Results of the February 2010 2m Fox Hunt
The February 2010 hunt was run by the VK3FOX team and saw hunts conducted around the North and North-eastern suburbs. Despite the fox specifically stating that fences should not be crossed some hounds, in the heat of the hunt, could just not help themselves! As things worked out this did not appear to effect the overall result, however there were some heated words exchanged!.
The first hunt was on a new bike track in Eltham North and a good signal was provided to the hounds at the start location, the Nillumbik council offices. Hounds found this spot in short order. The second hunt was in the back blocks of Diamond Creek around some power lines and there were a number of fences that the fox explained should not be crossed; several teams ignored this and were penalised, much to their disgust. VK3FVXN was the first team to come in the right way and was awarded with a 0. YQN who had been coming up against fences all over the place was a very close second and TXO was third after finding the fence earlier and then having to determine the correct way in.
The next hunt was supposed to be a quickie but due to the fox battery deciding to give up signals were a little weak!! This resulted in a large spread of times as those closer to the fox as the battery died could still hear the much reduced signal. Bursts of 80W from the fox vehicle, that was close to the fox, assisted those that were having trouble.
Hunt 4 was near the creek in Hurstbridge and those that had been on a mountain bike event in the area had a distinct advantage with Bruce from the YQN team winning the sprint. As the fox had changed to a hand held some hounds had difficulty locating the much smaller transmitter and provided much entertainment to the assembled onlookers as they tried to locate the fox..
The next hunt was some distance off in Panton Hill, due to some navagational difficulties the fox was still mobile when the FVXN team ran them to ground the rest found us once we had stopped on the side of Long Gully Road.
Due to the time, the last 2 hunts were dropped and the supper hunt was a quick selection by the fox at the end of Dering Street in Diamond Creek, this is a dead end road that has houses backing onto the railway line and beyond that is a large area of parklands. As a number of teams discovered there is no access to Dering Street from the parklands!!
BLN team were the only ones to find us, thus ensured their win for the evening. Team YQN were in the lead coming in to this hunt and with a bit of luck could have won the evening, unfortunately Bruce was discovering the railway line and fences just as the BLN team drove up to the fox.
Supper was at the home of Chris VK3CHR and after a supper of sandwiches, sausage rolls, party pies, quiches, hot dogs and chocolate cake the following results were announced. Standard (Time of arrival after first hound in) scoring was used.
| Team | Hunt 1 | Hunt 2 | Hunt 3 | Hunt 4 | Hunt 5 | Hunt 6 | Score | Placing |
| VK3BLN | 0 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 1 |
| VK3OW | 1 | 10 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 44 | 5 |
| VK3TXO | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 32 | 3 |
| VK3YQN | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 10 | 22 | 2 |
| VK3FAST | 4 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 50 | 6 |
| VK3FVXN | 4 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 34 | 4 |
Congratulation to the BLN team for an excellent effort.
Cheers
Greg VK3VT from the VK3FOX team