Townsville 1997 Region 3 ARDF Championships Report

An Unofficial Rambling Account of the 2nd IARU Region 3 ARDF Championships

This account is being written for a number of different audiences (foxhunters, orienteers, observers), so please ignore all the bits you
know already. It’s also LONG !

Last week Australia held it’s first international ARDF event, the 2nd ever IARU (International Amateur Radio Union) Region 3 (Asia-Pacific) championship. The event was very sucessfully hosted by the Townsville Amateur Radio Club, the driving force being Wally Watkins, VK4DO.

Day 1 (Monday) was arrival day, and quite a lot of arriving happened. For some reason I have still yet to establish the Australians (Us) and the New Zealanders were accomodated in the West Halls of the James Cook University just outside Townsville and everyone else (and meals) were in the Central Area. Maybe Wally thought we needed the exercise.
Went shopping and laid in essential alcohol supplies (which of course are strictly banned on campus… Nah..Surely that only applies to the students ? ).
Got to meet the New Zealand contingent of competitors and referrees whilst waiting for an elusive bus.

Day 2 (Tuesday). Official Opening Ceremony. Lots of film wasted by many parties (Hint: Never lend your camera to someone else to take photos…)
Most of your film has gone before you know it !). The Japanese lived up to their reputation and took enough photos to line a house. One little Japanese had a video camera permanently attached to his eye. We’re sure he won’t know where he’s been till he gets home and has a chance to look at the hours of video tape.
Present were USA (ARRL) (Hi Kev!), Bulgaria (BFRA), China (CRSA), Korea (KARL), New Zealand (NZART), Japan (JARL), Poland (PZK) and Australia (WIA), as well as some observers/officials from Thailand and Malaysia.

Afternoon was for practice. A couple of Radio Transmitters were setup around the university grounds and we had to find them. These RDF championships consisted of two events. One is held using transmitters operating in the Amatuer 2m band (145.300 MHz) and the other on 80m (3.58 MHz). The sorts antennas and receivers needed to these two events look quite different.
The 2m antennas are either 2 or 3 element Yagi antennas (they look a bit like TV antennas). The 80m antennas are ferrite rods or DF-loops with sense antennas. I won’t go into technicalities here, but the idea is to to work out which direction the transmitter you are trying to find is in, and then head in that direction (either directly of in-directly depending on the
terrain) till you find the transmitter. Near the transmitter is a orienteering Red/White flag and a punch.

There are 5 transmitters (controls) with punches. Depending of your category (Junior, Senior, Old Timer, Woman) you need to find 4 or 5 of these transmitters.
There is also a 6th transmitter on a slightly different frequency at the finish to help guide you back.

The 5 transmitters are all on the same frequency, so they can’t all be on at the same time otherwise no-one would be able to work out what’s going on.
What happens is each transmitter transmits for 1 minute, then turns off in time for the next transmitter and so on. This means each transmitter is only on for 1 minute out of 5 minutes…so you have to remember bearings taken earlier to work out where to go. Drawing lines on the map using a compass is one way to do this. Each transmitter identifies itself using Morse code. Don’t let this worry you however. I don’t know Morse Code either, but all you have to do is count the short pips at the end to know which transmitter you are listening to.

The map you get is pretty much a standard orienteering map with Start and Finish marked on it. The controls are not marked !

I use a 3 element Yagi with a TJN/XAJ Ultra Sniffer for 2m. For 80m , (taking a more unusual approach), I have a 10m version of the Ultra-Sniffer fed by a 80m to 10m converter attached to an 80m loop and sense antenna.
Just like your AM radio, a ferrite rod (or loop) alone can’t tell you which of two directions the radio transmitter is (“bi-directional”), so the sense antenna is another antenna which can be used to resolve this ambiguity.
All my gear seemed to work OK during the practice and I was able to quickly locate the four various transmitters.
One of the Australians (Jack VK3WWW) noticed that one of the transmitters seemed to decrease in power after about an hour. This was to prove a significant observation that would have an effect the following day during the 2m competition.

After throwing boomerangs around the oval for about an hour (the VK3’s had all recently purchased these from Roger at the Mt. Gambier foxhunt champs and we were keen to try them out) we had dinner, followed by a Jury meeting for the upcoming event.

