Category: Fox Hunting

Multi-team fox event

Hunt  Fox   TVB  YQN  YDF   VT  BLN  ZPF   OW
1     YDF    0    7    -    9   10    9    10
2     TVB    -    1    8    2    9    0    2
3     ZPF    4    3    0    4    8    -    3
4     YQN    3    -    0    5   10   10    8
5     VT     0    5    5    -   10   10    8
6     OW     1    0    1    2    1    2    -
7     BLN    0    2    6    1    -    6    3
Totals       8   18   20   23   48   37   34

Place       1st  2nd  3rd  4th  7th  6th  5th

Hunt 1 Report:
The evening started at 8:11pm Train mobile from Glen Waverley Train Station. However we were soon informed that several team’s were still shopping. So we paused temporarily at Mount Waverley then continued again on the next train at 8:32pm. We departed the train at East Malvern at 8:38pm and walked North along the bike track (Where 3JMD found us), through the Golf course then West along side the northern bank of the creek, we went to ground here. Soon to be greeted by 3TJN then VT and ZPF. BLN were very close, however was unprepared to cross
the creek.
Adam

Hunt 4 Report:
YQN put this fox suspended in a bare tree next to a bushy tree in a “hidden” reserve between the Sprinvale Rd Freeway exit and new housing developments in the England Rd valley. TJN used to use this as a cycling short cut on the way to work, but didn’t realise the fence around the housing area had become more significant since. Access was easiest off the side of the freeway exit, but most teams were unlikely to be approaching from there anyway. The thin/thick tree ruse worked far better than we could have hoped with all teams spending time in the bushy tree. Some spending much time in even more remote trees (what were you doing, Geoff?). 1st was Adam YDF who was under pressure as other teams closed in. Second was Geoff VR for TVB team (finally), 3rd was a VT who was actually there before Geoff (don’t you hate that!) and 4th OW who fell for the tree thing in the most spectacular way. BLN had some battery issues I think.
Cheers, Bruce

Hunt 5 Report:
The 5th hunt of the evening was run by the VT team. After running in a straight line for a while we decided to pop into the grounds of Monash Uni for a spot of hiding. We found a smallish road leading close to the buildings and hid the fox in a small garden area. TVB was first in a after a bit of cinfuaion found the transmitter, YDF was next to arrive but with a bit of “leading the hounds astray” was seen to looking in the wrong place up close to the building finally they were off in the right direction and found the thing at the same time as YQN. OW poped along a few minutes latter and swooped on the fox – the other teams were close but time beat them. Over to someone else – VR/TVB, ZPF, OW or BLN??
73 Greg VK3VT

Hounds gathered at the carpark for the Ferntree Gully Library at 8pm. Five teams participated in the evening. Due to some late arrivals, the hunts got under way about 8.30pm.

The first hunt was three-legged. The first location was a works depot in Park Ridge Estate, on Dandelion Drive. The transmitter was located between the depot fence and the neighbouring house’s fences. First in to this location was VR, with ZPF, TXO, BLN and finally PW. Location two was in a drain under Stud Rd Rowville. This location was using a low powered fox and this proved hard to find (ably assisted by some other signal, in Upwey, on 144.250). Only two hunters found this fox (VR first and BLN second). Location three was North from location one, on a bike track entered from Bryden Drive Knoxfield. VR was first in here, followed by BLN and TXO. Eventually time ran out and the hunt was over. The only interesting event at this location was the rather bemused bicyclist who was surprised to see three cars parked beside the track. I think that the hunters were also surprised to see someone riding about on such a windy and bitterly cold night.

The second hunt began after a short wait for YLE to locate the second fox and take fox and keeper to their next point. Location one was behind the VicRoads works depot between the Monash Freeway and Ferntree Gully Road. This proved easier to find than I had expected and we soon encountered ZPF, PW, BLN, VR and TXO in order. Most teams took the direct route out and headed in the direction the fox entered by. I’m sure that this would prove to be the largest number of vehicles seen to exit from a freeway entrance (legal in this case, which is a change). Location two was in the Monash Gallery area (don’t know exactly as I just told Jack to go in there and hide), at Wheeler’s Hill. Order of arrival here was VR, ZPF, BLN, TXO and PW. With numerous hints about where the third fox was located, it wasn’t long before Tarron saw teams. The fox was hiding near a walkway over the Monash Freeway, running parallel with Wellington Road, at the point where Wellington Road crosses over the freeway. It was quite convenient that this part of Wellington Road does not have barriers between the two traffic directions as many vehicles took the most direct route towards the signal. PW found him first, followed by VR, BLN, TXO and ZPF.

Hunt three was to return the hunters to the Dandenongs. The first location was next to the National Park on Hansen Rd, Boronia. First here was TXO, followed by VR, ZPF and BLN. A while later, PW team members ran up a fire track (AKA Nyora Avenue). They had left their vehicle further down the track instead of risking losing all low-hanging body parts on the very broken-up road surface. Location two was up the walking track from this point (about three hundred metres – approximately as Tarron had been walking for quite a while before asking “Can I stop yet?”). Although not first in the area, VR followed the best path of attack and continued up what looked like someone’s driveway, but was actually a narrow road (AKA Firetrack). They never came back down that way, so it must go somewhere. Next in to location two was TXO followed by BLN, ZPF and PW. At this point, the first fox foolishly offered to take the PW team down the road to their car (and promptly forgot about the fox – sorry Bryan).

