2001
November 18th, State wide hunt!
The NoBarc hounds had a Sunday afternoon hunt and had teams
from Springfield and from the Boston area show up! Tim(KE3HT) and Ed(N1FY)
were the foxes doing a mileage hunt. We hid in a parking lot behind the
GE Plastics buildings. Mr. ESP, John(WA1ZHM) was the first place finisher
in a record 1.2miles beating KB1EAA/KB1EUH's 4miles set in January 2000!
THATS not all! John also set a record 10minutes beating KE3HT's record
of 14minutes set in April of 2000. I guess John was in a hurry to get to
work on time! (He works nights) The Boston group, Mike(WZ0C) and Bob(N1BE),
took second with 5.95 miles and Paul(KB1EPP) was third in a respectable
8.5miles. The Springfield group was made up of: Jon(WM1SAR), Tim(KB1HGH,
Dan(KB1FTV) and Chris(KB1FTU) who was actualy from Hinsdale. The whole
hunt was completed in under an hour and a half. The Boston bunch was from
the MinuteMan Repeater assoc(I hope I got that right). They have a web
site of http://www.mmra.org
. MMRA has hunts each Saturday at 10am in the Nashoba Valley area normaly
on the 146.61 repeater input. They normaly have a time hunt with random
starts. The Springfield area has not had regular hunts in awhile but they
used to have it on thr 146.94 Mt. Tom Repeater. After the hunt the sun
set and temp's dropped very quickly. The hounds and foxes went to Dunkin-Donuts
which happened to be right down the street. This gathering made me think
that many T-Hunters are crazy enough to seek out hunts whenever and where
ever they exist. To that end I want to propose that we get a hunting party
together and go after the first place in the MMRA hunt some Saturday! Maybe
I could even propose a state wide or New England wide hunt once a year
where we can try to get the best teams from all around to participate for
some thing. Maybe another traveling trophy? In any case we had a great
hunt and the new groups attendance helped fill out our small group.
NO EXPERIANCE NECESSARY! All you need is an HT and a map to participate.
if your not sure you can do it, ask anyone of our hounds and I am SURE
they will help. Its a great bunch of Hams we have.
Please listen to the NoBarc New Comers round table at 7:30pm on Tuesdays
for an announcement for the next hunt. We also run a very informal News
List for the NoBarc hounds. To subscribe send e-mail to "majordomo@ke3ht.ampr.org"
and in the body of the e-mail put "subscribe hounds". After you are
subscribed you can send e-mail to hounds@ke3ht.ampr.org. This way you will
hear up to the minute info on the next hunt as well as some of the challenges
and bantering we partake in. We also have some info at http://www.nobarc.org/hounds
.
October 21st, What a month. N1ISB's month.
With the passing of one of our most dedicated Transmitter hunters, Don(N1ISB)
and our 'hound' mascott Pinto, things have not been very normal this month.
We had our hunt with Paul(KB1EPP) and Mark(N1NJO) as our foxes running
a mileage hunt. The fox was behind the empty shops of Lenox. The signal
bounced a bit to the west but Ed(N1FGY) and I Tim(KE3HT) had the shortest
mileage. Paul(N1PUA) finished second. John(WA1ZHM) was third. George(KB2SAE)
was close but had to call out due to a previous obligation.
NO EXPERIANCE NECESSARY! All you need is an HT and a map to participate.
if your not sure you can do it, ask anyone of our hounds and I am SURE
they will help. Its a great bunch of guys we have.
Please listen to the NoBarc N1ISB New Comers round table at 7:30pm on
Tuesdays for an announcement for the next hunt. We also run a very informal
News List for the NoBarc hounds. To subscribe send e-mail to "majordomo@ke3ht.ampr.org"
and in the body of the e-mail put "subscribe hounds". After you are
subscribed you can send e-mail to hounds@ke3ht.ampr.org. This way you will
hear up to the minute info on the next hunt as well as some of the challenges
and bantering we partake in. We also have some info at http://www.nobarc.org/hounds
.
September 22nd, Frank Woodstock memorial hunt.
The hounds were hunting Saturday evening (for a change) and had some great
weather. We also had a first time winner, Paul (KB1EPP) and Mark(N1NJO).