Somewhere about this time the Kazakhstan (KARC) Contingent turned up. They had mistakenly booked flights to Brisbane only, thinking that Townsville was merely a suburb of Brisbane. They hopped into a Taxi after waiting in vain for some sort of ARDF official to approach them. They could speak little English, and consequently they were driven by Taxi to Townsville ! The driver
must have taken pity on them I suspect, because the trip cost them A$600. This isn’t bad considering it’s over 1300kms ! The team consisted of 3 boys (Junior category) and their teacher (Old Timer) from the Kazakhstan Higher Radio Engineering and Radio Sports School. With a name like that what hope did us poor foxhunters have ?

Had a quiet (illegal) drink with the New Zealanders to pass the evening.

Day 3 Wednesday. Competition Day ! Had get up at the non-existant time of 5.45am in order to be ready for breakfast. We were taken by bus to the secret location for the event somewhere near Mt. Louisa. Suddenly the bus stopped in the middle of the road. The location was so secret even the bus driver hadn’t been told ! Ah. There it was…next to those forbidding looking hills (mountains ?). It was getting quite warm too. About 24 DegreesC.

We were all herded into the Start quarantine area. We had to place our equipment in another area to be picked up just before start. Something had gone wrong with one of the transmitters so there was a bit (well an hour actually) delay whilst the organisers sorted that one. Sat around getting nervous. I’ve never done a real one of these before (only our practice hunts with 3 transmitters) ! What was it going to be like ?

The competitors started to head out. Pre-determined groups are released at 5 minute intervals, so it took over 2 hours between when the 1st and Last groups were released. I went off in group 8 (luckily reasonably early…it was getting hotter as the day wore on).

I pick up my sniffer (antenna & receiver), get a number pinned on and get given a map. I have about 9 minutes to study this before I start. I decide pretty much which way I’m going to head first off…before I’ve heard a single transmitter. When you start you have to run down the “start corridor” before you are allowed to turn on your receiver. Hmm. Tx 1 seems back near the finish so I’ll leave that to last. Tx 2 and 3 seem both roughly ahead so I keep going as per original plan. Phew! Both Tx4 and Tx5 look like they’re also on my “return” journey from a big loop. I keep heading
for Tx3. About 15 mins in I come accidentally across some officials. Unless I’m horribly mistaken there must be a transmitter nearby ! I know it isn’t Tx3, so it must be Tx2. I wait around a bit for the transmitters to cycle round to Tx2 (noting the bearings of the others for future reference). I find Tx2 which was rather well hidden. I thought these flags weren’t meant to be placed in hollows ?

Onto Tx3, passing Kevin Kelly N6QAB (ARRL) who was taking it easy by this stage. Found Tx3 when it wasn’t transmitting just by following my original bearing. This is working out quite well. Tx4 was a little harder, but I also found this one whilst it was off. Wow, only 35 mins for the 1st three checkpoints. As you can no doubt guess disaster is about to strike. I figure Tx5 is the other side of the “mountain” so up I go (on what turns out to be an unfortunate tangent). Tx5 didn’t come on till after I had gone over a ridge and this was to be my undoing. I got a “dud” bearing due to being on the wrong side of a hill from the transmitter and headed downhill at what turned out to be right angles to Tx5. I kept getting odd bearings until I was well down in the valley. It then became obvious. Tx5 was right up the top, even higher than the ridge I had crossed sometime (and many meters up) before. I was starting to regret I hadn’t had a drink at Tx4. It was about halfway up the hill (again) that I discovered I had lost my punch card. After a few fruitless minutes of unrepeatable dialog with various deities (lucky non-one else seemed to be nearby!) I figured I
had almost no chance of finding the card again and thought I might as well find the final 2 transmitters anyway, even though I knew I was disqualified.

Staggered into Tx5 (it was, as previously guessed, right up the top), only to be told that I should keep going as there was a chance I wouldn’t be disqualified. Lucky I mentioned my ticket loss to the officials, and also lucky I decided to punch my map. So with a little more enthuiasm (after all I had plenty of time left) I coutoured around to Tx1 (hidden behind a rock just below another peak. I switched my sniffer over to the return beacon and started heading down (clambering would better describe the slope). I could hear the beacon OK but it did seem to be very very weak. Was I furthur away than I thought ? I came into the finish corridor with relief. That transmitter was still damm weak though, and I was within meters of it !
It turns out it was defective, and it was the same one Jack had noticed seemed to get weaker on the practice day.
I had taken 105 mins. Most of an hour was between 4 and 5. Surprisingly this mediocre result was sufficient to give me 8th place, the best WIA result. Obviously many others had had more problems than I did.

The jury meeting that evening decided to forgive my (and a Japanese competitor’s) lost ticket as they had evidence of all controls visited by the officials hidden at each TX site.

