2002

November 16, 2002 Small but great fun.

We had a great time between light snowfalls. John WA1ZHM identified the location of the Fox, Tim (KE3HT), exactly, without even being there and he did it in 20minutes! This is just one of Mr. ESP's success stories over the past few years. Dave (W1TTT) also did a good job even from the start. After wasting mileage going back to his house to get his glasses, then programming his HT, he was STILL the first to get to the Fox. Paul (N1PUA) and his son Ben (KB1FEZ) on the second fox hunt with his new Dop Scan discovered that Dop hunting can be confusing. No easy way to learn the tricks of Dop hunting. You just have to get out there and experiance it. Before the hunt there was some discussion about call up in the event Hounds are needed. Don (N1ISB) used to be a contact point and kept phone numbers to call when we were needed. He is no longer around and we should try to organize ourselves again. We should gather a list of those wishing to be called in an emergency. In this list should be phone numbers, times available, types of equipment,, etc... Then we should make this list available to all the other hounds and the club director's. If you want to be a "Hound on Call" send an e-mail to ke3ht@nobarc.org with your information. I also want to update the list of participating Hounds on call or not. The Web site http://www.nobarc.org/hounds/members.html  has the start of this list. You do not need to be a regular or even have hunted with us before. Just send your email address to ke3ht@nobarc.org and I will add you to our mailing list. One last thing, We want better participation. Why are you not attending? Let us know. If you would like to see a hunt during the week or just a different time schedule we can arrange that as well. The more people we have the more fun this is. Have you never hunted ? We can train you and/or team you up with a more experianced hunter. You don't need anything other than a HT to hunt. John did it with his HT today and he didn't even have a car! You can also participate from home.. Feel free to help the foxes on wheels ! 73's!   

October 26th The 1st Annual N1ISB Fox Hunt.

Fun again in the form of a fast paced 30 minute hunt!

George (KB2SAE) brought us back to the fun hunts today. Its been awhile since I have been in a hunt so I totaly enjoyed it! George hid right on Rt. 20 near the Hancock & Pittsfield boarder! I (Tim KE3HT), Paul (N1PUA) and his crew of two (I don't remember their call signs or names), Tom (KB1FLK) and Donna(KB1IKU), and John WA1ZHM were mobile for this hunt. RoAnne(KB1EUH) was sick to Dave(KB1EAA) participated from home. This was a team hunt so there were no individual winners except the team. The start of each hunt seems to hold the story. I started from Silver lake and had a Dop Scan heading of just about due west but it was weak. Paul had a 315 heading from the airport, Tom had one about 230 degrees from Lanesborough by the police department.. So I continued west down West Street. Paul went to BCC and Tom went down near Pontousic lake.  Paul and I had two lines that crossed in south Hancock, Tom and Paul crossed a little north of that. From West street we lost Georges signal so he must be west of the mountain. I went across the mountain on Rt20 and went to stop at a rest area for a clear reading just south of where Pauls and My map lines crossed.. Guess who happend to be in that rest area! I took some pictures of Pauls new Dop Scan and put them on our web site. See:  http://www.nobarc.org/hounds/pictures/  . Our next hunt is likely to occur Sat November 16th at 12noon. Everyone is welcome even if you need to stay at home. Nothing is require but a radio. If you hear the fox (KE3HT) on 147.630 (The input to 147.03+ repeater) then tell the foxes on the road. Feel free to pop in on the repeater with any coments or questions. We love to have more people interested in this part of the hobby. 

Frank WoodStock Memorial hunt. 

September 2002 was canceled.

August 2002 was canceled.

July 28, 2002 Fox Hunt

Started 12:15
The foxes: KB1IKU (Donna) and KB1FLK (Tom)
They had some problems at the first site, they couldn’t hit the repeater very well.  This site usually can hit Greylock, but today that wasn’t the case.  They had to make a quick move to get a better line on the repeater.  There were people on the repeater at noon discussing the fox hunt. So the start time was not a big impact.