Location three was in Gilmour Park, off Glenfern Road, Upwey. Jack was given precise instructions of “go to the park and hide”, so he drove down there, turned around in the entrance road and got bogged. The hunters seemed to be fooled by this stunt as Jack reported many vehicles stopping up on the hill and not coming down. Eventually he was found by VR, ZPF, TXO and PW. David, of the BLN team had obviously decided to prove that Bryan YNG had still had some hand in the hunt organisation and found blackberries (although they had not been planned to be involved in this month’s hunt). It must be said that to do this, he had to take a run down a rather daunting hillside slope at high speed. Eventually he found the fox and appeared not too worse for wear despite his trials.

The supper hunt was delayed when I noticed that I had one less fox transmitter than expected and so we dropped a good location (don’t worry, you’ll see it next time) in favour of rushing back for the fox, turning it on and just driving towards the hunters. A quick turn off Forest Road Ferntree Gully left us sitting beside the now regenerating quarry. First in was BLN, followed ZPF, VR, PW (all almost at the same time) and finally TXO. It will probably be a while before those people who parked their cars in what they thought was a secluded and quiet spot for a bout of “intense discussion” will come back to Ferntree Gully.

Thanks to Tarran and Jack WWW for their help as fox keepers for the evening.

Steve YLE for the YDF team.

Friday the 20th July saw the Melbourne monthly foxhunt run. The Weather was cool with no wind and occasional misty rain. The start was the 24Hr carpark at Braeside park which was walking distance from the supper location so as teams could leave cars at supper while they were hunting.

The first hunt started at 8:15 and was only 800m away behind a factory in Braeside. There was plenty of signal which appeared to confuse a few teams as only 2 out of 5 got in on the hunt. YDF was first followed 5 minutes later by PW.

The second hunt was a two legged beastie with the first leg run by Geoff and John. The fox was in a dead end street near the Frankston Fwy which caused many a team to go past and have to work there way back through side streets. The second leg was in Langwarrin on top of some old cricket nets at the back of a park. More than half the teams didn’t manage to look up and spent several minutes chasing reflections off the wire fence. Scoring for this hunt was done on placing’s with YDF coming first followed by BLN and PW

The 3rd event was quite some distance south to get the hounds into virgin territory. The fox said he had used both tanks of the Prado to get there but I’m sure the spinning of the wheels on the slippery track had something to do with it. The 160W linear was used (backed off to 100W by the voltage drop) to get enough signal to the hounds. First to the fox was YDF who managed to put the gate back so as it looked closed and locked. this didn’t fool ZPF though who came second with BLN taking 3rd.

The next event was in a court on a hill in Frankston. This split the teams up a little with YDF first and YQN and PW 5 minutes later. I think this is where BLN may have had gear problems as they somehow managed to end up in Frankston.

The 5th event was again near the Frankston Freeway and once again you needed to come of the Freeway early to get in quickly. This was a hunt the car and sniff the hidden fox hunt. YDF had no problems with this being a good 6 minutes ahead of PW and ZPF teams.

The fox became slack on the supper hunt and ran the event from the car under a street light in a new housing estate. This was an easy hunt to get the teams to supper early with YDF just beating YQN, ZPF and PW on one point.

Somehow YDF managed to get a perfect score of 0 to come first for the night, well ahead of PW on 24 and ZPF on 34. YQN had a lapse in form without TJN and managed 4th place on 42 points just ahead of BLN without XAJ on 44. The YDF team have somehow manipulated the competition so as that when they are away next month ARDFing the will still score 3 point to the overall by being fox for the night.

The weather was not quite as expected for the 15 June hunt, and most of the locations that had been reachable in a Falcon wagon a fortnight ago were, sadly, now 4WD prospects. However, this did not deter six teams from competing in the VK3YQN hunt. At the starting point in Lytton St Carlton were VK3s HBD, BQZ, TVB, PW and YDF. VK3BLN arrived after the start, as is now the norm.

The first hunt was a two-legged event, the first leg being stationary in-vehicle and under the control of Graham VK3KOA in the car park at Ross Straw Field, 29C12. The YQN Pajero sat nearby as a decoy. VK3YDF was first, followed closely by TVB and HBD. PW, BQZ and BLN arrived after 10 minutes had been called. BLN would have been recompiling something at that time.

The second leg, run by Bruce VK3TJN, was in the vacant land to the north of the railway yard 41C3. Some teams who may have expected a typical train-spotting YQN event were surprised to find that the fox team was too far from the tracks to record locomotive numbers or count axles. Anyway (sweaty palms and panting), TVB were in six minutes before YDF. PW and HBD also got in, but their leg times were 14 and 24 minutes slower than TVB and therefore counted for nothing. No sign of BQZ or BLN.

The second event was another two-legged hunt. Roger VK3HRL had found a picturesque spot just south-east of the long railway bridge crossing the Maribyrnong. Entry was through a small park off Sterling Drive Avondale Heights, 27B2. A vertically-polarised beam was hung in a tree, with the fox and operator (and sightseers) concealed in the thorns nearby. The expected feast of passing trains was a disappointing trickle. Oh well. Anyway, PW found the fox first (after a lot of stuffing about), followed four minutes later by Adam YDF, Mark of the TVB team on 7, BLN 8 and HBD 9. BQZ didn’t get in. Well done to the runner who patiently waited for the grain train (headed by three EL-class GE 4000 hp units – quite rare to see three together like that) before crossing the main line.

The second leg, under the control of Peter, was in the bush adjacent to the west bank of the Maribyrnong under the E.J. Whitten Bridge 26J2. David VK3XAJ from the BLN team sort of stumbled across ! Peter two minutes before BLN had found the first leg. What a dilemma. No negative scores though. Fortunately no-one else found Peter or we could have had a scoring bloodbath on our hands.

