The March foxhunt was organised this month by VK3MZ/VR/TVB/HRL and TBA. Hounds gathered on a very pleasant autumn evening at the Northern end of the city and headed off around 8:15pm.

The first hiding spot was at Rushall Station (appropriately named for a foxhunt location…). The fox (Roger) provided plenty of signal to allow hounds to move away from the reflections and noise near the CBD. Only two teams got in – YQN first followed soon after by Marta from the BLN team.

The second hunt for the evening was a 4 leg, hunt in any order, event. With 4 foxes hidden around the Clifton Hill area and transmissions switching from fox to fox every 30 seconds or so, this provided entertainment for the next 70-80 minutes.

John (TVB) stood under a street light near Hoddle Street and was surprised by the number of kerb crawlers in the area. Fortunately, he already has a fulltime job and was not really interested in any of the offers on hand. Arrival order at this transmitter was YQN (again), TXO, VXN and BLN.

Mark (TBA) was in an alleyway on the North side of Clifton Hill. Inquisitive neighbors were amused by his explanation and warned him that his hiding spot was generally used by druggies and fornicators. Fortunately (for Mark), John already had the latter group well in hand (so to speak). Arrival order here was VXN (well done ladies), TXO, BLN and YQN.

Ian (I’m feeling cold…so I think I’ll sit in the car) had been persuaded to hide in a tiny park behind a block of flats. Armed with little more than a beanie, woollen gloves and a flask of hot chocolate, he managed to hold this location until all hounds had passed through – with BLN (first), TXO, YQN and VXN somewhere in the distance.

Geoff (VR) had walked into Quarries Park and (in a most uncharacteristic way) had chosen the highest spot around to ensure that hounds had a good signal from his location. Not unreasonably, he took shelter under a bush and waited for the first hound to arrive. First into the area were Marta and Bruce…and the profanities heard as Marta stood less than a metre from Geoff were most unladylike (it must have been Bruce…).
It took several cycles to locate Geoff in his hidy hole and Marta was first to spot him. Amusingly, she whispered her callsign to Geoff and then snuck off leaving Bruce further down the hill. As the BLN vehicle drove away, Bruce realised what had happened and asked his team members if anyone had seen where Marta had been standing. As it turned out he got in a couple of cycles or 3-4 minutes later. TXO followed about 10 minutes later and didn’t have much trouble finding Geoff as the overs were now much longer. As time rolled on, Geoff came out of the hiding spot to look for VXN. Spotting them on the oval below, he climbed on a rock and waved a light….and noted that their runner was heading up the hill. He had just enough time to drop under a bush at the edge of the path as the runner came up onto the ridge. With the whole team there, Di was heard to say “He’s playing with us” as Geoff provided much more regular signals to help them out – and as it turned out, they found him easily within another 4-5 minutes.

The next hunt was in hays Paddock, Kew. Well it would have been except for the gutsy move by TXO in heading down the freeway to Bourke Road (I wish we’d thought of coming that way….it was much, much quicker!). They caught us as we were heading across the oval, so we just wandered across to the other side and tossed the antenna in a tree. Next in was Marta and then Bruce. As newcomer Jim arrived in the area, Geoff grabbed a sniffer shaped branch and demonstrated the proper use of the sniffer. Sadly, this device is tuned to a different frequency and wasn’t able to locate the fox with any precision. It did, however, locate a sizeable puddle (water divining?) and Geoff was heard to curse the branch and toss it away for leading him in this direction.

The penultimate hunt was on the roof of Doncaster Shoppingtown. Hounds had no difficulty here and arrived in order YQN, BLN, TXO and VXN.

The final hunt was pretty straightforward – a creek in Wattle Park. Strategy was simple…head for Geoff’s place and find the device that was almost certainly nearby. First in was BLN with the others all arriving about the same time.