At check in:
KB2SAE (George) – who started top of Mt Greylock
KB1EAA (Dave) and KB1EUH (Roanne) – Plus two other helpers possible future HAMS  - who started top of Mt Washington
KE3HT (Tim) who started top of Mt Windsor
N1QOV (Obie – who checked in from home)
N1LZH (Pat) and W1BS (Joe) - who started some where near the top of Mt Greylock

Others who helped or joined in the hunt after check in:
KB1DMR (Pierre) Pittsfield
KD1?AS
K1ATT (Dave), North Adams
K1JJK (Ed) Pittsfield
W1GPM (Glen) Mt Wachuetts
K1XU (Jeff) Glastonbury, CT, who sent everyone in the right direction
KC2JRD (Jeremy) Albany,NY
K1PAI (Roger) Wethersfield
N1FGI (Ed) New Ashford
Unknown (John) North Hampton


The Foxes were located on Rt. 20 in Westfield.  The actual spot was at Foggy’s heavy equipment lot “the gold crawly bugs” which is on the right hand side of RT 8 less than 3 miles west from the center of Westfield.  The hunters which all worked together found the Foxes at about 3:40.  The first reading from Mt Greylock was right on, but with no one else getting a good reading on the Foxes an effort right in the local area was attacked by the hunters.  The HAMS from CT gave the hounds even more help.   George headed north, Tim headed east, and Dave & company headed south.  As the hunt continued, Dave and Roanne past the Fox first on Rt.8 without noticing then. Pat and Joe passed the Foxes on Rt 8 without noticing then next.   A HAM from North Hampton joined in the hunt about 3:00, but we did not hear from him as the hunt ended.  Dave and Roanne found us in their second pass, but the rest of the hounds were within 5 miles at that point.  The group worked real well together.  One problem faced by the hounds during the hunt was as they moved further east into the hills, they could not always hit the .910 repeater to compare readings.

A great time was had by all. Thank you all for your participation, it was great to hear all the other HAMS joining in the hunt. So, when is the next hunt? The hunted would love to be the hunters.


June 30th Ice at the end of the road!

We had a last minute hunt this weekend. With all the ham activity this month it was easy to just about forget the hunt. Fortunately there were a few people who got together and the hunt was on! Dave and RoAnne were the foxes. We spread out a little better this hunt. However I attempted to get a jump on the hunt by using the input to 146.91 and try to get a bearing during the checkin. This was a mistake. Paul (N1PUA) and I both had readings that crossed in the south Becket North Otis area. The problem occurred because the FOX used two different power levels! This caused his signal to disappear when he went to simplex. Foxy! Alot of confusion followed. No one else was in that area and no-one else had a signal so we began to move into that area. Paul and I totally lost it by searching where the fox was not. Veteran hunter George (KB2SAE) in traveling towards our readings stopped during one of the transmissions and caught the fox at a 240degree bearing. That's towards Stockbridge! Forget it I thought, its way off! Tom KB1FLK then came into the Peru area and got a bearing towards stockbridge as well. He had difficulty and was worried that he was in error. Turns out he was not! Then John WA1ZHM showed up in the Stockbridge area. They had loud signals! So loud in fact they could not get bearings. They were TOO close! Paul N1PUA and I came in from the east and both tried to stay out of Stockbridge to give John and George bearings. Paul set up on a hill just east Stockbridge and south of 102. I set up on 102 by Yale street. We traded bearings and it looked kinda like it might be in the Ice Caves area. I went to the west end of Stock bridge on 102 and got a real good triangulation. The map did not show it but they were on the north side of the Ice caves in a small park that had trails along the river. I think the lesson I learned this time is that unless you have a good attenuator (and even then) you need to resist temptation to stay on top of the fox if you can't find him. You need to get some sort of triangulation and that means being at least 3-7 miles away from the fox (on low power). The group has built a number of Beams, now we need to build a bunch of attenuators (http://www.frontiernet.net/~n2ki/attenuat.htm).. More fun next month at the "All New England fox hunt". July 28th at 12noon starting on 146.91. Yea 146.91 covers all the way to Rhode Island so we will need ALOT of help!!

May 11th National Fox Hunting Weekend!