Paul has been a consistent hunter but held the first place Fox at bay for
far to long. Congratulations Paul and Mark. Dave (KB1EAA) and RoAnne (KB1EUH)
are polishing up on their talents at holding onto the cute 2nd place hound
trophy. Mr. ESP , John (WA1ZHM), had to finish last. He passed by us a
few times but the reflections kept the dop scan spinning I guess. Tom (KB1FLK)/Kathy
(KB1FRG) and crew (names I failed to get) seem to be having some trouble.
I think they may have been spending to much time on the fun and not enough
on the finding? They were talked in when time started running short. Kathy
was to attend a dance that evening. I guess she found some time to hunt
before the dance! It seems once you have been bitten by the T-Hunting bug
your doomed to be addicted. "T-Hunting, my other Drug!". Ed (N1FGY) and
myself Tim (KE3HT) were the foxes this time. We hid on Orbed road just
past the end of the pavement by the old Lanesborough dump site. This meant
there was a nice size hill that caused the Bradlees parking lot to be in
the shadow of our signal. If anyone moved to one side they would get a
stronger signal and in line with the hill they would have a weaker one
eve though they may be closer. This didn't fool Paul but the others spent
a fair amount of time near the Black Rock park area. When they moved closer
to us the signals would drop. Of other news: RoAnne was having such a time
with her markers one even exploded. I think she is taking the mapping part
of this very seriously :-)
July 22nd, The Annual New England Hunt (No boundaries)
This was our first annual No Boundaries hunt. I think we should call it
the New England hunt. We had the most fantastic WX and the most fun! Chris
(WD1W), Sky(KB1GPW), and Cale(KB1GPV) picked a wonderful spot on Hogback
Mt. in Vermont. It had some nice shade and a great signal. The three of
them took turns making the transmissions. 4 teams started and 4 finished
all inside 2hrs and 16 minutes. Everybody found the fox on their own. A
couple started on top of Mt. Greylock and had a signal to the north. Ed(N1FGY)
and myself(KE3HT) started from atop the switch back on Rt 2. It was great
because we had almost no signal from the west side overlooking N Adams
and we had a near full scale signal to the NE on the east side. The null
on the west side where the view to the north is good makes it hard to think
the north direction might be a good one. Ed and I took off down some steep
narrow roads into vermont. Passing some nice lakes, Rivers and even a Nuke
power plant. It was a wonderful trip. When we got near VT Rt 9 the signal
was so loud we heard a solid signal on the Dop Scan. That signal confirmed
the origional direction so we kept on going. Things just went too great
for us. I think Ed brought some good luck to my hunting, thanks Ed. George/George
(KB2SAE/Nephew) and Dave/RoAnne (KB1EAA/KB1EUH) and Tom/Kath/Donna (KB1FLK/KB1FRG/Nocall)
all headed towards the north. Finding nothing and hearing our reports George
thought of a Spot he and Don (N1FGY) had used for a VHF Contest. Hogback
Mt. He started in that direction and found the signal again and then the
Fox. Soon the others discovered that North had no signal and headed east.
One of the goals for hunting is to have fun but the idea of a wide area
or no boundaries hunt makes the hunting feel even more like a real hunt
since we have no idea at all where the fox is. A side note was that we
had two non-hams attend the hunt. Tom/Kath brought Donna who is a non-ham
and George brought a nephew also named George. When it came time to leave
young George was in the car with the Mike in hand ready to go. I think
we have a new ham on the burners there! Since Ed and I are the foxes next
month we have to find a good hiding spot. We also need to set a date. Please
keep your radio's on during the Sunday 9am nets and also the Monday night
7:30pm Round table net for news on the next hunt. Maybe I will say that
since the NoBarc flea market is Aug 19th that perhaps Aug 26th might make
a good date? If you have any preferences please let Ed or I know and we
shall see what we can do to get the most people involved. Want to learn
more or think you might want to try this just drop anyone mentioned here
a note or to me ke3ht@nobarc.org......
June 17th Jiminy Peak, over the hill!