Scores were as follows:

BLN 1st on 15
YQN 2nd on 16
TXO 3rd on 18
VXN 4th on 25

Supper was held at the home of Geoff (VR) and Schon (NCS). Finally, a warm welcome to the newcomers that came this evening – we hope you enjoyed yourself and will come again. Please be assured that, in time, it will all begin to make sense.

thanks for a fun night out. It seemed everything went well and from what I heard it was a record turnout. Well, a record from the current attendance figures. 8 teams plus the Fox.
Over the past few months I have been liaising with Espen Bjerke Larsen who has been the correspondence contact for the Golden Goal Crew. Espen mentioned a few times he would have love to come with the crew but not this time. Also he mentioned that we will get on with the crew very well and they are a great bunch of guys. I am sure you will all agree on that one. You may remember that the show concentrates on the humorous and different side of all sports. You will be pleased to know that I will probably get a special mention for leaving TX 1 at Willsmere and only realising when a got to Doncaster Road on the Eastern Freeway. By the time I returned for it and arrived at the next location we only had minutes to spare. I could blame it on my current situation but  think you all know me too well and will see right through that one.
Johan had a great time giving Henrik heaps and I am sure he will hang it on him for some time yet. I spoke to one of the cameramen about his run up from Yarra Blvd to the fox on hunt 1 and he mentioned that hunt 2 was worse I am sure even with the jet-lag he will sleep well tonight.
I feel sorry for the crew, today they are off to Williamstown Life Saving Club to have a go at Surf Lifesaving. I wish I had have known earlier for as some of you know I was a lifesaver for a long time. Williamstown is not a good example of that sport. I expect they will have a great time there doing an IRB (Rubber Duck) rescue. And, if Henrik can work it Johan will be the patient and let him freeze in Port Phillip Bay for awhile.
Before I get onto the scores I would like to thank the EMDRC for allowing us to use the clubrooms for the BBQ and those members that assisted in getting things ready for you guys. When I arrived at the club there were so many cars there it looked like a regular meeting was on. Thank guys.

Now the scores:

Team	Hunt 1	Hunt 2	Hunt 3	Hunt 4	Score
VK3TXO	0	0	4	0	4
VK3MZ	1	1	4	10	16
VK3YQN	3	7	1	2	13
VK3FVXN	4	10	10	10	34
VK3FOX	5	1	10	3	19
VK3BLN	6	1	0	9	16
VK3FAST	7	7	4	7	26
VK3OW	10	1	1	9	21

Cheers, Jack.

Here are the results if the November hunt held on Friday 19th November 2010

Seven teams turned out for this event on a beautiful evening for foxhunting the weather was perfect.  Scoring was the usual 10 minute rule.

The first hunt was in Bundoora and most of the hounds found it reasonably quickly with VK3YQN leading the pack. The VK3BLN team did have some problems and did not trouble the scorer.

Second hunt found Ian VK3FFLY riding his bike down the Plenty River bike path and this proved to be a difficult fox to catch Once again VK3YQN was first in followed by VK3FAST, VK3TXO and VK3OW.  VK3BLN, VK3MZ and VK3FVXN did not trouble the scorer on this event.

The third and final hunt of the evening was located in Yandell Reserve, not far from the supper location and very close to the home of Ewen VK3OW, who happened to be first in; all the other hounds found this fox within the 10 minutes. This hunt was conducted on 2M and 70CM.

After the third hunt it was decided to end the evening and the hounds gathered at the home of Greg VK3VT for supper of prawns, sandwiches, sausages rolls, roast chicken wings, cakes,  fruit, tea, coffee and a selection of cordials. The following results were announced and some discussion was held on running 70CM hunts seriously, rather than as dual bands.  No consensus was forthcoming. Most of the teams were on their way home by 11:30 pm and all were gone before the bewitching hour.

Many thanks to Mike VK3KMJ, Ian VK3FFLY and Kristian for assisting with the running of this hunt and to Kate for assisting with supper.

