"Fox hunts" Making a Comeback in Central Arkansas

By Joshua Carroll, N5JLC - Arkansas Section Asst Public Information Coordinator

The Central Arkansas UHF Group (www.cauhf.org) held it's first "fox hunt" on Saturday and everyone had a great time. The event was likely to have been the first of its kind in over a decade in central Arkansas.

A "fox hunt" is a direction finding contest (also known as a "transmitter hunt" or "T-hunt") in which participants use directional antennas to locate a hidden transmitter. The participating Ham radio operators were scattered all over Pulaski County at the beginning of the event (and some were still scattered at the end of the event).

Tem Moore (N5KWL) was the winner, being the first to locate the "foxes" at Mimi's Cafe.

"It was a ton of fun. I still think it was just luck. It made me very aware that my fox-hunting skills need to improve. I learned that a simple tape-measure antenna could out-perform a factory-made fox-hunting antenna. I thought it was just a huge amount of fun," said Moore.



John Goswick (W5JLG) and Barbara Goswick (KE5ZQN) served as the "foxes" for the hunt.

The CAUHF is hoping to have a "fox hunt" each month on the second Saturday of the month. The next one is scheduled for April 11 at 9 am. More information about future "fox hunts" will be made available on the group's web site at www.cauhf.org.

Events such as this are used to train individuals in direction finding which is used in radio navigation, location of harmful or hostile transmitters, emergency aid (such as locating civil aircraft), avalanche rescue, wildlife tracking, as well as for sport.