12/16/2012 - Foxhunt Exercise

At 2:00 in the afternoon on December 16th the fox-hunters met at in the parking lot of Bass Pro Shop in Memphis for a Foxhunt/Direction finding exercise.

Participating in the hunt was:

• AJ4GY
• KK4NES - Blake got his ticket on 12-10-12 and this was his first hunt with us.
• KK4LDM
• KD4NOQ
• AK4UE
• KK4KDM
• KK4IOH
• KJ4GZB
• KF5QGF

I had 2 new hunters riding along with me. Craig KF5QGF and Nathan KJ4GZB.



Position #1 was in the Bass Pro Parking lot

Our initial Bearing was 71 or 72 degrees.

Position #2 was in a parking lot at Whitten and Macon Road.

We got a bearing of 50-60 degrees from Position #2. At position one I had a feeling we were pointing right at Bellevue Baptist Church so based on the new bearing we headed there.

Position #3 was the SW corner of the Bellevue parking lot.

At Position #3 we knew we were very close in and felt the signal was strongest NNE of us. It was raining at this point a little so we jumped back in and headed to the NE corner of the parking lot pretty quickly. I think we may have got some reflection off the building from this position.


Position #4 was the NE corner of the Bellevue parking lot.

The signal was very strong here also. Using body shielding and all the attenuation we had available we were able to get a new bearing of approximately 271 degrees.

Position #5 is the place that we parked and went on foot. We knew we were very close here. We started listening to the 3rd harmonic and shielding the radio with out an antenna on the fox frequency.

We started hearing the 3rd harmonic a few feet aware from what we first thought was the transmitter. This was actually just a sprinkler head. We kept walking west and found the transmitter hidden behind an electrical panel.

As you see on top of the fox was a note to now look for a second lower powered transmitter that was transmitting on 146.565. We quickly found it just west and up a hill under the giant crosses.

On the 2nd transmitter there was yet another note to tune to a 3rd frequency and look for another transmitter.

This one was a very low powered transmitter and you could only receive it a few feet away.  It was found tucked in a whole in the tree below.

This was the 3rd Fox Transmitter.

Jeff read a note to the group that Dwayne prepared regarding the recent shooting in Connecticut.

Direction finding makes you hungry. At Lenny's we discussed the hunt and talked about future hunts next spring.

Thanks to N5XUL / Dwayne for putting the hunt together. I think we all can't wait for spring so we can do this again.

12/15/2012 - Tri-State Repeater Christmas Party

12/11/2012 - Delta Club Christmas Party

I did not get to take any pictures if you have a couple I'll be glad to add them.

There was too much food and fun to think about pics.

12/12/2012 - Tech Class D-Star/Echolink Demo

On Monday night I was invited to demo Echolink and D-Star for Joe Lowenthal's tech class.

Pat Lane (W4OQG) gave demonstrations of WINLINK.

Steve (KI4YOP), Rosalinda (WN2V), and Ham (W4GMM) from Mid-South Amateur Radio Supply had a table selling HT's, Antennas, and programming radios.

Checking into the Delta Club Traffic and information net from the class.

Thanks to Joe (WA4OVO) for inviting me to his class and for the pictures posted here.

12/06/2012 - MARA Christmas Party

Mid-South Amateur Radio Assn. Christmas party was at Colletta's on December 6th 2012.

Thanks to Nathan / KJ4GZB for use of the first two pictures.

11/04/2012 - Fox Hunt

Everyone met behind the Danvers on Stage Rd at 3pm for a Fox Hunt. I think there were 11 hunters this time.

Position #1 was the starting location and my first bearing.

At position #4 I took a little detour. I use an ELK beam that doesn't have much rejection from the back side.   This position was pretty close to the fox and I probably should have used more attenuation as I realized immediately as I went north on Canada Rd. There was no where to stop or turn around. I went ahead and got out with my beam at my turn around point (Stop #5). and confirmed I went the wrong way. I stopped back on the North side of the #4 stop on the way back and got well away from the car and used more attenuation and saw that the stronger signal was to the south for sure.  

I stopped at a church on Memphis-Arlington and found an extremely strong signal.  Just between #6 & #7 I could hear the fox with no antenna on my HT. (just where the label is on Memphis-Arl Rd.). I saw bike riders on a trail in the woods and knowing we were going to have to walk to find the fox I went back to the church and parked. Position #8 is where I went on foot down 2 trails. About 2/3rd of the way down I started hearing the 3rd harmonic. I walked farther and eventually found myself in the place where the fox was located. Jeff AJ4GY was the fox but had walked away. I used Dwayne's (N5XUL) Sniffer for the last 20-30 feet.

As you can see it was a gorgeous day to be outside hiking around looking for a transmitter.

Here is where Jeff had the fox located.

Roll up J-Pole in the tree.

Jeff and I saw some wildlife on the way back to the parking lot.

Here is the attenuator I used. I found it on Ebay. I plan in the future to build one as this one is heavy like a brick. It is a Kay Model 20 10-51 DB Attenuator found on Ebay. I see several others and it looks like it got a good deal as some of them are listed as high as $175.

There will be another fox hunt in December either 12/2 or 12/9.