Team	Hunt 1	Hunt 2	Hunt 3	Place
VK3YQN	0	0	0	6	6	1
VK3FAST	1	6	7	1	8	2
VK3OW	3	9	12	0	12	3
VK3MZ	1	10	11	3	14	=4
VK3TXO	1	9	10	4	14	=4
VK3FVXN	2	10	12	8	20	5
VK3BLN	10	10	20	1	21	6

This result shows that Bruce’s super powers have not been affected by his trip to Croatia and that he and Subi are a formidable team.

The December hunt will be held on Friday 10th December and the fox will be Jack VK3WWW.  This hunt will have a couple of presenters and a film crew from Norway along for the ride with two teams and looks like it might be a real spectacle. Stay tuned to this list for more exciting details.


73
Greg VK3VT

VK3TXO: 0, 0, 3, 4, 6, 1 = 14 (1st)
VK3BLN: 10, 3, 0, 3, 5, 0 = 21 (2nd)
VK3YQN: 10, 10, 2, 0, 3, 4 = 29 (3rd)
VK3MZ: 10, 4, 2, 7, 0, 10 = 33
VK3OW: 9, 8, 3, 8, 9, 10 = 47
VK3FOX: 10, 7, 4, 8, 10, 10 = 49

   Here is the report for the May Foxhunt.

        Five teams of hounds were greeted by a crisp and clear Autumn evening, as they gathered at the traditional start location in Lytton Street Carlton.  Ian VK3MZ and Roger VK3HRL placed seven 2m foxes in a rough line eastward-ish from Carlton to Donvale.  All teams reported plenty of signal, even with beams on backwards or with elements broken off by agressive trees.

        Hunt 1:
                Ian placed the fox in a laneway running north of Rowe Street North Fitzroy, about three km from the start as the crow flies.  First in was VK3YQN, followed quickly by OW, later by BLN.  FVXN and TXO both missed the switch-off time – in TXO’s case the beam was found to be on backwards (about 15 km away based on scratchiness of comms).

        Hunt 2:
                Roger placed the Gaffer Tape Special on a steep grassy embankment at the south end of East Street Westgarth, about 1.5 km from hunt 1 as flown by a husk-gripping swallow (African or European?).  The first hounds were in the area within five minutes of switch-on.  VK3BLN (Marta) was in first, followed immediately by Josh VK3HGI of the TXO team (apparently with better beam orientation).  OW arrive several minutes later, followed eventually by FVXN.  YQN missed out, with excited runners on the wrong side of the river or maybe not the wrong side, but failing to find the fox regardless.

        Hunt 3:
                Ian placed his fox in Rockbeare Park Alphington, about three km from hunt 2 as glided by an adopted pelican.  VK3YQN atoned for hunt 2’s misery by arriving first, followed by BLN, OW, TXO and eventually by FVXN.

        Hunt 4:
                Roger walked into a park just west of Kim Close (or Court?) Bulleen, along some paths and over a bridge and into the trees and scrub just on the east bank of the river thing, about 3.5 km from hunt 3 as the eagle soars.  Realising that he was carrying two heavy transmitters, Roger decided to place the WIA fox and Gaffer Tape Special about 30 metres apart and run both simultaneously.  The hoped-for confusion was not to be, for most of the runners went straight to one or the other.  Oh well.  Bruce VK3TJN of the YQN team was in first, followed by Josh of TXO, then Ewen OW, David XAJ of BLN and FVXN failed to find the fox.  Upon walking out to the meeting place, Ian VK3YQN regaled the rapt audience with bugle hits such as “Squawk of the Light Brigade”, “Tuppence Revelly” and “I’m Too Sexy For My Horn”, before he was threatened several times and took the hint.

        Hunt 5:
                Ian placed the fox in Ruffey Lake Park, about 4.5 km east of hunt 4 as the ibis shtooms.  Once again the bugle-powered YQN team got in first, followed by TXO, BLN, OW and FVXN.  Clifford’s hat was confiscated by the Good Taste Police but reluctantly returned when Clifford would not stop complaining.

