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CQ Magazine, August 2019 -- "Doppler RDF Mapping on Your Phone or Tablet"
- "The Navigator on each vehicular hunt team plotted the bearings and attempted to determine exactly where the hidden transmitter might be. Then he or she tried to discern the minimum-mileage route to it, because that's how the hunts were scored."
- "Starting with draft-your-own APRS and progressing through Delorme and TIGER CD-ROMs, mapping programs became ever better, faster and less expensive."
- "I concluded that the screens on hand-held devices are too small to use successfully for bearing display and navigation on mobile hunts. A tablet computer is just right -- not too small and not too large."
- "With no RS-232 or USB ports to work with, getting bearing data into a phone or tablet was a challenge that Jim took on in 2014. In the end, he decided to transfer the Doppler data via Bluetooth LE."
- "In order to plot bearings relative to true north, SigTrax needs to know the vehicle heading. The most accurate way to determine the vehicle's direction of travel is with GPS, but the vehicle must be moving at least 3.5 MPH."
A series of mobile bearings taken over flat terrain en route to a hilltop fox. Bearings were recorded in clear locations at key intersections as the transmitter was approached from the southeast, south, and then west. Most of the crosspoints are in or near the park where the transmitter is located. Learn more about linking Doppler bearings to your computer or phone in Homing In for August 2019.
Homing In, CQ Magazine, May 2019 -- "ARDF in the Appalachians and a New Tool for Two-Meter Foxhunting"
- "The 2019 championship courses are being designed by Illia Ivanko of Krasnyi Lyman, Ukraine. Illia is an amazing runner and radio-orienteer, winning numerous gold medals in the last three USA ARDF Championships."
- "It was the Croatians who first developed a special set of ARDF rules for unsighted and low-sighted persons and made them part of the ARDF World Championships in that country in 2010."
- "Using the yagi is a simple matter of aiming it for the strongest signal, much like aiming an outdoor TV antenna toward the station's tower."
- "The FoxRex 144 is based a design by Dr. Nicolas Roethe, DF1FO. Nick and his wife Brigitte have been frequent visiting competitors at the USA and IARU Region 2 Championships."
- "As you move through the woods on a classic ARDF event, the LCD display shows which transmitter is on and how many seconds remain in the current transmission. It also shows the estimated distance to the transmitter."
Dennis Schwendtner, WB6OBB of Santa Barbara, California (far left) took fourth place in the category for men over age 50 at the First ARDF World Championships for the Blind at Opatija, Croatia in September 2010. An ARDF competition for the blind will be part of this year's USA and IARU Region 2 ARDF Championships in North Carolina. Read all about it in Homing In for May 2019. (Photo by Marvin Johnston, KE6HTS)
Homing In, CQ Magazine, February 2019 -- "Tales of the 2018 CQ Worldwide Foxhunting Weekend"
- N8THN: "Over the river and through the woods, a sly little fox he was. So sly that this little fox sought the help of his twin."
- N8THN: "Key your radio, identify your transmission and press the 1 key. If you are close enough for the fox to hear you, it will begin transmitting a sequence of tones for 30 seconds followed by a Morse ID."
- NM9J: "Notes were compared, routes were recalled and antennas were evaluated. Here's to next time when N2EAB will be invited to play the fox."
- KR7W: "I arrived early for a two-hour walk in the woods to hide four bunnies at locations that were were progressively more difficult to find. The farthest was almost a half-mile away, sending its Bugs Bunny cartoon message, 'What's up, Doc? Heh, heh, heh, heh.'"
- N6SZO: "Each fox transmitter had a piece of colored tape on it so that when the Scouts returned, they could tell us what color of tape was on the fox they found so we could verify that they found the correct one."
A beautiful day in the Rockies brought out this foxhunting group to the annual picnic of the Ski Country Amateur Radio Club. Their two-meter equipment ranged from the usual measuring tape yagis to log-periodic beams and Arrow satellite yagi. Learn more about Foxhunting Weekend 2018 in Homing In for February 2019. (Photo by Bob Cutter, KI0G)
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 2019