I will post the official results later, but the best time for the 2m event, senior (all Tx) category was by a Chinese bloke, Li Rp, who managed 50 minutes.

WIA corner:
Another noteworthy WIA result was Sue VK3LSL. She found 3 of her 4 required transmitters in 115 mins giving her 6th place and along with Sally (9th) a WIA 3rd team placement. Sue had not found any of the transmitters at our last practice hunt, so husband Mark’s (VK3JMD) training on their drive up to Townsville must have worked. She even beat Mark’s own result of 3 transmitters and 127 mins (Senior category).
Jack VK3WWW (Old Timer category) managed 16th with 4/4 Tx in 136 mins, just under the time limit of 140 min. This was sufficient for a 3rd team placement along with Ian (3/4 122 min). (well all he had to do was get in on time and beat the New Zealanders).

Day 4 (Thursday) Day Off.
Most went to Billabong wildlife sancutury. The VK3s and as it turned out the Americans decided to have a look at Magnetic Island. We respectively Mountain biked, scootered and Mini-Moked around the (rather small) island enjoying the sun, beaches & views before returning of the ferry in time to attend the Townsville Mayorial reception laid on for the ARDF. After more than sufficient alcohol and nibblies we returned for a hasty Jury meeting and an unofficial ARRL Vs WIA ordinary mobile foxhunt.

Kevin was keen to show us the capabilities of the DF Junior, so we patched together a Yagi & broomstick based system for Mark’s car to give him some competition. Our receiver was an ultra-sniffer with an extra external preamp. Jack was beamswinger, Mark driver & myself navigator (off a tourist map) and runner.
Kevin was joined by New Zealander, Andrew ZL2UKF as a navigator. Jeff Aust also put in a 1 person team attempt.

Results: WIA: approx 30 mins, 17 km
ARRL: Never actually got there, but close enough at 130 mins, ?? km
JEFF: DNF.

Hmmm. I’ve yet to be convinced about dopplers……
Many thanks the Bob Mann for the roof bar, and John VK4OB for being the fox at very short notice.

Day 5 80m Competition.
Another early morning. No bus arrives, but Wally then appears and informs us that we’re going to walk to the Start ! This event was held near the University on an orienteering map from the Thuringowa Orienteering Club.

I won’t give a blow by blow account of this one, sufficient to say that the hills seemed even higher than the last event, but all the WIA competitors did a lot better. I only made one slight error in climbing up to a peak that was higher than necessary, but managed the course in 80 mins for 5 Txs, just beating all of the Korean team (which I’m quite pleased about so you’re going to hear about it if you want to or not). This gave me 6th place.
Again the Chinese romped it in 1st, 2nd, 3rd with the best time an amazing 40 mins. This is under 8 mins per leg !

WIA corner again:
Mark managed 9th 106 mins 5/5, Sue 5th 102 mins 3/4 and Jack 8th 92 mins 4/4 in their respective categories.
Other WIA members well below this. Bit of a VK3 (Victorian) coup huh ?

After a cool swim in the University pool after lunch another Jury meeting cleared up remaining details.

The closing dinner was held that evening, lots of medals were awarded (well I didn’t get any) and gifts swapped. Bob Mann (president of the Townsville Amateur club) gave us truly dreadful renditions of various old songs. The Thailand representative, always full of beans and self-appointed social dynamo got us all up to dance.

Thanks from me and all the VK3’s to Wally, the Townsville Amateur Radio Club and all the competitors and referees who attended. Korea in 1999 ??? Who knows.

Cheers,
Bruce, VK3TJN

September 1997 Foxhunt

The fox for the evening was Chris VK3CHR, Tom, Doug VK3JDO, Dave Vk3JMB and Greg VK3VT. Seven teams of hounds braved the weather and were rewarded with little rain and some fun hunting.

The first spot was found by the VT team on last months hunt and was beside the Calder freeway. The fox from last month was suitably amused as they were nowhere near this location when hiding their transmitter! A number of hounds on this event were nowhere near this area either, as there was little indication of the correct direction to head from the start. Still after a couple of mobile phone calls (the two metre liaison frequency was tried) suitable hints were given and the hounds were on the way. One team ignored the explicit directions given over the phone (due to lack of trust in the fox) and missed getting a good score. Would you trust the fox that much? Due to the time taken in locating this fox it was decided to run the clock for 15 minutes and this proved decisive in the final results.
(Sorry Ian, Geoff, Mark and John)

Second spot was near the Tullamarine freeway and the hounds should have been closely spaced but this was not quite the case, the winners turned up the right street while others had a run across the park.

