Have You Read These Articles?

CQ Magazine, August 2022 -- "National and World ARDF Contests and Training Opportunities."

• "Almost every state has at least one site where successful championship ARDF events could be held.  But often there are no active ARDF groups or orienteering organizations near these sites."

• "For this year's USA Championships, members of Backwoods Orienteering Club of North Carolina drove 240 miles to Triangle, Virginia to set up in Prince William Forest Park.";

• "Bulgaria has hosted numerous multi-nation ARDF events in the past, including the World Championships twice.  It was at the 2006 World Championships on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast that Nadia Scharlau became the first person from USA to win a World Championship medal."

• "KO4ADV: 'We had classes on three consecutive Saturday afternoons and we generally finished in a couple of hours.  The goal of the first class was to introduce the sport of ARDF and the use of the receiver.'"

• "Meanwhile in Oregon, the first transmitter hunting clinic in recent memory was on Saturday, April 30, 2022.  It took place at Keizer Rapids Park, near Salem and was especially for the newcomers who had begun participating in recent hunts."

Homing In, CQ Magazine, May 2022 -- "Foxhunting Pranks and Championship Opportunities"

• "No matter what your purpose, you'll find that it takes experience out in the field to become proficient with your equipment.  Fortunately, practicing is lots of fun when hams get together to hold mobile hidden transmitter hunts."

• "Even in the simplest hunts, it's typical for one or more teams to become completely baffled at some point.  When the goal is to bamboozle everyone, there is no end to the stunts that an imaginative huntmaster can employ."

• "If hunt rules allow it, vary the hidden transmitter power.  This is particularly hard on hunters who use a beam, attenuator, and S-meter to get bearings, because that method relies on constant signal level for its accuracy."

• "If you don't mind waiting a long time for the hunters to arrive and you are prepared to be the object of their outrage, combine short transmissions with varying power."

• "By rotating a transmitting beam in azimuth, you can 'light up' nearby hills in various directions."

Homing In, CQ Magazine, February 2022 -- "World Class Foxhunting in the Tar Heel State"

• "Bill Wright WB6CMD of Winchester, California, says that he was the only person who traveled by air, whereas the others arrived in their own vehicles."

• "Radio-orienteering and classic orienteering make good partners for practice and championship events.  Ham clubs can supply fox transmitters, antennas and receiver sets. Orienteering clubs have maps, electronic scoring gear and knowledgeable volunteers."

• "Ken Diekman, now K6KRD, put a transmitter in a black canister and lashed it atop a bare pole in a field for a night hunt.  When hunters aimed their lights up at it, it looked just like an ordinary electrical transformer."

• "Once I gave my little fox transmitter to a youngster and had him hold it for a long ride on the Ferris wheel at a church carnival.  Yes, the signal did go up and down!"

• "There were bragging rights for the first mobile team to find the hiders, but the official winners were determined by a handicapping formula that was intended to maximize fairness for new hunters and teams that had not become regular winners."

Homing In appeared monthly in 73 Magazine from November 1988 until the magazine ceased publication with the September 2003 issue.  My column then appeared in CQ VHF magazine, a quarterly publication, from 2004 through Fall 2013 and CQ-Plus Digital Magazine during 2014.  Now it appears four times per year in CQ Magazine, which is available in print by subscription and in Amateur Radio Stores. You can also subscribe to CQ in digital form, viewable on PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone and Android.  I welcome your input for future articles, so please continue to send me your news of mobile and on-foot transmitter hunt activities.

The Fine Print: This is the official Web site for Homing In and other KØOV articles about RDF, but not for any magazine. Homing In articles are produced independently in southern California.  Text and artwork of all articles Copyright © Joseph D. Moell. All rights reserved.

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This page updated 3 August 2022