        Hunt 6:
                Roger was *supposed* to set up in a residential street about four km east of hunt 5 as the pigeon homes, but elected instead to run a mobile hunt.  The Gaffer Tape Special was pressed into service as an intermittent fox (with WIA fox’s loop cable tied to the roof of the tremendously versatile Ford Territory).  Roger drove loops of the grid bounded by 34F11 and 48H2.  It was sadistically entertaining to drive behind hounds, give them a burst and quickly turn into a side street, TX off, u-turn then out again in the other direction.  VK3OW was quickly onto this scheme and performed a classic interception – those modern vehicles just seem to bounce off each other.  A couple of minutes later Roger found the runner from the VK3FVXN team and after asking him if “you people are hunting aliens or something” the runner reluctantly looked at the Territory and realised it was so much more than just a passing curious local.  Two minutes later, running Marta of the BLN team also attempted to avoid eye contact with the passing Territory’s excitable driver, but when Roger called out “the signal is REALLY strong around here” Marta seemed to observe a peak in signal strength and her team intercepted the Tertie.  After watching Bruce of the YQN team run up hill and down dale for ages, sympathy kicked in and YQN was ‘allowed’ to locate the magnificant beast of a fox car.  Evenually the TXO team found the now-stationary fox just as time was about to expire.

        Hunt 7:
                Ian placed the supper fox at the 100 Acres Reserve, about two Melway pages from hunt six as the navigator thumbs.  YQN found Ian first , followed very quickly by TXO and OW, then BLN several minutes later and FVXN missed the time limit.

        Teams returned to Ian VK3MZ’s QTHR for Loris’s famous soup, plus hot food, cakes, cold ham and turkey, hard boiled eggs, bags of lettuce and lashings of ginger beer.  After a period of waiting for people to stop talking, and a special invitation to Clifford to *please* stop talking, scores were announced:-

Team            Hunt 1          Hunt 2          Hunt 3          Hunt 4          Hunt 5          Hunt 6          Hunt 7          Total           Place

VK3BLN  5               0               1               5               4               4               4               23              3

VK3YQN  0               10              0               0               0               5               0               15              1

VK3OW   1               5               2               4               6               0               1               19              2

VK3TXO  10              1               4               1               1               9               1               27              4

VK3FVXN 10              9               9               10              9               1               9               57              5

        Well done to VK3YQN for the win, and OW for a consistent evening.  BLN faded a bit in the second half, while TXO could have been in second place but for the poor choice of beam orientation on the first hunt, Gary.  FVXN – persevere!

        June’s fox will be the VK3YQN team.

73’s,
        Roger VK3HRL

Sat, 17 April, 2010       

Results of the 2010 Vic Fox Hunt Championships

Hi All,

Thanks for coming. I hope we challenged you all, and provided a wide variety of hunts for the night.

A very special thankyou to Pierre, Ryordan, Jack, Rohan, Tanya, Arneka, Eleisha, and everybody else than lent equipment/took the helm of the bbq for a little while at lunch.

Apologies for the late running at supper, I had some car issues and wound up with 2 flat tyres. The car is home safe now and all is well (except I now need a new set of tyres!)

Scores are attached. But the summary is as follows:

1st Place: MZ
2nd Place: BLN
3rd Place: YQN
4th Place: BLI
5th Place: FAST

Note that in the attached scores file, the scoring for the leg times is based on “what order your leg time was”. This is to simplify the scoring, as there was no maximum “We’ll turn the tx off after this time”. The lowest leg time is scored as being 1st for that leg, the the next lowest 2nd, etc.

I hope you all had a good night.

