November 2008 Foxhunt

November scores.

Hunt 1 – Rear of S.S.A.A Shooting range, Dandenong Rd Springvale.

Hunt 2 – Beneath sth Gippsland hwy at Eumemmerring creek.

Hunt 3 – Kurll Park, Narre Warren

Hunt 4 – Rail crossing of Eumemmerring creek,  scored for 20 minutes.

Hunt 5 – Benedikt Reserve, Scoresby.

YQN:      10,0,0,0,2 = 12

FAST:     4,3,2,20,2 = 31

OW:       6,3,10,12,3 =34

HRL:       1,5,10,20,1 = 37

FOX:      0,5,10,20,6 = 41

BLN:       10,10,10,12,6 = 42

October 2008 Foxhunt

The hunt was held on Friday the 17th October with the fox for the evening being the VK3FOX team.
Hunting commenced in Greensborough and drifted towards Eltham, back to Diamond Creek then off to South Morang and back to Bundoora with an excellent supper at the home of Chris who was VK3CHR (lapsed!)








October 2008 – VK3 two metre fox hunt results







TeamHunt 1Hunt 2Hunt 3Hunt 4Hunt 5Placing
VK3YQN82/102/120/120/121
VK3OW01/17/81/910/192
VK3VR/TVB/HRL12/31/410/149/233
VK3TXO101/110/119/2010/304
VK3YDF100/104/1410/247/315
VK3BLN72/95/148/2210/326







In light of what occurred at the end of the evening it may be time to compose a set of fox hunt protocols. I have begun drafting these and will post them for comment. If anyone has any ideas please send them to me directly.

Cheers
Greg VK3VT
from the VK3FOX team

BLN July 2008 Fox Hunt Report

Fox hunt – Buildings and Business Parks  

Hunt 1   Hunt 1 was held near the Glen Iris Railway Station at Melway map 60 D6. John, Graham and Graham’s nephew, Greg, came prepared with a directional antenna on a rotatable mast – and they were prepared to use it! Initially, the 5-element yagi was placed facing north (in the direction of the hounds), on top of a ladder behind an old shed. As hounds were heard approaching, the mast was rotated – purely to ensure, of course, that the signal would be heard by all.   YQN was first in, closely followed by Adam from the YDF team, then TXO, HRL, OW and VT. Bryan, also from the YDF team, didn’t realize that his team-mate had already found the fox, and kept himself amused by searching the side of the shed just 5m away from the ladder.  

Hunt 2   Hunt 2 was the first two-legged hunt of the evening. The first leg was held at the small business park at 29-31 Clarice Road. Conveniently located, the western end of this location looked out upon the interface between a golf course and a public linear park. The fox was placed on a metal platform overhanging the park, which could be easily reached from a ladder in the parking lot. From the park, however, the hounds would have to clamber up an extremely tall wall to gain access to the fox. To make matters worse, hounds had been told that it was NOT enough to sight the fox on this hunt; they would have to touch it in order for the frequency of the second leg to be revealed to them!   So, with beam pointing towards the west in an attempt to lure the hounds into an unnecessary run through the park, Marta settled down to wait. She was soon rewarded by the sound of sniffers approaching rapidly through the park. They quickly worked out where the fox was; to be honest, at that point, we had anticipated that the hounds would run back to their vehicles or try to run around to Clarice Road to get in from the correct side. This was a bit foolish, really, given the spider-like tendencies of a number of the runners. Sure enough, within seconds, Adam from YDF had nimbly scaled the wall and got in, followed half a minute later by Bruce from YQN. After being told the frequency of the second fox, Adam realised straight away that it was a Fox-Or, and therefore close, and ran off to find it. Bruce, however, waited for his car to arrive, so it took him a little longer to find his way to the second leg.   At around the time that the first two teams were getting in, there was a lot of activity below the platform from other hounds. Roger quickly realised what was going on and, sensibly deciding that the wall was unclimbable, ran away giving terse instructions to his car. We’re not sure whether he ran around or got a lift to somewhere near the fox, but about 7 minutes after YDF, a puffed looking HRL ran in. Meanwhile, the OW runners had arrived and proceeded to engage in a discussion as to the location of the fox. It lasted several minutes, to the hilarity of the fox, before Ewen finally decided that there had been enough talking, and painstakingly hauled himself over the wall to get in. Clifford followed a minute or so later. Shortly after, VT arrived – IN THEIR CAR – YAY (the only team to do so!!) and headed off as Gary from TXO finally materialised (yep, over the wall) thirty seconds later.   The second leg was just up the road outside a factory. David had originally planned to simply hang a Fox-Or-ing transmitter from an access ladder adjacent to a huge wood chipping tower. That was before Fitzel found a discarded length of PVC pipe. David agreed it was just the right diameter to contain the transmitter (hehe)! Adam, from YDF, the first on site, too quickly cottoned on to the suspicious tube running up the side of the ladder. Damn! Bruce/YQN figured out the trick with a little help. Roger/HRL worked it out, taking proper notice of David’s subtle hints and encouragement. We’re pretty sure Ewen and Clifford from team OW arrived before TXO and VT, but they were just not getting David’s now blatant calls of “warmer, cooler, you’re really hot”. The other teams were in hysterics, yelling advice, as the pair scrambled past the fox up to a platform high above.  

Hunt 3   The third hunt was designed to encourage weight loss. BLN found a gap between two buildings on Whitehorse Road in Mitcham. The entrance to the gap was a generous 700mm at Whitehorse Road, but narrowed progressively until the buildings were virtually touching at the back. The gap contained rubbish and dead ivy. BLN’s youngest and newest team member, Greg, managed to negotiate past the rather surprised spiders and hid the fox almost all the way into the gap. To confuse the hounds, Graham and Greg waited at the opposite side of the building!   Roger arrived first on the scene and took the bait, claiming that he could see the fox from the thin end of the wedge. Graham applied BLN ruling “G0-r0uNd”, ensuring that the hounds would experience the full joy of running through the entire length of the crevice. YQN was first, followed by OW, YDF, HRL (finally, with protest in hand), VT and TXO. Surprisingly, YQN, who came first, whinged that there was nobody from the fox team near the entrance of the crevice! After much consultation, BLN decided against docking points from YQN for the silliest complaint.  

Hunt 4   The fourth hunt was located in a large overgrown area on a hillside out the back of the RSPCA in Burwood. A surreal line of 2m high T-shaped poles, possibly once used to support vines, but now overcome by blackberries, were the source of the signal. Adam/YDF was in first having deduced that the signal was coming from leaky coax which David had carefully strung across the pole tops. YQN, VT, OW, TXO, and eventually HRL tracked the coax to the fox camouflaged as a rusty 44 gallon drum under a tree. Clifford, dazed from running into a branch during the run up the hill, took an unnatural interest in blackberries.  

Hunt 5   The fifth hunt continued our theme of business parks, being located at the end of Clipsal Drive in a vacant area filled with various spiky plants. Marta parked her car unobtrusively behind some crates in one of the parking lots, and then wandered a little way in to deposit the fox in a nice thick bush of blackberries. YDF was the first to arrive, with Adam leaping almost disdainfully over the low chicken wire fence and rushing amongst the blackberries to be in within seconds. His team mate, Tim, affected a slightly more sedate pace, but still found the fox without problems.   YQN and TXO were next to arrive. It took them a little while to negotiate the fence and blackberries, but eventually they approached the bush where the fox was hidden… Approached it, and then pushed right through, obviously misled by the beam which was perched atop it! It took them a good (painful!) minute to circle back around through the blackberry bushes surrounding the fox and get in. VT, both Chris and Greg, were next (a call of “It’s in the f***ing blackberries” rang out into the night), followed by HRL, who complimented the fox on the artistic placement of the foliage that she had decoartively adorned the fox with to disguise the LED (well, he said “It’s at the end of this coax, with a bit of grass on it”, but one can interpret that statement in many ways). Ewen and Clifford for OW were last to arrive, and they criss-crossed all over the place before finally finding the fox, visiting almost every blackberry bush in their travels.   The sixth hunt was then slightly delayed, as we waited for Roger to extract a workbench from a nearby DumpMaster. David was very jealous!  