By this time we were running a bit late, and VK3TVB had disappeared for some impromptu vehicle cleaning. Something about a dead animal unleashed in the Prado. So the third hunt was run as a “Find as many foxes you can in 40 minutes” event. Hounds were not told how many foxes were operating on the two frequencies of 145.300 MHz and 145.500 MHz. As it happened, four foxes were up. No-one found all of them. This event was scored like ARDF – number of foxes, then the time taken. VK3PW took the honours (3 foxes), followed by TVB, YDF, BQZ (2 each), BLN (1) and HBD (none). The foxes were located at 39F5, 39K11, 39F9 and 360F5.

The supper hunt was a mud-bash. It wasn’t like that when we planned it… Bruce VK3TJN placed the fox just south of Skeleton Creek Tarneit 202K4, on the north side of a new housing development. VK3TVB was first, followed by PW, YDF, BLN and BQZ, while HBD didn’t get in.

Supper was held at Roger’s QTHR in Hoppers Crossing, and this time the wife and children stayed asleep and the dog didn’t get food poisoning. Hurrah! Scores:

Hunt    1a	1b	2a	2b	3	4       Total	Place
Hound
VK3HBD	2	10	9	10	10	10	51	6     Started well.  Don't give up!
VK3TVB	1	0	7	10	2	0	20	1     Penalty pending for complaint re scoring system
VK3BQZ	10	10	10	10	6	3	49	5     Thanks for coming Dennis.  
VK3PW	10	10	0	10	0	1	31      3     Consistency - not.
VK3YDF	0	6	4	10	4	2	26	2     If you people spend any more time at the airport you'll have to pay cab charges
VK3BLN	10	10	8	0	8	3	39	4     No David, we won't express scores as complex numbers.

Regards,

Roger Lewis

Here are the official results for the May hunt as organised by the VK3HBD team :

Seven teams lined up at the start to begin hunting. The first fox was turned on at 8:10pm. As this fox was on a bike several teams got caught out by dropping runners at the wrong end of the bike path, the fox averaged 11 km/h along the bike track. Four out of the 7 teams managed to run him down. These were YDF,VR,YQN and TXO. BLI found their car had a leaking fuel line and retired from any more hunts.

Hunt 2 This fox was on foot heading south towards the final destination: Heathmont railway station, (starting from Ringwood railway station) The fox didn’t quite make it! Stopping along the way in a side street before being found by YQN first, TXO second and then four teams all getting in at the same time,VR, PW,YDF,BLN.

Hunt 3 had the fox in a rubbish bin located at Joan Park football ground. YQN found this one first followed by YDF,VR,TXO BLN and finally PW.

Hunt 4 was the straw breaker or better still the leg burner, the fox was put at the top of a very large hill. It was decided that this hunt would be scored as usual, ie the timed system instead of the position system, which was used for all the other hunts. This was to reward the teams that worked harder to get up the hill faster. VR was first in and reaped the biggest reward, BLN was next then TXO, no other teams got in and therefore scored 10.

Hunt 5 saw the fox located behind Scoresby Primary School in a small park. BLI was back in action with a new car but didn’t manage to locate this fox. YQN came in first, then YDF,BLN,PW,VR and finally TXO.

Hunt 6 was the supper hunt with the fox located behind a kindergarten in Boronia. All seven teams managed to find this fox. First was YQN then VR,PW,YDF,BLI,BLN and finally TXO.

Supper was held at HBD’s house in Bayswater, which included a BBQ, coffee snacks etc. So the places for the evening ended up being

1st VR 16 points

2nd YQN 17 points

3rd YDF 22 points

4th TXO 32 points

5th BLN 33 points

6th PW 36 points

7th BLI 55 points

Well done to the BLI team to get back into the hunts after finding a leaking fuel line.

Kelvin VK3HKC for the HBD team

Hunting commenced outside the old pentridge prison in Coburg.

The first hunt saw the hounds heading towards the Western Ring Road. Tom had ridden his bike some distance into the wilderness and it took the hounds a long time to run the distance to him, first to find him was Adam from the YDF team. VR and BLN also found him. Melway 15B11

Second hunt saw Doug VK3JDO out near the Airport – the VT team has used spots around here a few times in the past and PW was first to find Doug on the road near the control tower – the road in in nowhere near the airport! YQN and HBD were close behind and BLN a few minutes back. Melway 5 C 11 (Approx)

Around this time the drought that Melbourne had been experiencing decided to break and rain began falling with very strong winds!

Hunt three was near a creek and the Western Ring Road and had Greg VK3VT at the end of a Horn Street Melway 7J8. First to find him was BLN with HBD second and number of teams a minute latter.

Hunt 4 began and then the rain really got heavy! As a fox person I found it hard enough to drive it must have been hell with the window down!. Tom and Chris VK3CHR were in the maze of back streets in the Mill/Blossom Park area and once again BLN was the first to find them. Melway 10 D 7 Jubilee Cres.

Due to the rain the fox decided to cut the next planned hunt and so supper was put on to heat while the hounds went in search of the final fox. Chris had parked in a court at the back of Greensbrough and was to be in a park but the rain kept him in the car! YQN was first to find him with VR next and the YDF and BLN. Melway 11C10 Tathra Court.

Supper was held at Greg VK3VT’s home and the hounds did their usual efficient job of leaving little to tidy up! All agreed it had been the wettest hunt in memory and I can say I was glad to be fox rather than having the water pouring in to the car!

