Results for the VK3CI July hunt are as follows.

5 teams commenced the night at Clayton Railway Station for a night of semi-chaos with many teams, including the fox, having equipment issues.  BLN was the worst effected and they retired after hunt 1 (we needed Fitzel when one of the sausages hit the ground at supper). We understand their equipment is just clinging to life in ICU and we hope it recovers in time for the August hunt.

VK3FOX had 10m issues and actually headed North for hunt 3A and so didn’t find it in time. They have been given a start time for 3B of 2 minutes after 3A finished. That just allowed them to get into 3B before the 10 mins were up but didn’t change the overall placings.

No really low total score tonight – every team except MZ got at least one 10 and every team got at least one 0 (except BLN who still managed a 1 for the only hunt they were able to compete in).

FAST won overall (21), followed closely by MZ (25), then a gap to XJM (39) & FOX (41). BLN unfortunately get the worst score ever for them (71).

Scores have been posted on the ARDF site and it looks like FAST are running August and MZ running September.

Thanks to Ewen for helping out the fox team, to Kostas & Sophie for hosting supper and an honourable mention to Hamish who almost found us twice on hunt 3B (within 2m each side of us) without a sniffer before most other teams even got close.

(this was a much nicer table with a style sheet but the list server rejected the message for being too long so now it’s a boring table)

The following are the results of the FoxOr event which was run in conjunction with the normal Park Street Orienteering event run on the Woodridge map in Eltham.

Congratulations to Bruce and Ian who were able to visit all 20 orienteering controls plus the 6 radio controls within the 75 minute time limit. Ian also had the handicap of using an unfamiliar sniffer.

Dennis’s score was good enough to pick up 3rd place despite being a few minutes late finishing.

Jenelle may have done a little better had the last fox not gone mobile just as she started looking for it.

Dianne did well considering the terrain on the Woodridge map.

Thanks to those who helped with control collection, Di, Bruce, Hamish etc.

regards Ewen

The March foxhunt was run by the OW/BLI/FVXN/Pierre team and started in the car park at the eastern end of Ruffey Park Lake.

The first hunt was on 10 metres with the transmitter hidden in a park off the end of Orchard Grove in Warrandyte. Melway 34 G3. First in was Darrien followed 7 minutes later by the CI, FOX and BLN teams with MZ a minute later. BLN may have done better if Marta had been shown how to use the OW sniffer before she had to use it. We ran carrier for this event, from an old valve transmitter I’d built decades ago for testing 10m loops. It seemed a pity not to use it in an actual hunt. The need to carry a 100AH battery to drive the genemotor high tension supply limited how far we would carry it into the bush!

The second hunt was also 10M but this time it was SSB to make things a bit more like Mt Gambier. Location was in the general area of Laughlin avenue in Nunawading. 48 E10. First in again was the FAST team, followed 3 minutes later by 3CI, then MZ 2 mins later, then BLN 4 minutes later and then FOX 15 minutes after FAST.

The 3rd hunt on 10M was in a small fairly clear area between Aurum Cr and Hygeia Pde in Ringwood North 49E6. Fox was first in very closely followed by FAST, MZ and CI. BLN were unfortunately outside the 10min time limit. Vacuum tubes and the genemotor once again supplied the 5 watts of RF. I promise to build something more modern to use the next time I run a 10m hunt.

The 4th hunt was in a fenced off area off Reilly St in Ringwood. 49H11. This looked like a good spot when we checked earlier in the week but when Henk and Di got there they found the soccer field next door ablaze with lights which spoilt things a bit. VK’s 3CI and 3FOX  arrived at much the same time so started the clock, with Fast +3, MZ, +6 and BLN +7 minutes later.

The next hunt was a 3 legged affair using foxO TX’s for the second and third legs. The location was Ringwood Lake Park, 49 J/K8. We let this event run until all the hounds had found all transmitters, some more than once,  so considerable normalizing was done to arrive at the final score which was FAST with 0 points, BLN with 1 point, FOX and MZ both with 6 points and CI with 10.