What a strong signal! Its over there! I (KE3HT) met up with WD1W/KB1GPV/KB1GPW
in a parking lot. We both had our beams out and they both pointed WNW from
the Lake parking lot. It was very strong, S9ish. WD1W/KB1GPV/KB1GPW were
the winners, I was DeAd LaSt! How could that be? Well I blame it on being
2/3'rds German (no offense) and very stubborn. The first good signal I
had was from the lake and it said WNW by beam AND Dop Scan! WD1W and family
also pointed over there. They must be over there! I got a good second signal
and a great triangulation while I was just south of the line on my map
that pointed WNW. I was wrong. Everywhere I went the signal never pointed
where they actually were. My only clue, forgive me, was that I knew where
WD1W & family were going when one of his sons yelled "The fox has been
found!, the fox has been FOUND!" in a very excited voice. We normally leave
the winners a secret until the last hound finds the fox or calls in but
this time I think EVERYONE cheered with him. Its so good to have new people
much less some young people win! At 1 hour 26 minutes Dave(KB1EAA) and
RoAnne(KB1EUH) were found. Three hounds found them inside of one minute!
This was a very unusual finish. It must have been like Daytona speedway.
The fox was in a dirt area on the side of the road just west of Jiminy
peak. We had a couple of base stations (N1LZH & N1QOV) that both tried
to home in on the fox without a lot of success. They were both reporting
up north. I was the last at 1 hour 42 minutes so we had a close finish.
First to last the finish occured inside of 16 minutes. Daytona doesn't
finish this close! The rain held off and except for a couple of regulars
that were missing things were great! I hope to see every one at the next
hunt July 22nd. This will be a special hunt. Still on 147.630 BUT this
hunt will have NO boundaries! They can be anywhere that can be heard by
the 147.030 repeater input(147.630). To find them we will need a little
team work. Base stations will be especially helpful even those without
beams. Please feel free to join in. Just tell us if you hear him or not.
BOTH reports help. We can tell where to go or not to go (What a ham quote!).
May 13th National Fox hunting weekend.
National Fox Hunt Weekend Report from Don, N1ISB
1. Name of club, if any Northern Berkshire Amateur
Radio Club ( NoBARC)
2. Date of hunt 13 May 2001
3. Starting city and state or province Pittsfield
MA
4. Number of hidden transmitters 1
5. Frequency (ies) of transmitter(s) 147.630
6. Type of hunt (e.g. mobile, mobile/sniff, IARU) Mobile
7. Scoring method (time, mileage, combination, other) Mileage
8. Callsign(s) of hider(s) KB2SAE (George) N1ISB (Don)
9. Callsign(s) of winner(s) KB1EAA (Dave) KB1EUH Roanne) Our
husband-and-wife team
10. Comments, quotes, etc... Great hunt! Held our
monthly hunt 2 weeks early to be part of the "official" weekend.
We had six teams of
hunters of varying experience and equipment. Our newest hunters
were Chris WD1W and his sons Sky KB1GPW and Cale KB1GPZ. We
also has along Tom KB1FLK and daughter Katherine KB1FRG, Paul KB1EPP
working solo, and our two solo "dop ops" Tim KE3HT and
John WA1ZHM. Not out hunting, but helping from home were Rick
KA1SON, Obie N1QOV, Paul N1PUA 9who was about five minutes
drive from the fox location, but gave only veiled hints!), and Dave
W1TTT.
The hunt difficulty was greater than planned, but far from our
toughest (that one was back on April '01). It was an echo-y location,
which
really messed up the dops, who traveled the longest distances.
The winners racked up an amazing 13.2 miles (and took about two hours to
do it -- very careful hunting). A good time was had by
all, and the Beanie Baby fox, which has been our traveling trophy for about
four years,
now is back at the home of KB1EAA and KB1EUH. Everyone else has
vowed to repossess him next month!
11. Your name and callsign Don Horton N1ISB
12. Your contact information (e-mail or postal address) n1isb@netzero.net
The fox was located about 8 miles from the start, in the Town of Lenox
MA. Transmissions were scheduled for every five minutes and to last
one minute each. Unfortunately, the timing became a bit ragged
when the hunters began using the foxes's frequency to compare notes.
