hurry. They
found the transmitter before Bills team. It may be good for them that I did forget them. They were having enough
fun explaining what they were doing to people at the Apple Festival in Peddlers Village. How long they were there
I don't know. But had I known I would have contacted a few friends and relative there to make their visit to Peddlers
village more fun. (contact me team 4. So I can get you back on my logs).
If you would like some more laughs. Just ask any of the hunters above. Ask them if " THE SEAT WAS WARM ".
If they say "No" then tell them to check
the fuses next time.
Bob KA3VKU
Fox net control