The last hunt was not at a planned spot but as we were a bit later than hoped for at this stage of the night I drove back to somewhere in the vicinity of supper and found a high spot. I must have dozed off a little at this point as the next thing I was aware of was a loud banging on the roof of the car. Bug… I thought, must have parked under tree which has dropped a branch in the roof. How am I going to explain a second occurrence of this to the insurance company? Actually it was Bruce trying to tell me he’d found the fox. I made him convince me this was the case which a bit mean of me considering it was about 2m in front of the car and raining. He was very closely followed Roger I think  from the MZ team with FOX +3  and FAST and BLN +4 mins.  These are the correct times. The ones I read out initially at supper were actually the scores for the first leg of the previous ,multileg, hunt. As a result the final scores are slightly different to those quoted at supper. Positions remain the same.

Thanks to all for coming and particularly to Di who did most of the supper preparation. I should also thank Pierre who did most of the heavy battery transport.

regards Ewen

Results of the 2013 February 2M fox hunt

Fox for the evening was the VK3FOX team. The first hunt was Kristian quietly paddling on the Yarra in his kayak, this took teams a little to time to figure out but three teams did find him before time was up.

Second hunt was a two legged affair on 70CM and the lack of signal at the start was enough to spread the teams over a wide area. Eventually the hiding spot at an athletics track in Ringwood was found by all teams and they were off to the second leg. This was not far away on the bike/walking track beside Eastlink (there was some consternation when this was used as a vehicular track but as the fox was not without fault in this area in the past no drastic decisions were made.  I hate to suggest it but perhaps we should draft some rules some time.) This second leg was calculated on leg times and the scores below vary slightly from those announced on the night as the fox was confused!

Hunt three was in Warrendyte park in a old mine, I am told this was up a steep hill.

As time was running a bit short we decided the next hunt would be a simple affair and so a spot in Eltham near the historic trestle rail bridge was chosen.  The plan for a two legged hunt involving water  obstacles was abandoned.

Final hunt was on a walking track in Greensborough overlooking Partington’s flat sports grounds, one team came the easy way down the walkway from a nearby street but others were seen clambering up a rather steep and overgrown cliff to reach the hiding spot.

Teams retired to the home of Greg VK3VT for a supper of sandwiches, sausage rolls, zucchini slice, chicken wings and cake with hot and cold drinks.

Results are as follows

73
Greg VK3VT for the VK3FOX Team

Friday 17th Jan saw three teams of hounds come out to play. Temperatures had been over 40C for the previous four days but fortunately a cool change came  late afternoon Friday so hounds were treated to milder conditions and by the end of the evening some were looking for warmer clothing!

Hunts were held on 144 and 52 MHz.  Locations were Diamond Creek, Eltham, Heidelberg, Alphington and Bundoora.  Due to the weather and hound commitments for the following day supper was held a little early. Teams retired to the home of Greg VK3VT to consume a supper of sandwiches, marinated chicken wings, dips, cheese and cake.  (Sorry folks I forgot to distribute the ice creams!!)  Scores were announced and the VK3FAST team walked away with win by one point.

Many thanks to Greg’s daughter Kate for helping with the supper.

Next month’s fox will be the VK3FAST team.

Results as follows, old fashioned 10 minute rule scoring, all hunts single leg.

Here are the results of the August Hunt. Fox for the evening was the VK3FOX team who became fox just a day earlier and planned the evening while consuming dinner. Three teams ventured into the chilly Melbourne air – VK3FAST, VK3CI and VK3BLN. Hunts alternated between 6m and 2m requiring hounds to swap gear at the start of each hunt. I believe that this is the most complicated change for the VK3CI team so they should be really good at it now!!

Signals on both bands were somewhat intermittent (actually guys that is called CW, or morse code,  and it was actually saying something and sending callsigns) but teams soon became adept at DFing the CW and not too many complaints were heard. The hunts went out from Greensborough in a North to Northwest direction and then came in an Easterly / Southerly arc back again. Hunt 1 was in Mill Park, 2 was in Craigieburn, 3 in Mernda, 4 in Yarrambat , 5 in ST Helena and hunt 6 was in Greensborough near the Soccer field over the plenty River ford.

Teams then retired to the home of Greg VK3VT for a well earned supper of vegetable soup, sandwiches, sausage rolls, chicken wings, cake and ice-cream. Results were announced and the teams made their weary way home.

Fox for next month is the VK3MZ/VR/TVB/MD/HRL/etc team and VK3FAST for October.

Results are as follows; scoring was points based, 1 for first 2 for second 3 for third and lowest score wins.

73,  Greg VK3VT for the VK3FOX team