Hunt 6   Hunt 6 took us into Koomba Park alongside the Dandenong Creek. There were rows of posts to stop people driving into the park, but Graham found a gap and got the Forester onto the bicycle track. Then it was decided to hide the car off the track. To ensure that THE-SUB wouldn’t get bogged, Graham first got out and walked into the hiding spot. Satisfied that the ground was firm and level, he announced that it would be a “walk in the park” and confidently drove in. Doh! Wheel spin in first gear, wheel spin in reverse. Greg and John tried pushing the car out, but the rear wheels were below ground looking for worms.   A combination of rain and the bogging lead BLN to use the car transmitter rather than the regular fox. The rig’s microphone had a dodgy button, ensuring that the comms channel and mobile phones were kept alive with complaints. YQN came in first (winning 3 out of 3 of the hunts hidden by Graham), followed by YDF, OW, TXO, HRL and VT.   Bonus points were offered to the team that could un-bog Graham’s Subaru! Greg VT took up the challenge with his mighty gas guzzler and interconnected the two vehicles with Graham’s snatch strap. With cameras flashing and videos rolling, Greg dropped the clutch, accelerated onto the bike path, and sped away. The big rubber band drew taught, there was an almighty BANG, as THE-SUB hurtled out of the bog – flying backwards towards the path, narrowly missing some small trees and leaving a set of massive skid marks. The crowd roared with appreciation, VT was awarded 3 points, and the Forester towing points passed the ultimate test.

 Hunt 7   The seventh hunt was staged as two legs. The first was located at the far end of a grassy knoll adjacent to a wild, untamed, boggy area out the back of a business park in Mitcham. Really, it was easy to drive in – just proceed along the side of the grassy knoll – but it took ages for the teams to appear. Adam from YDF ran in, quickly followed on foot by Bruce/YQN who was adamant that alternate methods of egress were possible. OW and HRL tootled in on foot followed by VT and TXO sensibly in car. TXO then put on an impressive display of driving finesse, executing an insane slide along the grassy knoll, nearly succumbing to the bog during their getaway.   Marta hid the Fox-Or for the second leg amongst the pipes of a Daikin air conditioning unit mounted head high on the side of an office building farthest from David. This proved to be quite an amusing spot. First of all, early in the evening, a team (OW) drove in (while hunting the first leg), drove to the north side of the parking lot and parked there for several minutes. Apparently, they’d found a hole in the fence and were attempting to reach the first leg via it. Eventually, they gave up and drove away without ever having noticed Marta hiding down an embankment a few feet away.   Next, some teams complained that they couldn’t hear the transmitter; it couldn’t be moved, however, because as these protests filtered through, TXO and YDF materialised on the wrong side of the wire fence separating our office building from Antonio Park Primary School. “It’s private property,” Gary was heard to say as he ran away to find another way in, even though he was only a few metres from the fox! As he left, a mysterious figure sprinted at high speed on the correct side of the building… Clipboard at the ready, Marta awaited his call sign… But he turned the corner and ran away without even pausing! This turned out to be Bryan; clearly, he hadn’t had his run for the day, for after completing a lap of the building, he got in with some assistance from Adam on the wrong side of the fence. YQN arrived a minute later. He sniffed his way along the side of the building, diligently checking every square inch of the open drain filled with water which ran the length of the office. He then investigated a pipe, the north side of the air conditioner, the underside of the air conditioner, the top of the air conditioner… And then, finally, as VT approached, he found the fox disguised amongst the pipes. VT got in a minute later. We’re not sure how, because after he found it, he asked Marta whether it was the first leg!   Hamish from TXO was there at the same time, but spent some time investigating nearby bushes before finally getting in a couple of minutes after VT. It turned out he had found this leg first, as well, but TXO then went on to successfully find David. A good eight minutes later, Clifford arrived, from the Antonio Park end after locating a convenient hole in the fence. He, too, investigated the plumbing and architecture of the building quite thoroughly before getting in. Ewen, for OW as well, wandered in shortly afterwards and requested a lift with the fox back to the start. We first waited for Roger from HRL to find us, who was spotted rushing in a couple of minutes later, again from the Antonio Park side and through the fence hole.  

Supper   Supper was held at Graham’s place in Ringwood – many thanks to Betty for taking on the task of heating up an abundance of food in a small oven! The rich cheesecake desserts were carefully planned out to ensure the relevance of future “gap hunts” like Hunt 3.  

Results   All results were order based – as every hound got in on every leg tonight, there were no penalties. For hunt 2, the order for the second leg was again order based, but on leg time. For hunt 7, as various hounds found the second leg first, we calculated scores based on the time that hounds found their first leg, and then on leg time to the second fox found.  

  HRLYDFYQNOWTXOVT 
H1310425
H2-1201354
H2-2102534
H3320154
H4501342
H5401523
H6410235
H7-1301254
H7-2413205
Bonus De-Bogging Points-3
 
Total Points2959272933
Position:301234

Report on VK3YQN June Friday Night foxhunt

29th June 2008

Hosted by 3 groups from the YQN team

  1. Mark VK3ZNN, Ian VK3YQN & Amy
  2. Bruce VK3TJN & Suzanne
  3. Neale & Johanna

Started at Safeway Carpark, corner of Burwood & Stephenson’s Roads.

6 teams braved the cold night: VT, BLN, YDF, TXO, HRL, OW

All hunts were on 2m and all but the supper hunt were multi-leg events.

Hunt 1A run by Ian, Mark & Amy

This was positioned in bushes just beyond a lookout tower at the top of a hill behind (South of) the Nunawading waste recycle centre. It was designed to be fairly easy to find the first leg. Adam was first on the scene and found the gaffer tape fox in bushes but we were fairly well hidden and he got quite anxious when we didn�t respond immediately to him calling out his call-sign (although we did note the time).

Several minutes passed before TXO arrived on the scene running within 3 metres of the fox but straight past it and onward to the lookout which is obviously where it was … not! Climbing up to the lookout and then then looking all around it, then falling over on the way down due to the very slippery ramp and eventually finding it several minutes after arriving, just after Doug (VT) and Marta (BLN) found it at the 10 minute mark. Roger (HRL/MZ) arrived 3 minutes later.

When we told all the runners the 2nd leg frequency, we made a point of saying they should retune their sniffers as they might be able to hear it from where they were, knowing full well everyone definitely would hear it from that location. What we didn’t tell them was that even in broad daylight Mark couldn’t find a way through to the 2nd leg location, despite being able to see it from the lookout. This was due to a creek and very thick, impenetrable blackberries.

We tripped across Ewen(OW) heading up the hill after we�d packed up the fox and were heading down.

Hunt 1B run by Bruce & Suzanne

This fox was located down the end of a road that is shown on the Melways (South of fox 1A, on the other side of the creek), but that the locals appear to have done their best to erase from existence. Suzanne and Bruce awaited the hounds in a ‘possibly’ leech infected swamp, but was in reality probably just a bit damp from the recent rains.

The trick was that this hunt was only about 300m from the previous fox; that is, in a direct line, but that ignores the impassable river, not to mention real live swampy swamps (probably with more than imagined leeches) and enough blackberries to make even a YDF team member have 2nd thoughts.

Nevertheless, very soon we heard the unmistakable wail of a sniffer over the bird and frog noises. Unfortunately for Marta of the BLN team, it was the wrong side of the various nasty sharp and wet barriers. Still, we heard her give very explicit directions to her team, and any other team who happened to be listening, as to exactly where the fox was, so we expected their arrival in the not too distant.

It was, however, Adam from the YDF team who belonged to the bouncing light we’d observed gradually heading our way (it seemed across a farmer’s paddock, but we’ll ignore that). Gary for TXO was a few minutes, followed by Roger from the “more callsigns than can comfortably fit in a sentence” team (we’ll call it MZ for now).

The VT team was also close by but didn’t have time to run down the road before time was up. Dunno where the BLN team went despite the very explicit directions.

Further note on this location from Suzanne – hiding spot was definitely a potential leech zone! – squelchy, decaying, frog ridden spot. Just waiting for the leeches to inch their way along the dripping branches and drop down my neck. Put my hood up and tucked my pants into my socks just to make sure 🙂

The first hunt had more of a devastating effect on the teams than we�d anticipated and resulted in the BLN team in particular tossing in the towel on several of the remaining hunts.

Hunt 2a run Neale & Johanna

Arriving at our spot, we parked our car in a Baptist church’s car park. Another man parked nearby was curious as to our activities, but after a brief explanation seemed to decide we were mostly harmless, if a tad eccentric.

We sat and waited and waited at what we guessed was about halfway along the reserve until YDF-team drove up past us where they shouldn’t have been able to drive, realised their mistake and drove back to find us easily. We were then left in isolation to wait again until a couple of runners came up either side of the 10 minute mark. VT arrived 5 minutes after YDF, TXO, HRL and OW didn�t finish and BLN gave up.

Hunt 2B run by Ian, Mark & Amy

This was located in the old, abandoned Monash Secondary College. We positioned ourselves between a couple of building and waited.

First on the scene was Adam (YDF). He hunted around for a while before realising it was right in front of his nose, literally, poised inside an old tyre mounted at the top of a metal post about 1.5m off the ground (some sort of strange planter or bird bath?).