Greg

Team	Hunt 1	Hunt 2	Hunt 3	Hunt 4	Hunt 5	Total	
VK3BLN	6	5	0	0	4	15	
VK3YQN	10	1	4	9	0	24	
VK3YDF	0	10	4	8	4	26	
VK3VR	3	10	4	10	2	29	
VK3PW	10	0	10	1	10	31	
VK3HBD	10	1	3	10	8	32	

We had found around 14 hiding spots, 10 of which Mark found and planned for the night, just in case we got off to a good start, you had good signal all night, all our gear worked, etc. Of course this wasn’t the case and as anticipated we got though about half of them; but at least now we don’t have a lot of planning required for next time!

As one team in particular knows (through doing so on numerous occasions) it is not always a brilliant idea to develop or modify fox-hunt software on the Friday night just before the hunt (or in some cases on the way to the hunt and/or at the meeting spot!). In this case I decided to give the tedious job of calculating scores, especially subtraction of times to determine leg times, to a spreadsheet so I could hopefully get some supper this time around (big thanks again to Olga for opening her café and all the effort involved pre and post the invasion). I did at least have time to test the spreadsheet but clearly not enough time to delete all the test data. This resulted in some teams, notably the one alluded to above, having extra points added to their score by mistake.

As a consequence of correcting this error, it now emerges that BLN won the night, with the remaining teams still in the order they were announced Friday, including the equal forth places. That’s a good birthday present for John! Apologies to the other 2 teams affected by the error. Details below (scores web page also updated).

(at least it didn’t calculate that YQN won!)

February Fox-hunt results
Team	Total score	Finish order
BLN	19	1
FVXN	44	5
TXO	20	2
FAST	28	3
OW	30	4
VT / FOX	30	4

Regards,
Ian
VK3YQN

After mixed numbers throughout the year the Melbourne Fox-Hunt Group came out in force last Friday. The highest number of teams since February 1999 hunted the VK3ZPF Christmas hunt.

Eight teams assembled at the start location, outside Disk Smith Electronics in Springvale, where a simple instruction sheets was handed out.

The first hunt, started at 8:15 and the eight teams had a good signal to chase. VK3VT joined in midway through the first hunt. The first transmitter for the night was hidden in a new area of the Lynbrook housing estate. First in was VK3BLI followed by VK3TVB and VK3PW. All other teams, except VK3VT, managed to find the fox inside the 10 minute time limit.

The second hunt, a three legged event, promised some fast and furious action. The first leg was in a large shrub at John Lindsay Reserve in Patterson Lakes. First in was VK3PW beating VK3TVB, VK3HDF and VK3VT by less than 20 seconds. The second leg was at the end of Brigantine Court, about 800 metres from the first transmitter. The order of arrival here was quite a surprise with some teams making considerable gains on their first leg performance. Based on leg time VK3HDF was followed by VK3BLI, VK3VT and VK3YQN coming in forth after showing up last at the previous leg. The third leg was down a bicycle track at the eastern end of Armstongs Rd Seaford. The order of arrival was again shuffled with VK3BLN taking the first place on leg time
followed by VK3TVB and VK3PW. Teams VK3HDF, VK3TXO and VK3HBD has considerable trouble with this leg of the hunt and earned themselves 10 points.

The third hunt for the evening was a single leg hunt located at The Pines Flora and Fauna Reserve in Frankston North. Most teams coming in from the north had quite a run to the top of the hill with VK3HDF making it ahead of VK3BLN and VK3YQN. All other teams except VK3PW located the fox before time was called and the hounds regrouped.

For the last event the fox was caught out by a police blitz at the final location for the evening. Not wishing to bring undue attention to the hounds, a new supper location was found and the last transmitter was hidden close by.

All hounds except VK3YQN found the final transmitter with VK3TVB narrowly beating VK3VT, VK3BLN and VK3TXO to the lair.

Supper was at Ballam Park on Cranbourne Rd Frankston. VK3YQN had lodged a protest that they were unaware of the frequency of the last transmitter and called for the last hunt to be discarded. The VK3ZPF team considered long and hard the implications of discarding this hunt and, since the final result was not greatly altered, it was included in the evening’s totals.
The following results were announced:

VK3TVB 10 points
VK3BLN 13 points
VK3PW  17 points
VK3BLI 23 points
VK3HDF 24 points
VK3VT  24 points
VK3YQN 35 points
VK3TXO 35 points
VK3HBD 46 points

The final results for year 2000:

VK3HDF            36
VK3VR/JMD/MZ/TVB  32
VK3BLN            28
VK3YQN            24
VK3PW             16
VK3HBD            15
VK3VT             11
VK3OW/BLI         11
VK3ZPF            10
VK3TKQ            5
VK3TXO            1

Congratulations to the VK3HDF team for their outstanding effort for the year.

Seven teams congregated on Lytton St Carlton on a mild Friday night. Shortly after 2015 signal was heard on 2m and the hounds were away.

First, a note on multi-leg scoring. All hounds were required to find the first leg before proceeding to the second, even after ten minutes were called. The second leg was scored on the basis of leg time, ie the team that found the second leg in the shortest nett time scored ‘0’ and the other teams’ scores were calculated using the difference between their respective leg times and the winner’s. This method prevents the possibility of short cuts and is intended to maximise fairness.

Hunt 1: two legs, 1a under the control of Bruce VK3TJN and Ian VK3YQN and hidden on a railway embankment near the Maribyrnong River, Melway 2TC7. VK3PW was first in, followed by VK3HDF, VK3VR and VK3HBD.

