REAST hosted a Fox Hunt day on Saturday 6th August 2022.
Even though the weather was a little bleak there were 10 hardy fox hunters who come along.
Fox hunters gathered for a quick briefing before setting off into the bushland of the Queen’s Domain to find the QRP Fox on 2m outputting 15mW.
This was a good training exercise to get fox hunters used to using their directional tape measure yagis and attenuators as they got closer to the fox.
The QRP Fox was eventually found and then the QRP Fox magically disappeared to another location that was in plain sight!
This was behind a metal sign so the signal was somewhat reflected and a little confusing to locate.
Prizes were given for those who found the QRP Fox over the two exercises.
Fox hunters then had a briefing on the DX Fox that had been hidden somewhere in greater Hobart.
This fox was built by Hayden VK7HH and uses a Baofeng handheld putting out 1W driven by an Arduino controller.
Fox Hunters took off in their cars and had been given an hour before hints would be given via Repeater 2.
The BBQ was started so there was hot food for when the fox hunters returned!
One hour came around and the hint of “Eastern Shore” was the hint. Then a little while after that another hint was transmitted being “Kangaroo”.
A final hint was given which was “Kangaroo Bluff” and there were some Fox Hunters who were already at the Kangaroo Bluff Historic Site and locating the fox.
With the DX Fox found everyone came back to the Queen’s Domain for the prize giving ceremony with some great prizes supplied by Hayden VK7HH from Ham Radio DX, thanks Hayden.
The Ham Radio DX video on the day can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeiccuuExOY
We then gathered to consume a yummy hot BBQ lunch thanks to Tony VK7VKT’s culinary skills on the hotplate.
Congratulations to all who won prizes and thanks to Ham Radio DX for sponsoring the DX Fox Hunt prizes.
Planning has commenced for the next one and the ALARAMeet Fox Hunt in November 2023.
Ron Cullen (Callsign TBA) took some “hatcam” videos of the fox hunts that are available at the following links, thanks Ron.