Third spot was found by Doug 3JDO and was a lane at the rear of some factories in Hawthorn, only three teams found this spot and two only just, you can never tell how good a spot will be until the hounds try to find it.

For the fourth spot Chris found a dead end street near the Ivanhoe Grammar school which was an easy run from Hawthorn.

The final spot of the evening was found by Doug 3JDO on a mountain bike ride an was in a fauna park along the bank of the Plenty river. Several hound came across the river and were very chilly at the end of the evening

Supper was held at the home of Chris 3CHR and after the scores were read and the stories swapped the hounds headed for home and sleep.

TEAM	Hunt1	Hunt 2	Hunt 3	Hunt 4	Hunt 5	Total	Place
YQN	0	10	9	5	0	24	Equal 1st
WWW	5	2	10	2	5	24	Equal 1st
TVB	15	0	0	0	10	25	2nd
TKQ	10	9	10	3	8	40	3rd
YXO	12	3	9	8	9	41	4th
PW	12	3	10	10	10	45	5th
BLN	15	9	10	3	10	47	6th
TUG	15	10	10	10	9	54	7th

73 Greg VK3VT

August 1997 Foxhunt

Action-packed, controversial and ruthless… three words which leap to mind when talking about the infamous ‘PW’ team and their August foxhunt. Melbourne turned on a crystal-clear evening for the monthly hunt on Friday 15th August. Seven teams assembled at the Lygon St. / VicRoads carpark, and the evening’s festivities commenced shortly after 8.00 pm.

The first hunt – controversial – consisted of three legs and was scored on the third leg. A 150 mW transmitter on the Elizabeth St. roundabout (Melways 2B F4) had the teams promptly under way, with most finding this without too much difficulty. One wonders, however, if it might have been quicker to walk to this hunt rather than drive…

The second leg at “Kensington Banks” (Melways 42 H2) was in a maze of little side streets in the new housing estate off Smithfield Rd. First in here was WWW, then TVB followed by TUG some minutes later.

Action-packed: leg three, “The Three Testicles”, had hounds scattered in every direction trying to land safely beneath the Western Ring Road / Geelong Road interchange (Melways 40 E12). First in again was WWW, 4 minutes later was TVB, and equal third on this hunt went to YQN & TUG. The fox was chirping happily from beneath the complicated freeway crossovers; cars approached, skirted then deflected as the various on-ramps and off-ramps proved chaotic for navigators and drivers.

The second hunt was comprised of five legs, starting from the carpark at McDonalds on the Western Ring Road (Melways 40 B7). Going against the grain of all traditional foxhunting tactics, the FREEWAY proved too much of a psychological obstacle for some. The first leg was beneath the WRR & Ballarat Rd intersection (Melways 25 K8), followed closely by the second leg beside the WRR & Furlong Rd intersection (Melways 26 E6). Two teams found the second transmitter first and were sent back with their tails between their legs to find the first transmitter at Ballarat Rd.

The third leg – ruthless – was beneath the freeway bridge over the Maribyrnong River (Melways 26 J2). Sadly, the fox had a dickey linear amplifier, (the only technical hitch for the evening,) but several teams still found this leg in good time.

To continue in a ring-road fashion, leg four (also known as “The Footbridge” – Melways 6 D12) had some hounds scratching their heads. Two teams had realised by this time that the secret was to STAY ON THE FREEWAY and drop runners as soon as possible.

The fifth leg and meeting place was a transmitter on the south-east corner of High Street & Keon Pde (Melways 8 J12) opposite the railway station. With a 30 minute time limit from the first team, only two teams arrived at this leg: WWW and TVB. Other hounds had ventured off into the undesirable urbanism of Gladstone Park. The meeting place was announced, rude words were uttered by many and Hunt number 3 was underway.

First leg of the last hunt was in the middle of the freeway (Melways 10F10) hosted by Andrew, Dennis and friends. Most teams did well here, dropping runners at appropriate times.

The second leg took hounds to Fitzsimmons Lane (Melways 21 G12) on the south side of the Yarra River. Of all the teams left, four were able to find the offending transmitter: TVB, VT, WWW & YQN in this order.

The last leg brought hounds to the magnificent supper prepared at the QTHR of Richard VK3YLZ. Scores for the night were WWW on 9 points, TVB on 31 points, YQN & TUG both on 55 points, TKQ & VT on 60 points, with HXP on 61 – who incidentally pulled out owing to equipment difficulties.