Leg 1b was under the control of Roger VK3HRL, concealed near an unmarked track close to National Rail Corporation’s West Melbourne fuelling point, Melway 2TA11. First in was VK3VR, followed by PW and HDF. BLN reported equipment problems, while HBD and ZPF simply didn’t get in at all.

Hunt 2: A single-legged event, with the “normal” fox concealed in a small alley behind the old Brunswick Market, Melway 29G7. VK3HBD recorded their first ever event win (well done), followed by ZPF and HDF, with VR being the only other team to find the fox.

Hunt 3: Another two-legged event. Roger VK3HRL ran the first leg, in a cul de sac in Newmarket St Northcote 30H10. VT was first in, followed by VR, HBD, HDF and PW. VR should have done a little better but drove straight past me as I was standing in the open – oh well. PW managed to upset a resident and it was left to me to handle PW’s PR. ZPF found the fox as a (a pre-requisite for the next leg), but were out of time. BLN at this stage were still at West Melbourne fixing the Kimberley.

Hunt 3b was run by Bruce VK3TJN, near a bike path under the Chandler Hwy bridge (north bank of the Yarra, near AMCOR, 31B12). Ian YQN and assistant stood in a well-lit clearing and successfully distracted most hounds, who forgot to trust their sniffers and pursued the obvious suspects. Bruce struggled to contain himself as hound after hound ran straight past the fox. Eventual finders were VT, VR, HDF, HBD, PW, ZPF, but nett leg time resulted in HDF taking the honours from VT, VR, PW, ZPF and HBD. BLN still broken, but trying to catch up with the pack.

Hunt 4: A single legged hunt, with the fox being hidden in a playground in Surrey Park Box Hill 47B11. VT skillfully marooned their Commode wagon on a large rock, but most other teams took a conventional approach to this event. VR took the honours, followed by HDF, HBD, VT, PW, and BLN (at last!). ZPF had taken the equipment problem baton from BLN and hunted no further.

Hunt 5: Two-legged hunt, culminating in Supper at Bruce’s. The first leg was hidden near a rock pool alongside Damper Creek Mt Waverley 61D10. Hounds appeared from all sides, but first in was VR, followed within seconds by HDF and later by BLN, VT, PW and HBD.

The second leg fox was turned on, but being a low-powered fox was unable to be heard by some teams. On realising this, teams were told to head towards supper (within 500 metres of the supper fox, near Gardiner’s Creek 60J8)), but VR had headed for high ground instead. The result was that HDF was followed in by HBD, PW, VT and BLN. VR’s leg time put them 14 minutes ( = 10) after HDF. Needless to say that was considerable discussion afterwards…

Supper was well-attended, and lasted a while – probably due to the very mild weather and fairy bread. Most teams seemed happy with the format, and although the HDF team won the night, congratulations went to VK3HBD for their best performance of the year (and in living memory?).

Scores are tabulated below:

	Hunt 1a	Hunt 1b	Hunt 2	Hunt 3a	Hunt 3b	Hunt 4	Hunt 5a	Hunt 5b
VK3HDF	1	6	3	5	0	1	1	0       17	1st
VK3BLN	10	10	10	10	10	8	3	9       70	7th
VK3VR	1	0	7	1	2	0	0	10      21	2nd
VK3VT	5	10	10	0	2	3	5	8       43	5th
VK3PW	0	3	10	9	2	4	7	7       42	4th
VK3HBD	1	10	0	3	8	2	8	6       38	3rd
VK3ZPF	10	10	3	10	3	10	10	10      66	6th

Hunt 1 was at the Western edge of Box Hill Golf Course; this short hunt was protected by a nearby creek and two very high cyclone fences. First to appear on this hunt was VK3BLN (?).  Shortly after this a torch appeared on the wrong side of the two cyclone fences. The torch holder moved up 50m and then back again and realising there was no way through proceeded to scale the first fence. As he crossed one of the greens on the golf course he realised there was another fence ahead of him and climbed that too. Ten out of ten for effort…but minus several million for crossing private property; this runner was disqualified for that event. Fortunately another member of his team found a legal way in only 1-2 minutes later, so very little was lost.  

Hunt 2 was a two leg hunt on 144.425 and 145.3 MHz. The JMD/VR fox was tucked down a long dead-end court that backed onto some nearby parkland; unfortunately (for the hounds), there was no way through from the court to the parkland. The YDF team was well ahead of the pack here, followed by the OW team. The YQN and ZPF teams dropped runners in the park and had major problems retrieving them…only just making it to the fox before time was up on the first leg.  

Meanwhile Ian (3MZ) was moving into position for the second leg. This leg was particularly interesting for the first 2 teams – who were hunting Ian while he was mobile on his way to the spot. Hurriedly parking his car in a nearby court, Ian jogged off into the darkness of the Koonung Valley. David (BLN) followed no more than 2-3 minutes later, but had a little trouble actually locating the hidden transmitter.  

Hunt 4 moved the hounds to parklands off King Street in Doncaster. We took care to park the car in a concealed spot and wandered down the hill towards the lake. There was a stand of pines in the area and we chose to climb one of these to hide the fox in. Much to our surprise Adam from the YDF team appeared out of the darkness as Mark was passing the transmitter up the tree to me. I hugged the side of the treee and kept as quiet as I could but Adam found me easily. As Adam and Mark moved further away other hounds appeared on the scene. Few had any problems working out that the fox was above them and this hunt was soon over.  