Cheers,
Josh

HUNT	VK3VR/MZ/HRL	VK3YQN	VK3FAST	VK3BLI	VK3BLN
1	1	4	2	3	5
2	2	5	4	3	1
3	1	2	5	4	3
4/1	2	3	4	5	1
4/2	2/3	2/3	2/3	3/4	2/1
5	4	1	3	5	2
6	1	4	2	3	5
7/1	3	4	5	2	1
7/2	4/15	5/25	3/11	2/10	1/9
8/1	2	3	5	4	1
8/2	3/31	3/31	2/27	1/24	4/35
8/3	1/12	2/17	5/48	4/23	3/19
8/4	2/16	1/13	4/DNF	1/13	3/24
TOTAL	28	39	46	40	31
Place	1	3	5	4	2

Notes:
Multi-leg hunts show leg placings/leg time.
Overall score is based on placings– lowest score is best

Hunt		1	2	3	4	5	6	7
total

FVXN		4	10	3	10	10	10	7	54

YQN		0	0	0	10	4	0	1	15
MZ/VR		2	2	3	0	0	7	0	14

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

Scores for last Friday nights fox hunt are as follows.  

Team	Hunt 1	Hunt 2	Hunt 3	Hunt 4	Hunt 5	Hunt 6	Hunt 7	Total	Place
3BLN	1	2	2	1	2	2	1	11	1
3YQN	3	2	1	2	5	1	6	20	2
3FAST	6	1	3	3	4	4	2	23	3
3HRL	4	2	4	6	1	3	5	25	4
3TXO	2	6	5	4	3	6	3	29	5
3FOX	5	5	6	5	6	5	4	36	6

    Some history about why I have foxes on so many odd frequencies.   As far as I can remember the WIA fox, which we still use, was the first “dedicated” fox. This was originally on 144.480MHz. The frequency was most likely determined by the builder having a crystal on hand which could be multiplied to somewhere in the first 0.5 MHz of the 2M band.  Most people used AM receivers then so it was AM modulated. Also, as mobile phones, hhelds and even mobile TRX’s were unheard of or scarce it was usual to call in the hounds using the fox.   The availability of the IC202 in the 70’s caused the fox frequency of the WIA to be changed to 144.250Mhz. The 202 is a portable 2M SSB transceiver which tunes from 144.0MHz to 144.4MHz in standard form. It made a good fox hunt receiver. You could use it in the car and as a sniffer. If you replaced the PTT switch with a variable resistor you could also control the gain over a wide range.      At sometime I decided I needed a smaller fox.  To make this I rebuilt the TX driver stage from a Pye FM 734 two way radio, simply because I had the bits. In the process I removed the original FM modulator and added an AM modulator, ignoring most of the design rules for AM modulators. Hence it doesn’t work all that well. Never the less it’s caused hounds much frustration and given the fox much enjoyment over the years. It’s frequency was initially 144.480MHz and was changed to 144.250Mhz when the WIA fox changed. This is the small brown TX with the external AA battery pack. Power O/P is about 600mw.   Many years ago, Jack VK3WWW donated a Dick Smith 1watt FM TX kit to the foxhunt group, which I built. This ended up in a larger brown box as I included a 1200ma gel cell  and space for 1 or 2 other bits of circuitry which might happen one day. The frequency is 144.247MHz. Why. Simply because the crystal won’t work at 144.250 MHz even tho it was spec’d to do so. The highest it will go reliably is 144.247MHz.  If someone has a good supplier of crystals let me know and I’ll move it to 145.3MHz. I’ve been going to do this for some time but usually remember the day before the fox hunt……..  This TX is available to anyone who would like to borrow it for foxhunting purposes.   Sometimes a higher power fox is required so the larger black/brown fox came into being. The driver stage of this is home grown and the PA is from an FM 734.  Power O/P is 6-7 watts. The box was originally made so a battery charger could be included but recently I abandoned that idea and cut the box down to a more suitable size. I also added a clip on battery box. Frequency is 145.3MHz   A yr or so ago I needed a low pwr fox so the small black TX with the external 9 volt battery happened. The TX is basically the predriver stage from a Phillips FM747 UHF transceiver. Some unnecessary circuitry was removed with a hacksaw, a jumper or 2 added and I had a 40mw TX. It uses the crystal from the small  brown Tx mentioned above hence O/P frequency is 144.250MHz.  I later reinstalled the original crystal in the small brown TX and tuned it lower in frequency, i.e. 144.470MHz, as the TX produced a little more power there.   regards Ewen  