Next was Roger(HRL) 7 minutes later who spent quite a bit of time searching in the greenery that had grown over the fairly high cyclone fence that separated us from where we’d hidden the fox. Eventually we took pity on him and suggested he try his luck walking around and checking on the other side. 30 seconds later he was followed by Marta(BLN) and then Doug(VT). Ewen(OW) arrived overtime followed by Gary(TXO).

Hunt 2C run by Bruce & Suzanne

This spot was near where Bruce works. It was intended to be really close to leg 2B, almost a sniffer hunt. Bruce had checked out the location as he sometimes rides along that creek to get into work the back way, but as it turns out on the night we elected to go the other side of the creek. This gave a really big tree to hide in, but slightly easier access options.

Putting the fox up high often causes confusion for sniffing with Adam and Darian from YDF took quite some time to locate the fox-box, despite being first on the scene. Though first in, their leg time was significantly worse than some other teams who came in more directly without a few km detour southwards. This leg ruined YDF�s so far “perfect” score for the night!

All teams got in on this leg, which was good as we were starting to wonder if we’d somehow made the hunts too hard (is that possible ?).

Hunt 4a run by Neale & Johanna

This location, behind the substation in Waverley Road was found by Ian’s son Scott and has been known as the “Scott spot” for some months while we found a sequence of locations that suited its inclusion.

As expected, all teams found this fairly quickly and straightforwardly, including MZ who found it twice, under different call-signs just to confuse us. Most cars came up the access track to the freeway roadworks, dropped their runners and in some cases left them behind as they made their way to the next leg.

YDF was first in (again – this is getting very predicable). Poor Marta of BLN was 2nd in but looked decidedly worse for wear as she asked wearily “How many legs is this one?”. TXO and HRL/MZ were next followed a couple minutes later by VT, then OW.

Hunt 4B run by Bruce & Suzanne

Suzanne had sussed out this spot near Gardiners Creek on her lunchtime walk, as well as being quite familiar with the area after having set a street-O there recently. This fox spot was deliberately chosen for its confusing elements, although deceptively simple – some tree roots to hide it in, down a not very visible embankment next to the river, so that hounds could be unsure which side it was on… as they were – Adam, Douggie and Gary didn’t notice us sniggering in the trees up the hill as they ran down one side of the creek (where it was), then took off over the bridge and spent some time checking out the rocks on the other side, before coming back again and wandering around the embankment… he, he

On arrival it didn’t seem a difficult spot, perhaps too easy ? Anyway, we placed the fox amongst the roots of a tree next to the creek and had to go some way away to remain hidden.

Just as well we did, because very soon, Adam (for YDF) was on the scene, rushing right past us, down to the waters edge. Then, to our surprise, back up again. Where was he going ?? Yep, over the bridge not too far off and over the other side of the creek. Then, scrambling down the steep bank down to the water’s edge. Damm…not that side after all ! Back up the steep bank, back around over the bridge, and finally zigzagging back to the tree and in.

Marta (for BLN) made much quicker work of it, almost disdainfully knocking it off in a few seconds. Roger for MZ also made reasonably quick work of it. Douggie (for VT) also did the Adam style antics, checking out ‘both the wrong sides first. Ewen (for OW) joined Doug on the fruitless search of the steep bank on the other side. Ewen worked it out and was rapidly closing on the rooty tree when Adam (loud OW Adam, not 29yo YDF Adam) spotted us trying to be insignificant well away from the fox. “Ewen” he urgently calls, and goes and almost physically drags Ewen away from his nearly found quarry. We greet Adam and Ewen cordially, and then the penny drops that we are not actually at the fox, so back to the creek again. Meantime Douggie has stopped faffing around and has located the fox.

Gary for TXO finds it a few minutes later, so a full compliment again, which is good news, because we feared that may not be the case for the final leg of this hunt….

Hunt 4C run by Ian, Mark & Amy

This was planned to be the most challenging leg and certainly very different to the rest of the night’s hunts.

A very large (in excess of 2m diameter) drain had been found, hidden behind bushes with the top of it at ground height. We didn’t know until part way through the night if it would be appropriate (i.e. safe) to use it we’d been sitting on this one for many months. As it turned out it was perfect weather for it – too dry and it fills with fumes from people’s grey water illegally flowing into the storm water system. Too wet and it is dangerous, although a torrent sufficient to fill it would flood most of the surrounding suburb. The occasional light drizzle meant we had a steady trickle of water about 1cm deep which had washed away any gunge and there was no perceivable smell in there at all.

Ian and Amy positioned themselves about 100m up the drain, past a slight bend about 50m in and about 2m past another bend in a side drain only about 1.5m long due to it having been filled in. That put us almost directly under a 3″ thick steel and concrete cover with a few slots in it.

As expected (we’d previously tested this with Bruce sniffing around the area), hounds found there way to the drain cover in the middle of a dead end road on the other side of the freeway and railway line from the only access point. To give teams any hope of finding us, we’d positioned Mark up there to give them guidance to the other side of the freeway. Adam was first on the scene and cleverly counted his steps to the pedestrian underpass and then paced them out on the other side and then looked around for the entrance. It wasn’t long before we heard his musical testing out the drain’s echo properties all the way up it. Despite the length of the drain, Bruce had reported he could easily hear us talking from its entrance so we were careful to keep quiet.

It was amusing to occasionally see beams of torch light break the darkness of the tunnel from 3m above us, like a scene from a sci-fi film with aliens bright lights outside the door.

We heard David(BLN) above the drain cover declaring he’d given up on this one as well. Doug(VT) was the next one to break the silence of the drain followed some time later by Gary(TXO) and Roger(HRL/MZ). OW decided not to risk entering a drain.

We found out later that at least one resident had been concerned about all the strange goings on at the end of his usually quiet street and called the police. They arrived and were told there were teams hunting a hidden transmitter that was located on the other side of the freeway and had obviously got their bearings a bit confused. They decided they had better things to do with hteir time and left. Fortunately they were not told that the fox was located 3m below them and fortunately we were still sitting quietly in darkness; it might’ve been a little different if voices on beams of light appeared from out of the middle of the road!!

Hunt 5 run by Neale & Johanna

This was the supper hunt and was started 2 minutes before the midnight no-go zone, with Neale only realising he was meant to be setting this foxhole about 30 min previously. With no clues as to the location except an ambiguous map reference, he successfully found a suitably challenging place halfway up a bank of Gardiner’s creek, complete with plenty of high fences on both sides to provide lots of reflections and a nearby stormwater drain to provoke memories of the previous hunt. All but the last team scaled the 2m fence on the wrong side of the creek (there was an open gate in the fence further up you could drive a truck through … on the fox side of the creek) and braved the steep banks to find us on the other side. The hound from the last team had more fun, though, after repeated crossings of the bridge 100m downstream he scaled the fence and ran past the fox, realised his mistake and descended part of the bank to find the drain. His first response – “Oohhh, not this again….” and to head up it. Fortunately he quickly realised his mistake, and found the fox nearby, just outside the time limit.

First in was YDF, followed 5 minutes later by OW, with the other teams scoring 10 (BLN had skipped this hunt completely and headed straight to supper).

Conclusion

Supper was held at Bruce’s place in Ashwood.

There was a rumour about a certain team cable-tying a gate closed after them but even if this was true and we’d penalised them heavily, they’d still have taken out the night.

Final scores

TeamScorePlace
YDF131
HRL/MZ532
VT663
BLN674
OW674
TXO725

Congratulations to the YDF team who were 1st in on the 1st leg of every hunt and would have had a perfect score other than their second leg times in 2 of the events.

November 2007 Foxhunt Report

Brought to you by the VK3YQN team

Firstly, a welcome to novice YQN foxhunt setters Mark and Suzanne. Anyone who has run a foxhunt knows how consists of short periods of manic intense activity to keep ahead of the hounds and periods of boring waiting around for ther 1st team to find you !

Hunt 1

This was a two legged hunt, both on 2m. All multi-legged hunts were scored on leg time, effectively forming seperate hunts without the need to re-group. It sometimes produces some unexpected results not immediately evident at the time.

The 1st leg was near the Eastern Freeway in a bushy part of Yarra bend Park near Dights Falls 2D C5 with Mark & Suzanne & a bottle of red wine. Leader was YDF followed 4 minutes later by VT and OW. The 2nd leg was Bruce hidden in a tricky to locate drain reservation the other side of the Yarra near River Retreat (those houses must be worth a bit!) at 2D K8. OW took the least time to the 2nd leg (and was 1st on the scene, despite some slow sniffing work), followed by BLN (leg start time taken from when 1st fox turned off), and just before the gong VR. The 2nd leg was out of 15.