Hunt 5  was perhaps the best of the evening. During the day this seemed such an easy spot to get to. But at night it was exceptional – solid bushland on one side and a creek swollen by recent rains on the other…Ian had considerable difficulty finding the track in even though he knew roughly where it was. Things were made even harder by the use of an intermittent transmission; Ian had inadvertently bumped the switch that enabled BLN mode – random bursts of signal punctuated by long periods of silence. The chatter on 6675 was chaotic; runners were calling back to the car to report they were blocked by the creek or heavy bush while Ian was abusing them because he was beginning to get cold from waiting for so long. A couple of teams even found Ian’s car tucked down a court and the alleyway that he had walked in on…but this was to no avail. Eventually, Steve from the OW team stumbled down the hill to find Ian hiding in the bushes.  

Hunt 6 was in the middle of a powerline reserve North of Warrandyte Road. We parked down a dead-end court and walked through an unmarked alleyway to get to this spot. As we walked into the area we soon realised that this spot had all the hallmarks of a great foxhunting spot. We could hear the hounds chattering away on the previous leg and had plenty of time to pick a good spot. We eventually hid the transmitter under a pile of concrete blocks in a dry creek bed in the middle of a wide flood plain. Plenty of trees and blackberries protected the approaches and unbeknown to us another creek – that wasn’t dry protected the opposite side from us. Roger (recently licensed as VK3HRL) was well ahead of other runners – having little difficulty finding the transmitter under the concrete pile. Steve from the OW team was next – although he misinterpreted the weaker signals and wandered about 50m past the device before turning back. As he did so, the OW team’s second runner – Adam – also appeared. “It’s over towards you” called Adam. “No, it’s not. It’s over in this direction” yelled Steve pointing 90 degrees to Adam’s line of travel. We sniggered over the confusion but soon heard Steve mutter “Hang on a minute it’s much stronger over here”. In no time at all, he located the transmitter under the concrete pile.  

Hunt 6 was an easy one in the carpark of the Warrandyte State Park. Ian had simply parked his car off to one side of the carpark and was transmitting from the car. This was pretty obvious to the OW team who appeared in the entrance about 20 seconds ahead of the rest of the pack – so they pulled up alongside Ian to check in. The other hounds didn’t see Ian’s small sedan parked behind the large 4WD vehicle and roared past…only to return 2-3 minutes later when they realised what had happened.  

The final hunt for the evening was an easy one – a dead-end court in a maze of twisty, turny streets in North Ringwood. On this hunt the YDF and OW teams came in within seconds of one another, followed about a minute later by the rest of the pack.  

Supper was at the home of Ian Stirling (3MZ). While it was good to finish before midnight, most hounds used the additional time to stay and socialise with other hounds and listen to stories of the Victorian ARDF Group’s recent foray into the World ARDF Championships – congratulations to Adam, Bruce and Bryan for taking part and doing so well.   The VK3OW team came first.  

The May Melbourne foxhunt was held in cool and clear conditions. Eight teams participated in the hunts which commenced at Daisies Hotel car park in Ringwood East. The fox for the evening was VK3HDF.

The team had carefully selected a variety of locations to make for a challenging and interesting evening. As is usual with VK3HDF hunts, blackberries, thick bush and creeks featured prominently.

The first hunt for the evening started about 8:15PM with the fox hidden next to a creek in Chirnside Park. Most hounds were in the area within 10 minutes driving on new roads which were not even marked on the latest Melways. Team runners quickly descended on tens of metres of thick undergrowth and blackberries from both sides of Brushy creek. After some time, VK3YQN eventually found a way through shortly followed by VK3VT with VK3PW and VK3BLN just making the 10 minute time limit.

At 9:15PM, a two hour multi-transmitter hunt was started. The hunt was inspired by the format used in the NSW Urunga Convention. It consisted of 9 transmitters all operating on the same frequency. Locations spanned 8 Melways map pages around the Lilydale, Montrose and Wandin North areas. Transmitters ranged from continuous through to varying forms of timed and intermittent transmission and ranged in power levels from tens of milliwatts to 45 Watts. Brightly coloured laminated tickets were available at each fox with the point score and placing clearly marked. During this hunt, several of the foxes actually spent some time chasing hounds. The VK3BLN land crab was seen on several occasions living up to its name – apparently creating a rather interesting entry to one of the Wandin Nth foxes. At one point it looked like their beam antenna was actually growing branches!

At 11:45PM the supper hunt commenced. The fox was buried in bush area next to the Warburton trail in Wandin North. VK3BLN managed to find a way through followed closely by VK3VR. Most other teams followed a few minutes later.

Supper was held nearby at the Glenbrae Equestrian Centre where hounds were treated to a hot supper and desserts to replace all the calories lost throughout the evenings hunts. The scores were totalled and VK3VR was pronounced overall winner with VK3VT and VK3BLN taking the minor placings. A special mention must also go to VK3HBD who on more than one occasion managed to outperform some of the more established teams. Keep up the good work guys!

Thanks to Steve VK3TSW, Kevin VK3HKB, Adam VK3HSO, David Balogh and Josh Mezzaline for assisting with deploying and recovering foxes at short notice.

Bryan, VK3YNG.

Scores breakdown for the May 2000 foxhunt:

Team H1 *A *B *C *D *E *F *G *H *K SUP Total Place
--------------------------------------------------
 VR      8       10 12 12        8  9    59    1
 VT   9           8  8 10       14  6    55    2
BLN   1        6  7        8    12 10    44    3
YQN  10    12 10  2        7        2    43    4
 PW   1 12     8  6  7              5    39    5
TKQ     10        3             10  6    29    6
HBD               4 10              5    19    7
ZPF            7  5                      12    8
--------------------------------------------------

Scoring: H1 and supper scored as normal 10 minute rule hunt with results “inverted”.