Hey,
we weren't going to stop them from talking, now were we? The
frequency, by the way, is the input of one of the club's repeaters.
The group's level of experience ranges from beginners to expert hunters.
We attempt to make the hunts of enough difficulty to challenge
everyone. Of course, this is a hilly area, and echoes are always
with us. The standing offer is that beginners can ride along with
more
experienced hunters just to get the feel of it. That usually
lasts for one or two hunts. While there is a lot of banter between
hunts on the local
repeaters, we don't take winning and losing that seriously. The
hunters usually share information and work together. Sometimes we
do
distance hunts, sometimes we do timed hunts. We even did a hybrid hunt
once. We're still working on the scoring formula for the next time
we
try that!
The RDF gear used varies from team to team and from event to event.
We have a couple of hunters who use dopplers; several variations on
beams are used, especially the steel-rule portables. We even
have an op who mounts a yagi on his roof rack with a rotator! Body
shielding is
popular as a backup, and has actually been used to win a couple of
hunts. Most of us don't leave home without HTs and paperclips, just
in
case. Attenuators have also become popular, both the commercial
and the home-built type. The range of home-brew antennas tried out
over
the last four or five years is staggering.
We try to hold a hunt once each month, even during winter. We
had to cancel the January 2001 hunt. No, not because of snow and
ice --
we had severe thunderstorms and water was a foot or more deep in the
streets. Our most successful method of interesting people in our
hunts
has been the simple one of talking about it on the local repeaters.
We have a lot of fun, and it shows. Our hope (and it has been borne
out
many times, is that the amount of fun we're having communicates itself.
We do make it clear that anyone wishing to join in will be given as
much help as is wanted, and we follow through on it. We've all
made some great friendships doing it.
We do give out awards at the end of the year (this year it finally happened
in April) for several accomplishments. This is, of course, a coveted
rookie(s) of the year award. Others are given for best-hidden
fox, quickest hunt, etc. We also put together some special awards,
such as the
tongue-in-cheek award for most DNFs in the year. (It went to
today’s foxes, who won the last hunt, which was a particularly difficult
one.
While we try to recognize the best, we also keep it fun, since that
what we claim it's all about.
We haven't done a hunt outside of two meters because two seems to be
the lingua franca of ham radio. Everybody has a 2M HT!
April 22nd, "Can anybody hear the fox?"
That was what everyone was saying! Nomaly during a hunt the frequency is
quiet because people are all working on getting to the fox first. This
time nobody could hear him. Even the base stations N1PUA and KA1SON with
beams reported "Nothing Heard!". Since this was a traditional timed hunt
the hounds were spread out throughout the area. Some on hill tops and in
the valleys. Everybody spread out. I went North east in Dalton and south
east near Hinsdale. KB1FLK went south, W1TTT went as far west as into NewYork.
Nothing heard anywhere! There were 10 teams of 14 hams hunting. There were
3 Base stations in on the hunt as well, NJ1K, N1PUA and KA1SON. So including
the foxes we had 19 hams turn out for this hunt! I think this to was a
record. For sure this hunt was the longest to have everybody NOT hear the
fox! I think Dave and RoAnne broke two new records on this one hunt. Maybe
the WX had something to do with the attendance. John(WA1ZHM) was the first
to get a good bead on the Foxes (KB1EAA & KB1EUH) yet he only came
in 4th? What happend John? Tom (KB1FLK) had his daughter Kathy(KB1FRG)
compete against him. She teamed up with her brother to drive (Sorry I forgot
his name). Chris Kochenour(WD1W) came all the way from Pownal, VT
with his two young men Sky(KB1GPW) and Cale(KB1GPV). Both these young men
were only licensed as of April 17th ! Congratulations! Getting back to
the hunt, Dave(KB1EAA) and RoAnne(KB1EUH) were hiding up on top of October
Mountain at the Washington Town Park. Nice spot to have the hunt end. Tough
spot to hear! Kathy(KB1FRG) got the last place fox and the team of George
and Don (KB2SAE and N1ISB) got the first place fox. As always check the
Hounds
Stats Page and the Photos
page. I (Tim KE3HT) was second, third N1WCF/N1XHQ, fourth WA1ZHM,
Fifth KB1EPP, sixth KB1FLK, seventh WD1W/KB1GPW/KB1GPV, eighth was W1TTT.