Results for the December 2009 Fox Hunt

						TOTAL
YQN	0	5	1	1	3	10
MZ etc	3	2	3	0	2	10
OW/BLI	2	1	2	3	4	12
FAST	4	4	0	5	0	13
BLN	1	0	10	4	1	16
VT/FOX	10	10	10	2	10	42

Locations were as follows:

Start: Ruffey Lake Park, Victoria St. Doncaster

Hunt  1:
Eltham: Griffith Park, Yarra River bend, South end Griffith Park Road
Melway: 22 K11
http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-37.735825,145.148975&z=17&t=h

Hunt  2:
Heidelberg: roof-top CP, off Cape St, near cnr Burgundy St
Melway: 32 A4
http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-37.755974,145.069764&z=17&t=h

Hunt  3:
Templestowe: Kenman Close / Chivers Rd, un-marked park/estate
Melway: 33 J5
http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-37.75929,145.144431&z=18&t=h

Hunt  4:
Viewbank: Bike Path behind Riding for the Disabled
(entry to bike path at roundabout/intersection Banyule/Hendersons)
Melway: 20 H12
http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-37.742638,145.096564&z=16&t=h

Hunt  5:
Templestowe: Templestowe Reserve, Porter St/Hawtin St.
Flagpole at Scout Hall
Melway: 33 G4 
http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-37.753656,145.136111&z=19&t=h

Supper:	Ruffey Lake Park, Victoria St. Doncaster


Memorable Moments for the Fox Team included:

Hunt 1:
* All hounds departing from the start - in the wrong direction.
* The on-air speculation about runners being on the wrong side of
  the Yarra (not to mention "crossing over").

Hunt 2:
* roof-top vantage point as teams drove along Burgundy St
* Hound investigating "false" fire hydrant on Burgundy St... a
  spurious diversion which had nothing whatever to do with the fox team!

Hunt 3:
* Finding a reserve/estate NOT in the Melways
* It seems to be in this tree... somewhere.

Hunt 4:
* a hound's attempt to negotiate the electric fence - when there was
  a perfectly good bike path from which to approach the Tx!
  (a later suggestion was that we should have awarded bonus points to
   runners who actually did run/ walk in along the bike path)

Hunt 5:

* The "swarm" of hounds below the flagpole.
  (is it a bird... is it a plane... no it's "Super Tx" flying high!)

A big thanks to all participants - we thoroughly enjoyed bringing
you the night.

Johanna  [VK3 FJMB]
Neale  [VK3 XJH]
Pierre  & 
Dianne [VK3 FVXN]

Sat, 16 May, 2009

Results of the 2009 Victorian Fox hunt Championships

Description	Operator	Location	Notes	VK3YQN	VK3BLN	VK3OW
				TIME	POINTS	TIME	POINTS	TIME	POINTS
10M Hunt 28.335MHz	VK3CHR	Mount Ridley 387 A1.	Hint North West from start	40Min	3	50	1	49	2
6M Hunt 52.1MHz	VK3WZ	Jingles Road Humevale 37:30:34S 145:10:28E	Hint West  East# from 10M Start on SSB then switch to FM		2		3		1
HF/MF Hunt 3.585MHz 1.825MHz	VK3JDO VK3VT	Eden Park. Kangaroo Ground Tower 271 G10	East West# from 6M South East from 80M Afternoon tea after this.	54 62	2 1	73 43*	1 3*	54 52	3 2
2M Two legs 145.7MHz 144.247MHz	VK3FFLY VK3CHR	Wonga Park 279 B4 Pound Bend 23 C10	ESE of 160M WSW of 1st Leg		3 3	+18MIN	– 2		2 –
Night Hunt 145.7MHz, 439.050MHz 52.1MHz, 28.335MHz, 144.247MHz	VK3FFLY VK3JDO VK3WZ VK3CHR VK3VT/FFLY	Tower 12 K8 Knowle 185 H8 Goldman’s 264B2 Braemore place Koora Crt 20K7	North East of start North of 1st Leg East of 2nd Leg  (Water tank) North West of 3rd Leg South	29 14 20 41 40	2 2** 3 3 2	28 12 25 54 39	3 3 2 1 3	32 14 27 42	1 2** 1 2 –
Final Score				1st	26	2nd	22	3rd	16

 Notes

# Indicates where organiser had put in the wrong (180deg out) clues, thanks to all those that took the time to bring this mistake to our attention.