Multileg: 1st place ranged from 8 to 14 points. Higher points generally awarded to more “intermittent” foxes. Points decremented by 2 points per place, then 8 points and under decremented by 1 point per place.

Foxes:
H1 - blackberries-R-us 10 minute rule hunt, Brushy creek, Chirnside
park, 37B6
*A to *K, 2 hour multileg "car-o-gaine"
*A - Next to Warburton trail, Mt Evelyn, 119A9
*B - Olinda Wetlands, edge of accessable island, 38G8
*C - Across creek from Bus Terminal, Lilydale, 38E2
*D - Top of hill, Montrose Reserve, 52A6
*E - Near disused aqueduct, Mt Evelyn, 120B1
*F - Stringy Bark creek, Wandin Nth, 118J11
*G - Next to Quarry and train line, Lilydale, 38B7
*H - Disused paddock, Kilsyth, 51C9
*K - Edward Rd Hill, Wandin Nth, 121C4
SUP - 10 minute rule Supper hunt, scrub next to Warburton Trail, Wandin
Nth, 119 D10

The hunt commenced at the carpark of the Watsonia railway station and the first hunt was just a few kilometres away in the Cresswell forest wildlife reserve. Dough VK3JDO had placed the transmitter in the centre of some blackberries as has become traditional with some teams these days. First in was VK3BLN with VK3HDF and VK3PW second VK3YQN and VK3BYY just made it before time expired. Mark BYY lives nearby and so brought his two sons out to have a look at foxhunting.

Hunt 2 saw Chris VK3CHR park in a new estate in Bundoora and YQN was first to find him; all but two teams located this transmitter.

Hunt 3 was the most difficult of the evening with Greg VK3VT taking a stroll along a “vermin proof” fence which separates a housing estate from a park by the Plenty river. By placing the transmitter over the edge of the river gully Greg was able to convince the hounds that he was in the park on the other side of the river. After much running (the road into the park is closed at night) the hounds found they had to cross the river and then climb a cliff to get to the transmitter. First in were members of the VK3ZPF team who were new to the sport and had not acquired all the sniffing skills – particularly up close work. after some instruction from the fox they located the transmitter and the clock started. Bruce VK3TJN was the only other hound to find this transmitter but there were several in the area when time expired – Ewen VK3OW was close as was David VK3XAJ who was at the base of the cliff.

It took some time to round up the hounds after this hunt and there was still one team missing when the hounds departed to find the next transmitter. They were finally located and reunited with their runner – some 10 to 15 minutes into the hunt. Doug JDO was sitting just on the limit of the Melways at Map 182F1 in Bindts Road and VK3YQN again found him first with all bar two teams finding him within the ten minutes. While looking for this spot the fox team had discovered that when coming from the north there was a hump in the road which if approached at speed could cause the car to fly. Unfortunately none of the hounds came form this direction and so Doug did not see any flying hounds.

The last hunt of the night saw Cris VK3CHR at the end of Hillmartin Rd in Plenty; all hounds bar one found this spot within 5 minutes with VK3HDF leading the way. Supper was held at the home of Chris VK3CHR and all agreed it was an excellent repast; most teams were well on their way home before 00:30 on Saturday morning.

Results:

Team		1	2	3	4	5	Total 	Place
VK3YQN	8	0	4	0	4	16	1
VK3HDF	4	4	10	1	0	19	2
VK3BLN	0	3	10	4	4	21	3
VK3ZPF	10	7	0	4	5	26	4
VK3PW	4	10	10	5	1	30	5
VK3OW	10	5	10	10	3	38	6
VK3BYY*	9	10	10	10	10	49	7
VK3HBD	10	10	10	10	10	50	8

*VK3BYY only attended for the first hunt.

At supper it was agreed that the next hunt would be a week later to allow for those who are taking part in the John Moyle field day.

The monthly WIA 2m Fox Hunt for January was run by VK3s TVB/VR/MZ and JMD. The weather for the evening was mild – ideal for the sport. In spite of short-notice, the summer holidays and a new starting location, six teams turned up to take part. The new start location proved to be worthwhile. On top of a hill and relatively central for most hounds, this new location offered plenty of space and safe exits from the carpark for those taking part – certainly, better than the now congested K-Mart location that has been used in recent times.

The first hunt for the evening was a four-leg hunt on two metres; the hunt in any order, but finish by 9:30 format used offers hounds a choice as to which legs they hunt first and avoids the “we’ve got a convoy…” syndrome that often occurs on single leg or hunt-in-order hunts. Most hounds seem to have headed towards Ian (VK3MZ) for their first leg. Ian was in a back alleyway behind the cinema complex in Glen Waverley; running 25-30 watts he was probably the strongest signal at the start location. First in here was one of the hounds, with another coming a close second (it’s hard to make this stuff interesting when you don’t actually know who won the other legs). Ian watched in amazement as one of the newer hounds followed Paul (3PW) into the alley, but didn’t see him talking to Ian sitting in the car. When Paul headed off, he did too.

The second leg was run by Jack (3WWW) who was hiding in a walkway between some buildings in Tally Ho. First in here was in. In the meantime, the VK3PW team had chosen to hunt the other legs first; this gave them first into Geoff (3VR) who was tucked down a dead-end alleyway at the back of a park in Surrey Hills.

