[GreenKeys] OT: transmitter (fox) hunt stuff

[Howard Weeks]

Gil,

I have in the distant past (back in the middle 50's)!

Most of us at that time used some type of small single element 
directional antenna that we could hold outside the car window with our 
left hand/arm. Some had them mounted on a mirror support. Find a parking 
lot and make a full 360 turn looking for the strongest signal. Follow 
that azimuth for a while and do it again.  You can usually tell when you 
are getting closer.

I used a good field strength meter for the close in hunting. You also 
need an attenuator in the antenna lead so you can keep the receiver in a 
linear power range (not overloaded).

We had a 12 mile limit on how far the fox could go to hide, ie, 12 mile 
radius from the center of town.

I used a field strength meter for the close in hunt because I have been 
close enough to touch the fox and didn't know it.  On the other hand, I 
was the first on the scene many times.

And we were using 80 meter AM rather than VHF and FM.

Howard in GA

On 9/3/2015 2:46 AM, Gil Smith wrote:
> Hey folks:
>
> Just a bit off-topic, fyi:
>
> Courtesy of Byon at byonics.com <http://byonics.com>, we have a local
> Arizona transmitter-hunt (fox hunt) every month or so. My son, Alec,
> K7EZX, and I have only had modest results finding transmitters (though
> the subsequent lunch has always been great).  Distance bearings were a
> pain due to frequent stops to get out and hook up the tape-measure
> yagi.  When we finally got close to the fox, the signal strength was
> generally overwhelming, and we often gave up.
>
> To help with the distance issue, I am taking a cue from a fellow hunter
> who mounted a yagi through his car's sunroof -- I just did the same
> thing.  I got three tv rabbit-ear antennas on ebay, made one into the
> driven element (with coax and hairpin match), and the other two became
> reflector/director (with simple shorts).  Mounted them on a pvc boom,
> crimped/cut them to proper length, with a little blob of hot-melt glue
> on the ends for safety.  They are very light, worked well in road tests
> up to 50mph, and they fold down nicely for storage.  Some pvc pipe pokes
> through a lovely piece of 1/4" cherry plywood secured in the sunroof
> opening.  My son will man the antenna as we drive.  We will use a
> switched attenuator with the roof yagi.
>
> For close-up stuff with the tape-measure yagi, which has always been our
> final location problem, I have now built an active attenuator kit, and
> hopefully we can finally shorten the time-consuming last segments of our
> t-hunts.
>
> Anyone else on the list into t-hunts?
>
> gil
>
>
> gil smith, AF7EZ
> greenkeys moderator
> gil at baudot.net <mailto:gil at baudot.net>
>
>
>
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