* BLN hunted on 52.1 as their 160M loop was not operational so OW could argue about this result (probably successfully if accompanied by money!)

** Same leg time – 2 points each

Many, many thanks to those that assisted in the organising and running the event; they include:

• Operators and co-conspiritors – Doug VK3JDO, Chris VK3CHR, Ian VK3FFLY and Wal VK3WZ
• Food preparation and serving –  Sandra and Denise & Ian VK3MZ for collecting food
• Equipment loan from Ewen VK3OW
• The three teams that participated and made the effort worthwhile

Results of the April foxhunt FYI.  

Scoring was based on your placing in a hunt. ie first got 1 point etc. Therefore the table below shows place and score.  

There were no time limits on the hunts. The hunt ended when either the last team was in or at some arbitrary time after the 4th hound was in. Once or twice the fox went hunting for the last hound to speed things up a little.  

Team        Hunt 1        Hunt 2        Hunt 3        Hunt 4        Hunt 5        Hunt 6        Total

FVXN           1                1                4                 3                  5                4                18

FOX             5                5                5                 1                  2                5                23

YQN            4                2                2                  4                 1                1                14

BLN             3                3                1                 5                  4                2                18

FAST            2                4                3                 2                  3                3                17  

The first hunt was in some bush on the western side of the Plenty River near where the river goes under the Greensborough bypass. The hounds all appeared on the eastern side of the river, decided it was not crossable and found other much more difficult ways in. The river was crossable only a few metres from where most of the hounds decided it wasn’t crossable. Well done to the Vixon team for being first in.  

The second hunt was near a disused aqueduct in Eltham with a second leg an easy runnable couple of hundred meters away. Most teams worked out where the second leg was before driving too far away. Well done to the Vixon team on this one also.  

The third hunt was beside a creek behind some houses a KM or so from the second hunt. Only the vixon team came down the correct side of the creek. All others were faced with a steep bank to climb down with water at the bottom. A few wet feet resulted from this. Most satisfying to the fox.  Well done to the fritzl team for being first in on this one. The swearing must have helped David.

The fourth hunt was south of the Yarra near the Fitzsimons Lane bridge.  The FOX team were first in on this one. Their new handle had apparently taken a while to warm up. I suspected the BLN team weren’t going to go so well on this hunt when I saw them heading down a dirt road to nowhere way too early in the hunt. Dog must have barked at the wrong time??  

Fifth hunt was in some bushes in Alistar Knox park near the railway bridge in Eltham. Bruce was first on the scene and spent some time jumping back and forth over fox while trying to find it. How he didn’t stand on it about a dozen times I don’t know. Fortunately he didn’t and was eventually first in.  Gregs handle was still working well but must have cooled a little since the previous hunt.  

Supper hunt was also beside a creek behind some houses in Eltham.

Well done the YQN team.   Thank you all for comming.   regards Ewen

Here are the scores and brief report for the January Hunt. 

====
	Warm summer weather greeted six teams for the first hunt of
2009, hosted by the VK3 MZ/VR/TVB/HRL team.  After assembling at the
traditional city start location (north end of Cardigan St Carlton),
hounds headed north-west to find the first 70cm fox near Highpoint
shopping centre, with the second leg about a km further west (new houses
100m south of the Maribyrnong).  The second hunt took teams to a tram
stop off Raleigh Rd then to a reserve in Sunshine not far from railway
tracks.  The third hunt was a single leg 2m hunt to Laverton North
(ground clearance an advantage but apparently not essential).  The
fourth hunt, also single legged, took teams to the parched wetlands in
Point Cook just east of the new shopping centre.  The final hunt was a
three-legged event, re-arranged due to the shortness of time.  The first
leg was the gaffer tape special concealed in the HRL fire hydrant in a
quiet Altona street (punctuated only by distracted police and enamoured
hoons), second leg was somewhere completely different to the plan, third
leg was near the Altona boat ramp.  Supper was in Roger's shed in
Newport.