Hunt 2

A close staged 3 legged hunt. Originally the fox had plans to have 10m as the middle leg, but as VR found themselves without a sniffer, and the 10m leg was essentially a sniffer hunt only, we swapped it around so 10m was the 3rd leg to allow them, to at least score well on the 1st two legs and then go for coffee. 45E2

Leg 1 was Neale (with helpers) between the freeway sound barrier and a cyclone fence. Access was meant to be via a hole in the fence the fox had found, but as it turned out all teams ended up climbing the fence. 1st in were YDF and TXO, followed within 6 minutes by all others. Leg 2 was Bruce “up the creek” outside Hays paddock 45 J2. Again this presented no difficulty for Adam of YDF. On leg time David of BLN was 2nd. All teams found this fox within 9 minutes.

The 3rd leg was meant ro be a simple 10m sniffer hunt, but the weak signal from Mark JMD’s 10m fox resulted in teams thinking it was a long way off North of the freeway, and it took some time for them to finally return. It was in fact just behind the lake in Hays Paddock 45 J1 (one square away from Bruce). YDF was 1st back from the wilds, with OW doing it 5 minutes longer on leg time. BLN and VR both did in fact find the fox, but their leg times took them way over any time we could score sensibly, so we limited the damage to 10. TXO was apparently nearby too but we had to call it a day finally. VR team decided to call it a night at this point for unknown reasons.

Hunt 3

The original plan was this would be a single leg hunt, but due to the re-arrangement of the previous hunt for VR, we inserted an extra leg to give time for Mark to get to his proper location.

Therefore the 1st leg was Bruce with the fox buried in some creeper on the bank of the old outer-circle railway cutting 46 A9. Winner was BLN for a change, followed very shortly by YDF, then TXO. After watching the sniffing antics of the OW odd couple Ewen & Clifford, OW finally gets a 7 (with Cliffoird standing on top of the fox declaring “it’s all around I just can’t make any sense of it”).

2nd leg was Mark who was chased into his location by both Adam and David. Therefore YDF and BLN score well. TXO does well on leg time and OW takes way too long despite eventually nabbing Mark. 61 B12

Supper Hunt

There is time for just 1 more hunt, so Bruce is located on the bank of a creek near High St. Again YDF is 1st and BLN is 2nd. OW and TXO draw on 4.

Supper

A great supper put on by Mary Banks, added to by that yumscious flourless chocolate cake from Suzanne. The following scores were announced. Well done to YDF for owning the evening.

TeamYDFBLNOWTXOVR
1A010dnf510dnf4
1B15dnf10015dnf14
2A06615
2B02485
2C01024510dnf1026
3A107310dnf
3B011011410dnf
4014410dnf
Total1640415569
Place12345

Report on VK3YQN April 2007 Foxhunt

We were originally scheduled to run the March hunt but this was cancelled due to lack of teams, despite moving the date forward a week to suit a number of teams.

The hunt started from the Pinewood Shopping Centre carpark in good weather.

Despite Bruce (TJN) racing out to the first hiding spot so we could commence shortly after the 8pm starting time, the VT team was running late and arrived at the start around 8:20 without their gear set up. They very quickly mounted everything and by soon after 8:25 we had 6 teams (YDF, BLN, VT, VR, TXO, HRL) ready to go.

For the first hunt Bruce was located in Norton’s park, which should be familiar to street orienteers.
The lower power used had a few teams overestimating the distance.
BLN was first to find him, followed within a minute by YDF and HRL.
Yes, Roger (HRL) had quickly formed a team only a couple of days before, comprising him and a couple of inexperienced friends and he borrowed some of Bruce’s gear on the way to the start location. His success in finding the first fox within a minute of the first team was excellent but unfortunately this success was not to last the entire evening.
TXO and VR arrived 4 minutes later. VT arrived too late and scored the maximum 10 points – this was caused by hasty gear assembly and not observing their “green to green” policy of antenna mounting – yes, you guessed it the yagi was put on backwards. Greg picked up on this eventually when the signal seemed to get weaker and weaker the “closer” they got to the fox.

The next hunt was two-legged with the first leg on 70cm. At the start Gary (TXO) reported that he didn’t have any 70cm gear (no receiver, beam or sniffer). Fortunately Bruce had brought a 70cm sniffer with him that Gary picked up from him at the first fox location so his team would be able to follow another hound into the area and then use Bruce’s sniffer to compete independently. Well, that was the theory – unfortunately Bruce’s 70cm sniffer was found to be faulty.

The first leg was located at the end of a road behind a very large, deep and dangerous quarry.
This excellent spot was discovered by Steve when sightseeing in March (when we were originally to be fox). The bush covered peak could only be accessed via a 500m long track bounded by high cyclone fences on both sides for the entire length of the track. The hunt start was a little delayed when Bruce discovered that since last month a boom gate had been installed at the start of the track (just for vehicles, pedestrians fine) so the fox had to walk in too. A piece of dodgy coax (possibly aggravated by the walk in), and a question mark battery meant that the 70cm wasn’t as good as it might have been. The HRL team was by far first in the area, and had even dropped off Roger with a sniffer as BLN called numerous times from various locations, and VR called from Mt Dandenong claiming everyone else was with them (oh really ?).
Despite the early presence of HRL, the YDF team found us shortly after (must have used that transmat beam on Mt Dandenong). BLN checked all sides of the quarry, but had problems hearing the fox. We were still some distance above the quarry though. TXO found the fox despite us lending them a non-functional sniffer (sorry guys! – another thing to fix, grrr).
4 of the 6 teams (YDF first, then HRL, VT, TXO) found Bruce, with BLN finding him 3 minutes after the time limit and VR giving up and going to have a coffee muttering something about the quarry being private land (except the fox wasn’t in there).

The second leg was on 2m located in bushland where Ian (YQN) and Peter were sitting at a picnic table at the top of a hill with lights in the distance visible through the full 360 degrees. First in was Adam (YDF) followed 2 minutes later by Doug (VT team) and then 7 minutes later Gary TXO and shortly afterwards Marta of the BLN team. HRL didn’t find it and the VR team were still off somewhere consuming caffeine.

The fox team had given up on having Steve with us for the night due to him being overseas but were surprised to find him turn up during hunt 2 having come straight from the airport to join us for the rest of the evening.
The hunt was scored on the time difference between the legs and was won by YDF followed closely by VT, then a fair margin to the other teams.

Hunt 3 was supposed to be another 70cm/2m 2-legged event but due to problems with the signal in the previous hunt (and also that dodgy sniffer) we decided to make it 2 x 2m. The VR team returned to the event after a bex and a good lie down.

The first leg was run by Bruce who was located up a tree atop a hill (revenge on Marta) in Wellington Chase park. First in was Adam for YDF who took only a few passes under the tree before looking up followed by VR within a minute of them (the caffeine obviously worked). Next to arrive was Gary (TXO) who spend agonising minutes passing back and forth under the fox, occasionally disappearing off into the forest. David for BLN team saw me as soon as he approached. Under the tree (again) was Gary, and behind David were 2 runners from other teams. Despite Bruce desperately trying to communicate to David quietly that he was in, he insisted on blowing his advantage by loudly demanding a reply. He got it, and all 4 teams got the same score, including Gary who’d spent an embarrassing 8 minutes searching below. All teams found this fox.

For the second leg Peter & Ian were located behind an industrial area. We had expected that some teams might try and find a way through to the rear down factory drive-ways or other suspect means (i.e. via private property) before they found where we had managed to drive in.
We didn’t however expect anyone to come in from the north which turned out to be quite amusing for Ian to watch from his hiding spot on top of a very large dirt mound as in order to get in that way hounds would have to cross a 3m or so wide creek.
Several teams tried this with VT runners in particular running up and down the edge of the creek for ages trying to find a way across (unsuccessfully).
The fox wasn’t particularly well hidden – just sitting on the ground. Despite this, it was amusing to watch from a distance as several runners each took a couple of minutes to find it, walked past it within 50cm several times, one even shining their torch onto it multiple times as they past it before finally finding it.
First in was John (BLN) followed by Tim (YDF team) then a gap to Geoff and Ian (VR team). Ian was the exception to all the other runners – he came up the mound, walked in a direct line towards the fox and found it instantly. Right on the 20 minute time limit was VT and HRL – Roger was exhausted and couldn’t run up the mound despite the looming time limit, having been dropped off over a kilometre away. The distance he’d run was evident by the fact that it took his team mates around 10 minutes to drive to the meeting spot after it was announced.
This hunt was scored as a mixture of the time into the first hunt and the differential time into the second fox. This resulted in the hunt being won by YDF, followed by VR, BLN, TXO, then VT and HRL.

