The November hunt was run by the MD / HRL / VR / MZ team. The weather was a good for hunting other than a little rain on one hunt and a lot of wind on another. 5 teams were up for the challenge.
The night started with light in the sky and the first hunt was to test the accuracy of the equipment and the accuracy of translating that to a map. No sniffers were allowed. Closest was FAST who were approximately 30m – 40m from the actual location. The were followed by CI, FOX, AI. BLN had gear problems with seating of a Win Radio card and did not complete the event.
The next hunt was on the Sth side of Paterson River which required a run of over 1km (to make up for not sniffing on the first hunt :-). Several teams tried the North side of the river as there was no close vehicle access on the South side. First in was FAST followed by FOX. CI and AI. BLN was still fixing their equipment.
The 3rd hunt location was chosen to split up the hounds from the different road options. MZ’s new 70cm Micro fox was used for the first time. First in was FAST followed by FOX, AI, CI and BLN who started late with gear working again.
The next hunt was in Keysborough in a water retaining basin. All but one team came in from a park on the North side of Dandenong bypass and had little trouble finding the source of radiation (fencing wire) or the hidden transmitter about 10m away. First was FAST followed by BLN, AI, CI and then FOX.
The 5th hunt was on a small spit on the Sth side of Mordialloc creek. Several sniffers could be seen on the Mordialloc pier which was the hope of the planner. First in was BLN followed by CI, FOX, AI and FAST
Hunts 6 and 7 were made into a multileg hunt to speed things up. On Hunt 6, (2m) hounds needed to run around the soccer complex if coming from the Sth. A short distance away was the 70cm leg (hunt 7) which was easy to get into if you knew how.
For hunt 6 the order was FAST, FOX, CI, BLN AI
For Hunt 7 the order was FOX, FAST, BLN, CI and AI.
Scoring for the night was order based and the final results were:
FAST (5)FOX (11)CI (16)BLN (20)AI (21)
Mark. VK3MD