	Note: Hunts were scored using leg time.  Hunts 1 and 2 were
two-legged, and 5 was three-legged.  Score for each leg was measured
against the time of the fastest hound on that leg - so don't be confused
if you found the fox but still got a 10 (because you found it 10 minutes
slower than the fastest team on that leg).  If any further explanation
is needed please let me know.

	Scores:

Team		Hunt						Total
Place	
		1	2	3	4	5

VK3FAST	17	9	1	2	24		53
5
VK3OW	10	9	5	1	11		36
2
VK3YQN	3	3	1	2	22		31
1
VK3BLN	20	0	3	9	6		38
3
VK3TXO	20	11	2	0	17		50
4
VK3FOX	20	13	0	5	25		63
6

YQN won the night, followed by OW, BLN, TXO, FAST and FOX.



Regards,

             Roger Lewis

Warm summer weather greeted six teams for the first hunt of 2009, hosted by the VK3 MZ/VR/TVB/HRL team. After assembling at the traditional city start location (north end of Cardigan St Carlton), hounds headed north-west to find the first 70cm fox near Highpoint shopping centre, with the second leg about a km further west (new houses 100m south of the Maribyrnong). The second hunt took teams to a tram stop off Raleigh Rd then to a reserve in Sunshine not far from railway tracks. The third hunt was a single leg 2m hunt to Laverton North (ground clearance an advantage but apparently not essential). The fourth hunt, also single legged, took teams to the parched wetlands in Point Cook just east of the new shopping centre. The final hunt was a three-legged event, re-arranged due to the shortness of time. The first leg was the gaffer tape special concealed in the HRL fire hydrant in a quiet Altona street (punctuated only by distracted police and enamoured hoons), second leg was somewhere completely different to the plan, third leg was near the Altona boat ramp. Supper was in Roger’s shed in Newport.   Note: Hunts were scored using leg time. Hunts 1 and 2 were two-legged, and 5 was three-legged. Score for each leg was measured against the time of the fastest hound on that leg – so don’t be confused if you found the fox but still got a 10 (because you found it 10 minutes slower than the fastest team on that leg). If any further explanation is needed please let me know.   Scores  

	Team	Hunt	Total	Place
		1	2	3	4	5
	VK3 FAST	17	9	1	2	24	53	5
	VK3 OW	10	9	5	1	11	36	2
	VK3 YQN	3	3	1	2	22	31	1
	VK3 BLN	20	0	3	9	6	38	3
	VK3 TXO	20	11	2	0	17	50	4
	VK3 FOX	20	13	0	5	25	63	6

  YQN won the night, followed by OW, BLN, TXO, FAST and FOX.

Results for last fridays foxhunt (in order of placings):

1) OW: 0+2+1+1=4
2) MZ: 3+1+0+1=5
3) TXO: 2+0+6+1=9
4) BLN: 1+5+4+0=10
5) FOX: 5+4+2+2=13
6) YQN: 5+3+3+4=15

Hunts were order based with teams who didn't get in awarded only two
points more than the highest order score. On the supper hunt three teams
arrived together for second and were impossible to split.

The YQN team are insisting that the supper hunt should not be counted.
Interestingly the only difference this makes is to put them equal last and
makes no difference to any of the other teams results. Both YQN and BLN
were actually overtime on the third hunt but were awarded a place for
their effort crashing through the bush. This also wouldn't have changed
the placings except to put FOX back ahead of YQN if supper wasn't counted.

There were no scores recorded for the 70cm hunt.