The sudden unexpected presence of Steve was a bonus because he was able to run the supper hunt. To get it underway quickly, Bruce ran a fox from his car as he drove home and then Steve’s weaker signal took over once he was in position. Steve was hidden in a large cage full of tyres near an Australia Post processing centre. This quite good location was found by Bruce that evening on his way home from work. First in was YDF followed by 3 minutes later by BLN, VR, HRL and VT within seconds of one another, with TXO at the 10 minute mark.

Last time we were fox, the night progressed much faster than expected and we had to introduce another spontaneous hunt to fill in the time. This time we took no chances with running out of locations and that planning coupled with the late start & 70cm issues meant we ended up with 5 unused locations – almost enough for another entire evening. At least planning next time will be easier!

Supper was held at Bruce’s place in Ashwood.

Overall scores and placings were:

TeamScorePlace
YDF21
BLN272
VR343
VT354
TXO405
HRL416

Congratulations to the YDF team – that was huge winning margin.

December 2006 Foxhunt

VK3YDF and team ran the final foxhunt for 2006 in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne on a lovely Summer night. Five teams assembled at Blackburn Railway Carpark at 8pm and the first hunt started shortly after.

Adam made good use of a small area between a carpark and office shop front to hide himself and a fox.

The second hunt was a 2 leg affair that saw teams challenged by closed roads due to rail and roadworks at Laburnum train station. Hounds (after 10minutes) found their ways up onto the platform where they found Bryan and Darian and some random drunk guy. (yep, you guessed it, a lot of teams thought it was the bum).. Teams then flew off in search of the second leg that was found by a drain reserve not far from Canterbury Road Blackburn Road Cnr’s.

We thought we’d throw a bit of everything in, so this time we employed the 10minute drive off rule and drove ourselves to a laneway between houses and vacant land in Mont Albert. Teams disappeared as quickly as they arrived owing mostly to the fact that this too was a 2 legged hunt. The teams next found themselves at the big bustop carpark near Doncaster Road.

Next up was another single legger to a large open canal drain near Bulleen road and an impromptu hunt the foxhunting Fox were Adam sneakily followed more than one team around.. (to the confusement of all)..

An adjurnment allowed for cold drinks to be served. Teams were soon off again for the final hunt for the night a 3 TX hidden in reserves that adjoined the Yarra in the Bulleen / Templestowe area. Hounds found Adam and Darrian on an Island, Steve in a carpark that was sort of locked (VT?), and Bryan near the Bike track (yes, with a bike)..

All teams and hounds arrived at the Supper location by 11.30pm where BBQ and Supper was provided (thanks Dianne).

Results:

		BLN	MZ	YQN	OW	VT
Start		10	3	2	4	0
Hunt 1	0	10	4	1	1
Hunt 2a	1	0	6	2	1
hunt 2b	1	2	5	0	1
Hunt 2 Tot	2	2	11	2	2
Hunt 3a	1	0	2	4	5
Hunt 3b	7	8	0	6	4
Hunt 3 Tot	8	8	2	10	9
Hunt 4	1	0	4	8	2
Hunt 5a	1	1	0	5	5
Hunt 5b	2	2	0	9	6
Hunt 5c	0	6	6	9	8
Hunt 5 Tot	3	9	6	23	19
						
Total		24	32	29	48	33

To the teams/people that I don’t see tonight, Merry Christmas / Happy New Year from all of us in the VK3YDF Foxhunting Team.

Bryan, Steve, Dianne, Darrian and Adam

Report for VK3YQN Fox Hunt 18th August 2006

The hounds met at the Pinewood Shopping Centre and were set off from there by Neale Banks (thanks for helping out Neale).

The night was run by Ian VK3YQN, Bruce VK3TJN, Roger VK3HRL and Peter and consisted of a mixture of single and two-leg hunts with a 70cm leg thrown in as well.

Hunt 1 Leg A
We were worried that the 70cm signal on this first hunt of the night might be a bit weak way back at the Pinewood start location, but it turned out the hounds had a good signal all the way. The fox used was Ian MZ’s 70cm intermittent unit that put out a good signal on the 3 element beam in the tree beside the creek, at the back of Greaves Reserve, Noble Park.  All hounds had difficulty with overloaded 70cm sniffers and a fair delay till they looked upwards into the tree. VK3YDF took the longest time dithering around, but BLN and MZ teams were also experienced considerable frustration. MZ was in first followed 3 minutes later by YDF and OW with BLN arriving 6 minutes after them.

Hunt 1 Leg B
This 2m fox-or transmitter was located by Peter a short run from the first leg (provided you knew where the bridge was) in a drain pipe on the Eastlink construction area.  First in was MZ followed by YDF, OW and finally BLN with similar timing to the first leg.

Hunt 2 Leg A
Ian (and his brother John) hid this transmitter in bushes at the East side of the lake in Karkarook park.  First on the scene was Adam YDF followed a minute later by Geoff and BLN 3 minutes after that.  OW arrived 4 minutes after that.

Hunt 2 Leg B
Though physically not more than 300m from the 1st leg location, this 2nd leg was meant to be a real bastard. Shortly after we heard that teams were in on the 1st leg, we could here car doors slamming in the industrial estate off Warrigal Road….so near, yet simply no access in from there, except perhaps over nasty looking security fences with alarm systems. The BLN team happened to know someone who knew someone who’s dog knew about the spot we were hidden, but they were the last to find their way in from the South, off the end of Henry St. YDF was first, followed by MZ with OW narrowly beating BLN for third place.
Most took some time to actually find the fox hidden under some discarded polystyrene foam halfway up (down ?) a steep embankment.
Somehow the MZ team got a runner in from the North, through the trotting track, even though we thought we’d discounted this possibility pretty thoroughly in our explorations the weekend prior. Something mumbled about “easy to squeeze past gates”….hmmm, well we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
We’d considered hiding the fox within the ex-tip right beside our secluded laneway, but thought that this might create too many objections about not-particularly-accessible-property, despite the nice hole in the fence nearby. As it turns out one runner (another MZ one I think!) did come into our location via the tip….more mumblings about “no fences the way I came”, where we knew this to be patently impossible.

Hunt 3
Peter was located in the “Urban Forest” off Waverley Road.  This was a fairly easy location and not surprisingly all teams arrived within 3 minutes of one another – YDF then MZ and OW together and finally BLN.

Hunt4 Leg A
Bruce dropped Roger out of the car near Darling Station on his way to supper for a spontaneously created extra leg on this hunt to pad the night out to the correct length due to the hounds finding some of the trickier spots faster than anticipated.
Roger was on foot on the east side of Monash Fwy near Darling Railway Station transmitting intermittently on the T7H.  Most teams were observed before alighting from their vehicles so Roger took every opportunity to confuse them. The YDF team’s beam-swinger seemed to stop the beam at 12 o’clock every time, and as Roger was at his 3 o’clock he would transmit until he saw the beam start to turn, then turn off as the beam went past 1 o’clock. Nasty! MZ saw him before he could hide properly and were in first, followed by BLN, YDF and eventually OW.

Hunt4 Leg B
The fox was located up an embankment on the side of the Anniversary Trail near Winton Rd. Easiest entry was via a lane near the corner of Nicholas street. Having arrived at the spot and turned on the transmitter Ian realised he probably should have the clipboard to record the score and, given that the first team had just found Roger, thought he could make a quick dash to the car and back before hounds arrived.  Unfortunately just as he was locking the car, the MZ car arrived so he ran back, managing to get ahead of Geoff and out of site up the embankment before runners came after him.  First in was Geoff followed very quickly by 3 other MZ runners coming from different directions.  A couple minutes later Adam YDF arrived followed by BLN another 2 minutes after him. OW arrived just over time.

Hunt 5
This was the supper hunt and was handled by Peter.  It was located in the new estate on the site of the old Arnott Factory near a fence at the end of a drain extending beyond the west end of Cox Lane.
The location was found by Bruce when creating the “Hashwood” map.  Similarly to Hunt 3 all teams found this within 3 minutes of each other with MZ first, followed by OW, YDF and finally BLN.

Final scores are slightly different from those announced on the night due to double checking however the placings are unaltered:
 1st MZ 6 pts
 2nd YDF 8 pts
 3rd OW 18 pts

 4th BLN 27 pts

Cheers,

Ian

VK3YQN

Victorian Foxhunting Championships Report

  Report: Foxhunting Victorian Championships      

Sat, 6 May, 2006

On Saturday 6th May, after a week of pretty wet weather, it luckily cleared for a day of intense foxhunting activity.

Four teams VK3BLN, VK3TVB, VK3OW and VK3YDF competed for glory, and to test out rarely used equipment prior to the up coming National Championships in June.

None of the teams were in their normal Friday night member or car configurations, so anything was possible !