W1TTT(Dave) was a big help to us because at least three of us would have
gone over to NY after a while of not hearing the fox. Paul(KB1EPP) also
brough his son Ian. We had a lot on young people. More than any other ham
event I have been to in the past 4 years!
Year to date 2001 Records:
- 4/27/2001 Hunt with largest participation KB1EAA/KB1EUH, 19 people.
- 4/27/2001 Hunt with longest time to hear the fox KB1EAA/KB1EUH 1hr
15minutes.
- 4/27/2001 Hunt with most youth participation, KB1EAA/KB1EUH, 5,
3 licensed...
We also gave out some awards for the year 2000.
Year 2000 Awards:
- "Most Creative Hound" KB1FLK/KB1FRG
home made curly beam.
- "Rookie of the year 2000" award to KB1FLK/KB1FRG
and KB1EPP.
- "We try Harder !" Award. N1ISB/KB2SAE.
- "Frank Woodstock memorial hunt September 2000"
Todd
N1XHR
- The "ESP" award Otherwise known as the
WA1ZHM award :-) , who else? WA1ZHM!
- "BEST FOX" Tim KE3HT for the roof top Air
conditioning Hunt.
- "Lame Fox" Award, WA1ZHM 14 minutes.
- "DNF" award :-) N1ISB/KB2SAE
Must be something fun about chasing foxes! Come join us! We have a web
page thanks to NoBarc, it is: http://www.nobarc.org/hounds
. There is information there on all kinds of hunting along with our instructions,
photos and awards. Next month is National transmitter hunting month. I
hope we can have a turn out like this one for the next hunt. George and
Don always put on a good hunt so I look forward to it. In July we hope
to have a "Wide Area" hunt. The date ain't set yet but most often we do
these hunts on the 4th Sunday of the month. If your interested and have
any questions just give a call on the 91 repeater. We also have a new list
on the internet (hounds@ke3ht.ampr.org) where we discuss dates and events.
If your interested just drop me a note ke3ht@nobarc.org....
March 18th, Good turnout and a heavy weight hunt.
We had a more difficult hunt than usual. I (KE3HT) was the fox. My goal
was to confuse John(WA1ZHM) and his new Dop Scan. Everyone knows he seems
to find ways to fool mine! I used a 30inch microwave dish and a 1/8wave
feed to point the 100mw of RF right at the 147.030 repeater. I was in Dalton
Behind the Legion field near the lake entrance. Dop Scans dont work if
they can't hear the signal. I made it so only the Beam hunters could hear
me at the start. Dop Scans loose 3 to 5db of receive ability so even the
Body shielders should do better finding a signal to follow. This hunt was
a Distance based hunt and John was bested by 3 of the other four hunters.
I got the feeling he will get even with me next time he's the fox! For
the results you can get the details off the Hounds
Stats Page but in order of mileage: Dave(KB1EAA) / RoAnne(KB1EUH)
team closely followed by Paul(KB1EPP) and then by Tom(KB1FLK) and his Daughter
Kathy(KB1FRG). This was a high difficulty hunt and our teams did it in
4.5 miles and 44 minutes! I think we are getting a pretty good group of
hunters. New news is the announcement of one of the newest Dop Scan's under
development being released just after this hunt. Three of us are looking
into a group build project. If anyone wants to join in just let me know.
January 7th ! Cold hunt.
We had a good turnout of hunters but we had some trouble with the final
results. Between Todd and I we could not make out who won. Who Cares? We
had great fun. John WA1ZHM had a good time on his first compeditive hunt
with his new Dop Scan. That and his natural abilities will make him hard
to beat. Todd hid behind the Tim Warner office building but he left his
car in the side parking lot to help give him away.
Everyone is invited to come hunt with us! If Dave (who is now KB1EAA)
can find the fox with a scanner, any ham who puts a little effort into
it can find the picnic. Hope to see you all there!
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This page was last updated June
25, 2001
