[FoxHunt] ELT Training

[Kuon & Dale Hunt]

I spent 10 years on a search and rescue team, and we trained on the DF
equipment only
once a year at best, and then not everyone got their hands on the unit.
This just is
not often enough to remember how to do it when you need to, and leads to
situations such
as knocking on the wrong door at midnight, or trying to take a bearing from
a VOR site
(and suffering severe desense.)

This is why hams who hunt regularly are often faster at finding the transmitter
than SAR crews - it becomes second nature to them how to use the equipment,
where
to go to get a good bearing, and what to do when they get one.  And this is
where
ARDF training really helps once you get out of the car - you should see the
serious competitors literally plotting bearings while running through the
forest!
I've never seen a SAR team that was THAT fast!  (Though there are some training
for the upcoming ARDF National Championships...)

My philosophy is that, to be good at ELT location, you have to like DF enough to
do it regularly - like once a month or more.  It doesn't really matter if
you use 2m
or 121.775.

Here in Yamhill County, Oregon, we got some old ELT beacons and
recrystalled them for
121.775.  We have invited the SAR team (as well as CAP and anyone else
interested)
to have practices with us.  So far we're still developing our equipment,
but there is
a lot of interest.  We are thinking of holding monthly hunts and rotating
them through
the surrounding counties, since there are hams involved in ELT search in
several of them.

  - Dale WB6BYU