The Program had 5 hunts in various configurations and scoring methods. We ended up only having to cancel one 2m leg, and that was due to the whole thing starting � late due to the slow team arrival (well done to VK3TVB who were the only ones ready on time !).

Roger VK3HRL ran a short simple 70cm leg to get the day rolling and shake out the gear/maps and so on. This was scored using the normal 10minute timing. VK3TVB won this one comfortably with VK3OW just making it in before the 10 minutes was up. VK3YDF hadn�t yet arrived and VK3BLN didn�t quite make it to the fox in time.

The next hunt proved to be the most challenging of the day. It was 4 legs, hunt any order. The scored was based first on number of TX found, then if the same, time into the last TX found. The stopped exactly 1.5hours after starting. This format is great for spreading teams out as many elect to go for different legs first.

To make things interesting, there were two 23cm legs, a 10m and a 6m. No-one found the 23cm leg on Mt Wilson, but two teams were on the scent when the hunt ended. The 6m leg proved more challenging than intended, due to the odd things trees do to 6m, and only one team found this, and only as the fox was driving out at the end of the hunt. Two other teams spent much of their hunt time fruitlessly searching for the 6m fox.

Well done to the two teams who found two legs; VK3TVB won this hunt from VK3OW based on their 2nd TX time.

A Fox-or hunt with 7 transmitters scattered about the forest around the Barry�s Reef starting location was time limted to 20minutes. 4 frequencies were used, which meant that 3 transmitters shared frequencies with 3 others, just to add some complication.

As many could enter individually as you wanted, and we took the best score of a teams entrants to count towards the overall total. Also a welcome to Bevin, VK5TV who competed in this hunt, all the way from South Australia.

Adam, VK3YDF took out this one easily, finding all 7 in under the required time. Special mention also to Marta, who though was helping the fox the rest of the day, competed in the fox-or for her normal VK3BLN team getting a 2nd place for them here.

The two legged 80m/2m hunt was cut to just 80m due to timing constraints. We had planned to use an antenna mount for this hunt that ended up back in Melbourne due to a YQN team member being unable to make it at the last moment. A temporary mount was fashioned up with bits of coax and metal, so apologies for the dodgy signal on this leg.

Strangely the only team who could hear the signal at the start didn�t end up finding the fox, but VK3YDF did, 6 minutes ahead of VK3BLN.

Dinner was supplied pre-ordered at the Blackwood pub, and very good it was too. Though a little more expensive than self-catering for the event, it certainly made it easier for the fox team who had zero time to spare as it was !

Teams had to forgo dessert because soon afterwards was to follow the gruelling 4 legged night hunt. These are always meant to be difficult, to test team�s patience and perseverance. It is rare a team will breeze through easily on all legs, and again this proved to be the case. VK3TVB had difficulty with the first 2m leg, putting them well back in the field to start off with. Marta was the 2m fox located on a walking track to the North East of the start, deep in the Wombat State forest. VK3YDF and VK3BLN swapped places for the 70cm leg run by Roger from a track not shown on the map to the North West of the start. VK3BLN maintained their lead into the 10m fox operated by Ian, well to the East again at a hastily found new location (the earlier planned location was scrubbed due to a road closure). The final 6m leg run by Bruce turned out to be the un-doing of both VK3BLN and VK3YDF. It was located to the South of the start again in what was not meant to be that difficult a location. The two teams spent nearly an hour within about 3km of the 6m fox, not ever quite narrowing in. Meantime VK3TVB is making up lost ground and have found 10m. Unfortunately VK3TVB also waste their time, but in their case searching grotty dirt tracks over 6km away from the fox so were unable to capitalise on the misfortune of the leaders. Suffering grotty track overload they gave up in disgust (at themselves I hope !).

Finally VK3YDF find the 6m fox after an exhaustive grid search. They have to head off to Melbourne from there due to two members running the a �beat the train Puffing Billy fun run� the next day. About 10 minutes later VK3BLN turn up from an unexpected direction�yes I can see your headlights this time, John ! The 6m fox wasn�t far at all from the first road they�d turned down an hour earlier, and turned away as the signal dropped.

I�ll attempt to create a map picture of the event locations.

The night finished up with supper back at Roger�s grandparents house in Barry�s Reef, near Blackwood. Thanks to Roger for use of the great venue, and supper organisers Roger and Rhonda. VK3YDF are the overall winners, which implies they are running the Vic Champs next year ?….or perhaps someone new wants to give it a go.

Results

TeamVK3BLNVK3YDFVK3TVBVK3OW
1. 70cm101009
2a. 23cm A0:18
2b. 23cm B
2c. 6m1:30
2d. 10m0:491:17
2. Overall2020810
3. Fox-or1037
4. 80m601010
5a. 2m40810
5b. 70cm04810
5c. 10m04810
5d. 6m401010
5. Overall883440
Total45385576
Placing2134

Fox-Or results

CompetitorTX / Time (mins)Placing
Adam YDF7 / 200
Marta6 / 221
Ian MZ4 / 213
Graham ZKM3 / 236
Bevan TV2 / 237
Gary TXO4 / 244
John BLN4 / 24.15

Fox locations for all hunts

March 2006 Foxhunt

Here are the results of the March fox hunt run on Friday 24th March 2006.

Old fashioned scoring was used – (time of arrival, point per minute, max 10, lowest score wins) . Leg times used on the 2 legged hunt 2.

TeamHunt 1Hunt 2aHunt 2bHunt 3Hunt 4Hunt 5Hunt 6Place
VR/MZ/TVB70/71/81/93/121/131/141
BLN07/70/72/97/162/185/232
YQN71/87/150/150/152/179/263
YDF109/1910/295/342/360/360/364
TXO105/1510/252/2710/373/402/425

Our thanks to those who participated, to Ian VK3MZ for the use of his fox, and to Sandra, YF of VK3CHR, for the excellent supper – I am told the quiches were delicious – pity the hordes had consumed them before I got there!!!!.

Cheers
Greg on behalf of the the fox team:
VK3VT, VK3CHR & VK3JDO

June 2005 Foxhunt

VK3BLN June 2005 Foxhunt Report

Hunt 1 – Masochistic Adventure in the rear of David’s new office “OUCH”! If you didn’t yell it, you at least thought it if you were one of three hounds who braved the blackberries along a dark and narrow strip of mud behind the industrial estate north of Redland Drive Mitcham (48 J12). Gary would have come first – he was spotted not 20 metres away – but changed his mind, perhaps lacking the requisite penchant for prickly bushes and barbed wire, only to return many minutes later. Adam found the fox first, complaining loudly about thorns embedded in sensitive southern regions. With Adam constantly reminding us of the time, we heard Geoff bellowing instructions (from safely behind a fence) to fellow snifferer John, who had to contend with Adam’s countdown (“HURRY, 30 seconds left!”) before spotting coax cable and pulling the transmitter out from beneath a dirty wooden platform.

Hunt 2: In view of the hill climbing planned for later in the night, we decided, for a bit of a change, to set the second hunt down in the gully of a picturesque little park not far from the first hunt. A long, scenic, wooden bridge, ferns, native vegetation, frogs croaking their excitement at the night; what more could any hound ask for? Well, quite a lot it seemed. After crashing through the damp and muddy undergrowth, Adam from YDF team was first to arrive. After exchanging brief greetings with an excited Fitzel, he ran straight for the briefcase which we had set up conveniently (and obviously) on the little bridge, and yelled out ‘I’ve got range 9!’. He couldn’t quite understand my laughter as he frantically pawed at the briefcase; eventually, I took pity on him and assured him that no, David could not quite fit inside it… He kept circling the briefcase for quite a few minutes after my little hint, though, not able to understand why his sniffer was so excited in that location. Why all this trouble, you ask? Well, David’s apparently forgotten leaky coax was the key. Quite a long thing, securely attached to the underside of the bridge, it produced an interesting standing wave pattern with many range 9 locations! Adam eventually found the end of the coax and traced it down to where David was lying. Geoff from MX was next to arrive, experiencing a similar amount of fun in locating the transmitter. It took a bit of work to persuade him not to tug the coax out from under the bridge, though! Gary from TXO arrived last, and it took a bit of advice from Geoff and Adam to guide him along to David, who then leapt out at him with a rather loud ‘Boo!’, leading to much hilarity from those assembled.