The group decided that starting with NFH weekend we would have a bunch of monthly hunts where the goal is to Help a lost hunter or find a jammer
fast. The objective was to have a fox simulate one of the emergencies we deal with. This time I, KE3HT, was a jammer on 146.91- repeater in Berkshire County Mass. After three hours the fox was still not found and with darkness approaching we talked in the closest Hound and called the hunt. Most of the problem stemmed from a non-HOUND Ham reporting from on top of Mt Greylock that the fox was heard near full scale and he thought the
signal was coming from the northern part of the county just south of the repeater. The hounds all focused on that area for most of the hunt. In fact I was near the top of a hill in the southern part of the county. Most of the hounds had to pull the plug because of the length of the hunt but it was one of the most educational hunts I ever had. In JULY we have a ALL New England hunt. All T-hunt hams are invited. This year we will have the hunt be a team hunt with the objective to find a fox as fast as possable as a team. The Fox will be located anywhere in working range of the 146.06 repeater in Windsor, Mass. If you want more info on the Hounds see: http://www.nobarc.org/hounds . On this site we have hunt info as well as pictures and equipment building info. Many of us use Beams but some of us also use dop Scans. Sorry, no pictures of this hunt. It was dark before I saw the first Hound!
Tim KE3HT

April 6th Dalton

We had a nice hunt this weekend. Paul (KB1EPP) and Ian were the fox in northern Dalton by the Holiday farms. This was a milage hunt. I was the winner at 4.6 miles with John (Mr ESP WA1ZHM) second aith 5.0 miles. Tom (KB1FLK) and crew were third with 10.9miles.  It was a rather uneventful hunt. We had a nice group get together afterwards and decided to impliment and idea that has been circulating for awhile. TEAM hunts. No Winner makes the hunting less of a "I wana win" kinda thing. We aim to test our skills at a real hunt where someone might need help or perhaps a jammer is messing with us on one of the repeaters. we decided to do this for the rest of this year. More details are found on the web site under instructions.
http://www.nobarc.org/hounds

March 3rd, Short and sweet!

KB1FLK along with Donna were the fox.
They were hiding out in the upper parking lot of Pontoosuc Lake (
south end by close to the dam)
The hunt was a mileage one.
It started at 10:00 on Sun Mar 3rd.
The wave ant was used to shot the signal toward Mt Gerylock.
The hunt took about 45 min to finish.
There was donuts when the hounds arrived. There were 4 Hams involved
KB2SAE - came in first with 3.4 miles
WA1ZHN - came in second 3.7 miles (John arrived about 10 minutes
before George but with more miles)
KE3HT - came in thrid 7.7 miles
N1QOV (played a part from his home)
 
 

January 13th, fox was next door!

THE FOX HUNT WAS HELD LAST SUNDAY AT 1100 AM. KB2SAE GEORGE AND KB1FLK TOM WERE THE HOUNDS.
KB1FLK CAME IN FIRST AND SHATTERED MY MILAGE RECORD------.1 OF A MILE HOW ABOUGHT THAT! KB2SAE FINISHED SECOND WITH 8.7 MILES. THE NOT SO FOXEY FOX WAS HIDEING BEHIND THE BRADLEYS BILDING (THE OLD BANK). TOM DUG IN AND REFUSED TO MOVE  BECAUSE OF RECEVER OVERLODE EVEN AT FULL ATINUATION. 15 MIN. LATER HE ROUNDED THE CORNER TO REVIEL A STUNDED FOX. GEORGE WAS ALSO OVERLODED AT THE START AND WENT HEAR AND THERE TO GET BETER BERINGS. KB1EAA DAVE WAS SITING IN THE PARKING LOT ACROSS MERRL RD. WAITING FOR ROANN TO FINISH SHOPPING. I GESS THERE WAS SOME CONFUSSION AS TO THE STARTING TIME. ALL IN ALL THE HUNT TOOK 45 MIN. AND WAS OVER AT 1200 NOON. 73'S JOHN WA1ZHM.
 
 

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.
 
 

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This page was last updated  16 March, 2002