June 1997 Foxhunt

The June 2-metre foxhunt was held in cool but clear conditions. The fox for the month was Jack, VK3WWW. 7 teams assembled for an 8PM start at the K-mart Burwood carpark.

There were 3 hunts for the evening. The first two hunts were split into 3 legs each with foxes running on both 2 and 10 metres.

The first fox for the evening caught the 8:10PM Burwood tram to the Burwood Campus of Deakin university. One of the hounds who worked out what was going on boarded the tram at the same stop that the fox got off. The fox then went for a walk through the university campus. Both VK3PW and VK3TVB found this fox first at 8:32PM followed by VK3BLN and VK3TKQ some 3-4 minutes later.

The second leg of this hunt took the hounds to the rear of the Wheelers hill hotel car park. A newly erected wall at the rear of the car park with no openings forced many hounds to try to find alternative routes. VK3YQN found this fox at 8:59PM followed by VK3PW just 2 minutes later. 4 minutes on, VK3TVB arrived to take third place.

The last leg of this hunt took the hounds to the rear of Kingsley Business park in Rowville. This hunt proved particularly troublesome for most hunters. This transmitter was giving short bursts of carrier which are often hard to find. The transmitter was hidden in a clearing in amongst some very prickly bushes. VK3YQN were first on the scene and very quickly burrowed through the bushes and by 9:14PM had found the 10-metre fox. Many other teams arrived soon after and spent considerable time trying to find an opening in the bushes. One hound burrowed his way
straight past the fox and out the other side. No other teams found the transmitter in the 15-minute time limit even though some were there for almost 10 minutes.

The second hunt for the evening took the hounds to the Knox Arboretum in Boronia where the fox was hidden in the playground. VK3YQN was first to find this fox at 9:58PM followed by VK3TVB 7 minutes later. VK3PW (who started the hunt late after enjoying a cup of coffee or two) and VK3TKQ both took 3rd place a minute later.

The second leg of this hunt took the hounds to a 4-wheel drive track in Ferntree Gully. VK3YQN maintained their lead finding the fox at 10:11PM followed by VK3BLN and VK3TVB just 5 minutes later.

The final leg of this hunt was hidden in amongst bush beside an unmarked 4 wheel drive track in Upwey. This was a real test of skill, especially for the 2-metre hunters. Since the 10-metre signal was intermittent and the 2-metre signal continuous, all hounds decided to hunt on 2-metres. The fox was attached to a 3-element beam antenna mounted on top of a motor rotating continuously at about 30RPM. Mark VK3JMD found this fox at 10:38PM. Some 10 minutes later, about 4 hounds ran down the rather steep and slippery track. Concentrating on the track rather than the signal meant that they all ran straight past the fox. No other teams made the 15-minute time limit.

The final fox for the night was near a disused pumping station in Vermont. VK3YQN found this fox with nearly all other teams finding the fox 5 minutes later, followed by VK3TUG.

Supper was held in Vermont where the following scores were announced:

1: VK3YQN 	15 points  
2: VK3TVB 	26 points
3: VK3BLN  	47 points
4: VK3PW   	51 points
5: VK3TKQ  	59 points
6: VK3TUG 	66 points
7: VK3TXG 	85 points 

TXG – (A commendable effort since they persisted despite numerous equipment problems.)

March 1997 Foxhunt

A coolish evening greeted the 7 hounds who turned up to VK3YQN’s March foxhunt. Start was in Lytton Street in the city as the fox was heading West this evening.

The first hunt was a two legged affair, the first leg a very tricky to approach wasteground behind a chemicals factory in Altona. Both 10m and 2m was run for this hunt. The second leg was the set to be the traditional long bastard of a YQN sniffer hunt, and this one was no exception. Judging by the comments on the liason frequency we were very successful in making this a challenging hunt. Hunters were given credit for both their absolute and relative times on the second leg, so a reasonable score for the sniffer hunt was still possible even if a team did poorly on the first leg. Jack, VK3WWW was the definite winner of the first leg, later followed by VK3PW (using a new runner), David for VK3BLN and Geoff, this night hunting as VK3TVB. For some reason David thought his score might be dangerously low, so he spent a couple of minutes chatting to his team on the liason frequency a few metres from the 1st leg fox before checking in just to make sure they didn’t do _too_ well. Looking at the final scores shows this cost them a place ! Questioned later he stated he hadn’t bothered to read the Fox information sheet provided at the start. Only two teams made it in to the sniffer leg before the timeout ( but judging from the howls of protest when it was turned off, a couple more were quite close… Bad Luck VK3BLN & VK3TKQ ). VK3PW did the best absolute and relative times for this leg, piping VK3TVB by 1 minute. No sign of VK3WWW…..time to build that new sniffer Jack ! Both successful teams were found hotly accusing each other of cheating by using vehicular transportation. Both accusations turned out to be unfounded.