Hunt 3: Hunt 3 took us to a new subdivision overlooking Lilydale Lake, Roads not marked in 2003 Melways , with a really good view of all approaches on the main road. The Fox settled in for a long wait, as the first two hunts of the night took 30 minutes each, but soon enough the Hounds were on the way. The only approach from Vermont South to Lilydale was Canterbury Road, long/straight with no chance for triangulation.so to make things a little interesting and break the monotony the Fox broke out the mouth organ and offered a few tunes. No-one complained; maybe it was better than Hunt 5’s phone ringtones…:-) To make things even more interesting the Fox kept cycling the transmitter power (later comment from the Beam Swinger (Geoff) on the MX Team, “Shit, I’ve lost the Signal”). Not having sat in the back of the MX Houndmobile for quite some time, and not being up with all the latest mods to the gear, Geoff was still coming to grips with operation of the equipment, obviously still thinking it was his operational technique and not the Fox cycling power. As the YDF team came in sight the Fox just happened to cycle the Power again, which saw them sail past and take off up the opposite hill. The Fox’s timing was impeccable (YDF comment later, “The signal was just starting to swing around when we lost it”). They came back and straight past again in the opposite direction. This was one of those classic moments that puts the pleasure in being the Fox. They had enough information now on where the Fox might be, just had to figure out how to get in. One more pass found the new subdivision and the Fox. YDF in first, next it was MX’s turn. Then the fun started. Gary’s team, could clearly be seen cruising back and forth along Canterbury road, much to the amusement of the gathered hounds (“No left, No Right, you’re getting close”, shouted the Hounds, but Gary’s team were not listening). Then they turned into Lilydale Lake, again!!! That was too much for the Fox, he started issuing commands via the radio, “Not there! Across the road!”. They eventually got in, much to the amusement of the assembled hounds.

Then it was time to let them off for the big hunt. Bruce had just rung in and wanted to play. Geoff asked if the Fox could possibly put a hunt close to where Bruce could be picked up. The Fox was firm, no way were we heading back that way, not even close (to Burwood?????). So it seems that MX team of two and Bruce were in contact through Hunt 4 and Bruce was to meet them later…

Hunt 4 – Better get a ladder, I think I’ve thrown my sniffer up. Samuel Adams, an old-world lager from a Boston microbrewery, complements licorice all-sorts – or so discovered John and Graham as they picnicked on a Hill-top water tank in Christmas Hills (274 D1), having pulled their ladder up after them. “How are they going to get up here?” “I don’t know, that’s their problem. (snigger)” A 5-element yagi perched upon a milk crate beamed an intense beacon south to Lilydale, making the long drive a surprise. Adam approached first, hoisting himself high enough to peer along the tank’s lid (hanging from his nose or sniffer?) shouting, “I can see you!” in an attempt to lure the shadowy figures adopting a low profile on a picnic blanket. When nothing stirred, Adam circled the tank once or twice more before getting a leg-up onto the top from a teammate. In second place came Geoff (thanks for returning our stepladder), closely followed by Gary.

Hunt 5: Just as YDF have a reputation for blackberries, BLN is trying hard to establish a reputation for hilltops. In this hunt, we believe that we succeeded. Skidding along a dirt road in Panton Hill, we screeched to a halt in a little dirt parking lot, and wandered up with batteries and radio in hand to the top of a reasonably tall hill. We took a track; quite nicely marked, it was, with many star pickets neatly positioned along its edges. The fourth hunt finished much earlier than we expected (a bit of hooning, perhaps?), so we were transmitting in no time at all – this is where David’s phone with it’s many ring tones was first brought into play . Gary from TXO was first to arrive, sniffing straight to where we were sitting. He chose to crash through the undergrowth rather than up our little track, though. It would have _been_ much easier otherwise, Gary! Quite a while later, Geoff puffed his way to the top of the hill, muttering what I’m sure were a few choice obscenities along the way. He was briefly distracted by a bouncing Fitz before making his way to where David was transmitting. There was a bit of complaining about broken down fences – what is it with these hounds and their complete disregard of tracks?? Interestingly, he mentioned that our signal was so strong that he had thought the fox was somewhere near the Memorial Tower. And in fact the next hunt was – lucky he didn’t spot Guy setting up during his travels in that direction! Shortly afterwards, Bruce arrived, complete with sniffer but lacking any light source. He’d been directed by us to the meeting point of this hunt, and was commanded to sniff his way to us if he wanted to join the hunt. At this point in the evening, time was pressing on, so we called off the hunt and moved the hounds to the meeting spot.

Hunt 6: This was to be somewhere up near the Tower at the Kangaroo Ground War Memorial. The Fox thought that was a little obvious, so the Foxmobile was parked as close to the tower as possible. Then the fox went along the fence 50m in the opposite direction to set up his lair (under a blanket and against a wire fence). The fox Tx was set vertically, hard up against the fence and again the power was cycled…many times!!! First to arrive was the YDF team, out of the Houndmobile and straight up the hill to the Tower. Two head torches went bobbing up the hill (huge smile on the face of the fox), then came the MX Team. Same problem, straight up the hill. By this time YDF was working their way down the hill and crossing fences??? Sniff, Sniff, Sniff. Then arrives Gary’s Team. Gary says, “I’ll just sniff this”, went straight to the fox and was gone straight away. The other teams hadn’t even noticed where he had been… Then came YDF, kicking the Fox in the Leg and finally Bruce (weren’t you at home a little while ago?) for the MX Team. Later, Geoff said the signal was coming from the tower on the hill; absolute fluke, the Fox had not expected that. Certainly helped confuse the Hounds. Gave Gary’s team a second first for the night, and a good boost for the team with the youngest Beam Swinger (Darian).

By this time it was 11:30pm and the Hounds were set off for the Supper Hunt. They knew the rough direction (Warranwood), but the Fox wasn’t ready yet….Dave said, “Don’t worry we’ll do it mobile”, Marta was heard to say, “Too hard ????, can’t reach!!”. Not sure what was happening in the last Foxmobile, but the Transmitter eventually got turned on too and the Hounds were well and truly on the way..

Hunt 7: By the time the 6th hunt finished, we were only partially on the way to the final position, so we quickly hooked up the radio and started transmitting ring tones again until we drove to the top of yet another hill. We were briefly off the air as we got out of the car and set the beam up to point toward the direction were we anticipated the hounds would come from. We settled ourselves in near to where we had parked, behind a convenient bush. We expected all the hounds to drive in along the same road that we had come from, and then wander straight down to where we were sitting. Imagine our surprise and delight when torches appeared from the top of another adjacent (very tall!) hill and began slowly stumbling over to us. They weren’t moving very fast when they finally arrived (I run up that hill most morning, guys, what’s your problem??), and all the teams seemed to move straight past us to a car parked not far from our bush. Must have been quite a decent reflection back there! Bruce (who’d defected to MX for the night) was first to arrive, shortly followed by Adam. TXO trundled up some time later. Final scores:

		Hunt 1	Hunt 2	Hunt 3	Hunt 4	Hunt 5	Hunt 6	Hunt 7
TOTAL
TXO		2	2	2	2       0	0	2	10
MZ		1	1	1	1       1	2	0	7
YDF		0	0	0	0       3	1	1	5


Cheers,
John, David, Marta, Guy, Graham, Fitzel and helpers
VK3BLN .-.-. …-.- . .

May 2005 Foxhunt

Hi all
Greetings from sunny Broome.
Here are the results from the May hunt – VT was the fox.

Hunt	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total   Place
VRetc	3	7	1	0	0	0	1	12	1
YDF	0	0	8	1	10	3	2	24	2
BLN	1	5	0	10	3	7	0	26	3
YQN	3	9	1	7	6	10	1	37	4

Our thanks go to the Victorian Police who added that extra unknown – the booze bus. Which happened to be on the main road that we kept using to crisscross the Eastern freeway. Those who hunted some years ago may have wondered how the team in the Fiat sports (was it 3YRS?) would have made it through!

Cheers
Greg VK3VT

March 2005 Foxhunt

A good turnout of 5 teams after the aborted attempt in March made it a much better proposition. Despite a huge dumping of rain the previous day, the Friday was perfect conditions. The evening was run as 4 2-legged hunts of varying difficulty.

Apologies to all teams for neglecting to mention the 1st hunt was a 2-legger, but we were consistent and didn’t tell anyone till they’d found the 1st leg. The 1st leg was near a bike path with the potential entrance cunningly disguised by an unknown parked fox vehicle. Most teams had little difficulty with this one, VR blitzing the field a full 6 minutes ahead of BLN. The 2nd leg had a bit of a problem with signal strength. Teams were assisted with some extra transmissions from a handheld. This was found to be mainly due to a bad fox antenna connector, and in retrospect not the fault of the super-duper new Cyclon battery pack afterall. This was all possibly to VR’s disadvantage, so this leg was in fact won by BLI on leg time followed by VR 2nd 5 minutes slower. All teams found this leg within the 10 minutes leg time, despite the long elapsed time.

The 2nd hunt must have been easier with the first leg atop a metal stairway adjoining Churchill Park and then off a closed road. A different 2nd fox was used since we hadn’t at this stage worked out what was wrong with the WIA one, but this one provided it’s own challenges for the bicycle bound fox operator. VR took out the 1st leg narrowly from TXO, BLN and YDF who all found it within the 1st minute. The 2nd leg was won by YDF on leg time due to the faster sprinter, followed closely by BLI (aren’t those leg times deceptive !), then the rest spread out up to 5 minutes.

The 3rd hunt provided the major challenge for the evening with longer distances and trickier to get to locations. YDF had no problems finding the fox near a creek under a major freeway function, but since he drew the orienteering map in the area that’s not a big surprise. VR also did well despite Roger falling into a hole, but the only other team to find us before the 10 minutes was BLN sneaking in with a 9 (Don’t run too far up the hill Marta!… come back come back Marta!). The 2nd leg was again under the freeway a long long way from the 1st leg. BLN did best on leg time followed by VR. A surprise that TXO did well with a 3 despite not finding the 1st leg and still seen running about after fox 1 had left the scene ! All teams found the 2nd leg in time.

Hunt 4 was really one hunt dressed up as 2 to make it a little more interesting. The first leg was one side of a lake, the 2nd the other. The leg 1 planned location got driven out by automatic sprinklers choosing that time to creep closer, but despite that it still took the teams some time to find. VR (again) blitzed the 1st leg, but luckily the leg time system seem to work against them and they rarely win the 2nd leg which was taken out by YDF, who won by running (the team had driven there quicker, but since they drove through marked private property we had to insist they come in another way. All teams found the 2nd leg within 2 minutes of YDF’s time.

The final scores are therefore:

VR 12 (0,5,0,4,1,1,0,1)

YDF 26 (8,9,1,0,0,4,4,0)

BLN 31 (6,7,1,3,9,0,3,2)

BLI 36 (9,0,4,1,10,7,3,2)

TXO 41 (10,8,1,5,10,3,3,1)

February 2005 Foxhunt

Report on the February 2005 Melbourne Foxhunt

The fox for February was the VK3YDF team. The weather was cool and dry. Five teams took part in the hunts that started at Eastfield park in Croydon South. Due to the need for an early finish by the fox the hunts were started promptly at 8PM. All teams had turned up in time and were ready to go as soon as the fox was switched on.

The first hunt quickly took the hounds to a small linear park and bike track next to Dandenong creek in Boronia. The fox was located about 200m west of Colchester Road. (65D3) Most hounds entered on foot using the bike track rather than via the grass on the opposite side of the creek. Once the signal swung many hounds decided that the quickest way to the fox would be to battle through instead of go around the rather thick bush and blackberries. VK3BLN were first to the fox with all but one team finding the fox within the following minute or so. The VK3MZ team only just managed to find the fox before the time limit. Hounds regrouped at nearby Colchester park for the start of the next hunt.

The second hunt for the evening was located less than 1km away from the regroup location and was once again alongside Dandenong creek. The fox was located in scrub at the end of the bike track. (65G5) A number of teams tried to enter via an equestrian centre (effectively private property) and were turned back and told to try another way in. VK3BLN were once again first in followed a few minutes later by VK3YQN and VK3MZ. VK3OW and VK3VT followed only a couple of minutes afterward. Hounds regrouped again at Colchester park.

The third hunt was on the south east edge of a disused retarding basin and bush area also less than 1km from the regroup location. The 2005 edition of the Melways  actually has this marked. (65F3). While there were a couple of easier ways in, all teams decided to bash their way through scrub from the opposite corner of the retarding basin. VK3BLN were once again first in followed shortly after by VK3YQN.

The remaining teams found the fox only a couple of minutes later. Teams regrouped for a third time at Colchester park.After some brief problems with getting a signal running hunt 4 took the hounds some distance to the top of a hill next to the Mt Dandenong Tourist Road in Upwey. (74J4) Regroup location was a nearby Petrol station (no, not in Colchester park!) The VK3YQN team were first on the scene with the VK3MZ team arriving a couple of minutes later. None of the other teams found this fox within the ten minute time limit.

For the second last hunt for the evening the fox was located in scrub just south of the bike track not far from a Railway Bridge in Belgrave. (75E10)  While most teams entered via the bike track, David and Marta from the BLN team decided to enter from the railway bridge side and battle through the rather thick greenery. After much cursing came in for third place with VK3OW. Bruce from the VK3YQN team were first in from the Bike Track followed a few minutes later by Geoff from the VK3MZ team.

For the supper hunt the 10 minute drive-off rule was used. The fox was located next to Ferny creek in Upper Ferntree Gully not far from Ferndale Road in a proposed park area. (74G10) Easy access was available via a windy track, both ends of which were available off Ferndale Road. Still many teams decided that going through the scrub was better than sticking to the track. Despite their bush bashing the VK3BLN team were first in followed a few minutes later by VK3OW who appeared to come in from a different direction than the other hounds. VK3YQN found the fox just a couple of minutes before time had elapsed. There was no sign of VK3MZ and VT teams could not find a suitable way in.

Supper was held in nearby Ferntree Gully at the QTH of Steve, VK3YLE. Adam VK3YDF ran the supper as Steve was overseas at the time.  Hounds were treated to Chilli chicken strips and Kangaroo Sausages and a variety of other goodies.  The winner for the night was the VK3YQN team only just ahead of VK3BLN. VK3VR/MZ, VK3OW and VK3VT teams took the minor placings.

The fox for March will be the VK3YQN team.

Team
Hunt 1
Hunt 2
Hunt 3
Hunt 4
Hunt 5
Hunt 6
Total
Place
VK3YQN
1
3
1
0
0
8
13
1
VK3BLN
0
0
0
10
5
0
15
2
VK3MZ
9
5
3
2
3
10
29
3
VK3OW
1
7
3
10
3
10
32
4
VK3VT
2
8
4
10
10
10
44
5

November 2004 Foxhunt

Here are the results of the hunt held last Friday.


The hounds gathered at the old traditional start location in the car park adjacent to the roundabout on the corner of Swanston Street and Cemetery Rd.  Greg VK3VT the fox for the evening arrived at the start on his bicycle.  This led a number of  hounds to think that they were in for a few long runs over the evening.

The First Hunt was down around the docks area west of the city.  Those that know Greg well would have realised that this was a favorite spot of his long before the development of Docklands and its huge increase in popularity.  Ian, Doug and Andrew were to be found on the bicycle bridge (Melway 2E  H 9) across the Yarra and only one team VK3VR/MZ/TVB/JMD was able to find them before ten minutes were up.

Second Hunt Now the teams thought they were in for a bike chase and started hunting Greg who was on a bike track (Is there a theme emerging?)  beside the Maribyrnong River at the junction of Steels Creek.  Geoff VK3VR was first in the area and saw a bike riding  away in the distance and had that sinking feeling!!!  However he was only about 10 metres from the stationary fox and was first in for the  VK3MZ/VR/TVB/JMD team, Second in was Bruce VK3TJN for the VK3YQN team. Others did not make the 10 minute time limit. (Melway 27 J 4).

Third Hunt  Saw Doug and Andrew located at the end of Edwards Rd  out west of the airport (Melway 3 A 2).  First to find them was the VK3BLN team, followed closely by Geoff from VK3TVB/MZ/VR/JMD team who had disappeared from view on two occasions as he clambered down, and I guess up, some extensive cliffs.  VK3YDF and team found the transmitter with seconds to spare and VK3YQN failed to do so.  About this time the theme seemed to be out the window!!!

Fourth Hunt – Greg and Ian were sitting in the car in Inverness Mews (Melway 178 K 10)  First to find them was the VK3JMD/MZ/TVB/VR team with VK3YQN second seven minutes later and VK3BLN and VK3YDF missed the ten minute time limit.

While Greg and Ian headed off to prepare supper Doug and Andrew found a play ground  near Broadway Court  (Melway 182 F 12)  VK3BLN who was either winning or getting zero continued in this manner by winning this hunt. VK3VR was next after four minutes then VK3YDF a further minute behind and VK3YQN just before time expired.

At supper where low-fat food was provided results were announced as follows:

Team
Hunt 1
Hunt2
Hunt 3
Hunt 4
Hunt 5
Total
Placing
VK3VR/MZ/TVB/JMD0
0
1
0
4
5
1
VK3BLN
10
10
0
10
0
30
2
VK3YQN
10
4
10
7
9
40
3
VK3YDF
10
10
9
10
5
44
4

Well done all teams  The fox next month will be either VK3OW or VK3VR/MZ/TVB/JMD  Remember the hunt is a week early and will be the traditional Bar-B-Q.  See you on 10th December.


Cheers and 73
Greg VK3VT