The second hunt was a fairly straight forward but long hunt to a railway crossing out beyond Werribee. The fox apologises for the drop in signal towards the end of the hunt. A suspect fox battery may be the reason the power of the fox dropped so much it was no longer able to trigger the linear amplifier. First was again VK3PW. VK3TKQ and VK3BLN took the minor placings.

The third hunt brought hounds back to a yet to be developed grassland near Hoppers Crossing. Again 10m as well as 2m was run. Ewen, VK3OW was the first to negotiate the reed choked marshy creek, followed by Geoff for VK3TVB with VK3PW and VK3WWW equal third. VK3TKQ and VK3″NBC” were in fact the only teams to come in the “dry” route, but unfortunately it took longer. At least we got Geoff wet as usual.

The supper hunt was a John Munsey KB3GK special. Possibly gum trees don’t load up as well as pines trees, or maybe we can blame the long dry spell we’ve had recently. The many decoy antennas and coax worked perfectly, mis-leading David VK3BLN and Adam for VK3WWW into thinking they had found the fox many times. Suggestion David: Only call out your callsign when you have actually _found_ the fox (and use the team callsign rather than your own). Jack VK3WWW and David VK3BLN then somewhat violently uncovered the real fox followed by VK3TKQ, VK3PW and VK3OW in a group. Since the fox had now been destroyed by the victors the rest had to find a handheld. VK3TVB was unable to participate in this hunt since they had to search for a lost handheld.

An earlier than usual supper (to allow for the long way Hopper’s Crossing is from anywhere) was held at nearby Roger’s where the following placings were announced:

1st VK3PW, 2nd VK3OW and equal third VK3BLN & VK3TKQ.

Full scores are below.

Team Hunt: 1A 1B(abs) 1B(rel) 2 3 4 Total Place
=======+===========================================+========+====== 
VK3PW  | 3 0 0 0 3 1 | 7 | 1 
VK3WWW | 0 5 5 8 3 0 | 21 | 2 
VK3OW  | 10 5 5 8 0 1 | 29 | 3 
VK3BLN | 5 5 5 4 10 1 | 30 | =4 
VK3TKQ | 10 5 5 3 6 1 | 30 | =4 
VK3TVB | 6 4 1 9 2 (10)| 32 | 6 
VK3NBC | 10 5 5 10 6 5 | 41 | 7 
=======+===========================================+========+====== 

NB: VK3TVB did not participate in the final hunt. They could not have done better than 3rd however.

Results of the July 2009 2m Fox Hunt

The July hunt was run by the VK3FOX team and saw hunts conducted around the Northern suburbs.  Fences and rivers featured in the hunts with hounds often finding themselves on the wrong side of one of these obstacles.  Seven hunts were planned but due to problems in locating runners and foxes this was reduced to just four. For the first and third hunts 28.450MHz was provided as an alternate band. On the first hunt this led the YQN team on a merry chase with them ending up in Eltham while the fox was in Bundoora (some 180 degree ambiguity?) OW on the other hand used their 10 metre gear to good effect winning the hunt outright.

The Second hunt was in Plenty beside the Plenty Gorge.  As expected most teams found themselves on West of the river while the fox was on the East. Most drove around but Bruce from the YQN team crossed the river (more than once due to its meandering course!) and clambered up the side of the gorge to arrive in second place.

Regulation style hunts were held on hunts three and four. Three was in Eltham and Four in Mont Park.

Supper was at the home of Greg VK3VT and after a supper of soup, sandwiches, sausage rolls, party pies, quiches, chocolate biscuits and cake the following  results were announced. Time of arrival after first hound scoring was used.

TeamHunt1Hunt 2Hunt 3Hunt4Placing
VK3OW06/67/1310/233
VK3YQN104/147/217/294
VK3BLN710/170/173/202
VK3TXO90/95/140/141
VK3FAST106/1610/264/305

Congratulation to the TXO team for an excellent effort. As you can see from the scores OW was leading till the last hunt and YQN just managed to bump FAST into 5th spot.  Fox for August is to be announced. Greg has the VK3 fox.

Cheers
Greg VK3VT from the VK3FOX team