The final leg was Mark (3JMD) hiding in a well fenced off reserve; the VK3PW team was the first to find this leg as well. The second leg was a miniature transmitter concealed within a rock. Transmitting only 10 miliwatts, this device was planted at the opening of a tunnel in amongst some similar rocks. Unfortunately, the piece of rock that covered the opening in the rock fell off and Brian (3YNG) noticed a thin piece of red wire trailing out of the hole. Very carefully, he returned the rock to its place in the rock wall and shot up the slope to tell Ian who was standing nearby. As it turned out, most other teams did eventually find the device – although most took several minutes before finally getting down on their knees to pull the rock wall apart.

The third hunt for the evening was run by Jack (VK3WWW); it was in a park near his QTH.

The fourth hunt for the evening was a multi-leg, hunt in order using the now infamous JMD leg-scoring system. Geoff (VK3VR) was hidden deep in blackberries at the edge of a railway line on the first leg. To make things more interesting he had wrapped himself in black plastic and was lying on the ground. First into the area was Adam (3HDF). Adam did two loops of the area before finally deciding that it really was inside the blackberries. Nonetheless, first to actually find the fox was Paul (3PW) who walked into the area and trod on Geoff before realising that there was something underneath the plastic. Paul commented later “…as I lifted the plastic I thought that there could be a dead body underneath (sorry Paul, it must have been something I ate…). When I saw your foot, I got a bit of a start…but then you sat up and I knew who it was”.

The next leg took hounds to a dead-end street in Mont Albert; it was on this leg that the PW team were followed by a police motorbike. Fortunately, he was just curious and stopped to talk to Ian for a few minutes before moving on.

The 3rd leg was hidden at the edge of a creek behind some houses in Burwood. According to Jack and Glenn several hounds came down the slope towards the creek at hair-raising speed and almost came to grief. Fortunately, nobody was (badly) hurt.

The final leg was hidden in dead-end road behind a park in Blackburn South. As time was dragging on, hounds were instructed to make their way to supper with all possible haste.

After a damn fine supper, the score were announced. First was a VK3, second was another and third was too. (and when I get the scores, I’ll come back and update the appropriate bits of this email. Sorry about the lack of details – more to follow.

Regards, Geoff (VK3VR)

October 1999

Last Saturday saw the running of the second All Day Hunt run in Victoria.
The organisers for this event were Ian VK3MZ and Mark VK3JMD who used all the good ideas from the first All Day hunt run by Peter Vk3ZPF and his team.

The weather was fine which made for good driving conditions for the hounds and a relaxing afternoon for the fox. The fox was located approximately 75Kms from the start which was Kmart Burwood carpark. The start was delayed about 20 minutes due to navigational error by the fox in getting to the location. Hounds had a weak but readable signal at the start and head off
towards the North East. 3 teams were competing on the day with none of them having their usual team in place.

As this was a distance based event there was a nominal finish time of 4pm but no penalties were laid out if this was not met. The only limitation we had was that there was a rally that evening in the area and some of the roads were to be closed.

The fox consisted of a FM rig running about 40 Watts into a horizontal dipole at about 4m in height. The signal was on for 20 seconds and off for 40 seconds running CW except for the regular voice ID given.

The VK3EM team consisted of Luke and partner with a short wheel base cruiser. They had no ability to take bearings on the run so instead had to setup a long yagi every now and then. Unfortunately the whip on the bull bar which was being used for liaison had a nasty break which made it difficult to communicate with others.

The VK3YQN team headed up by YQN himself had no problems and managed to stop for a counter meal at the pub for lunch. I think the GPS they were using really helped out with the Vic roads and Melways they were using.

The VK3ZPF team also had gear problems with their rotating system failing and a flat tyre on the 4WD.

The fox was located in a clearing near a junction of several tracks between the Melba and Maroondah Hwys NNE of Mt St Leonard. The fox spent the day relaxing in the sun and reading the paper with a BBQ lunch before there was any word from the hounds. The first team to arrive consisted of Bruce 3 TJN, David 3XAJ, Ian 3YQN and Simon 3TUG. Their distance was measured at 115.2Kms and while they waited for other teams to arrive they took advantage of the supper provided by the fox.

The next hound to arrive was the ZPF team some time later with a distance of 159Kms.

Luke VK3EM came in about 20 minutes later just as the sun was disappearing behind the trees with a distance of about 113Kms.

As two of the teams had such close distances, a calibration run was required on the way home to determine the overall winner.

To best represent the distances traveled the fox standardised on the JMD Kms so the results are

1st	VK3YQN		114Kms
2nd	VK3EM		119Kms
3rd	VK3ZPF		160Kms

Congratulations to Bruce and his team. I believe a good time was had by all and that the hunt wasn’t a straight forward drive. The next event will be run by Bruce sometime next year when the masses ask for it.

Mark. VK3JMD.

Three teams HDF, TVB and PW met at BILO, Burnt Bridge Shopping Centre, the one at Burnt Bridge. Later a minimal YQN team of 2 joined the hounds on the second
hunt after giving up waiting for Cameron. Cameron, where are you!?

The first hunt was a two legged. First leg was run by John’BLN and David’XAJ. The “old” fox running on 145.300, with halo (beware the deadly plastic spider!) was hidden in a large clump of reedy bushes, behind a building, up an embankment, on the south side mullum mullum creek (MAP 50, C3) – sort of behind Car City. I know, I know, you’d have to be crazy…. This worked just as planned, with teams running West along the bike path on the *North* side of the creek on Oban Rd. Tee Hee. One team member, apparently a PW, managed to cross the creek. Very impressed. Once on the correct side, the reedy bush had them bluffed! Eventually, they realised they had to walk _up_ the embankment and _around_ the bushes. We were quite amused. HDF was second to find the fox on this leg.

Once teams collected their ticket from the transmitter they headed off to the second leg. Graham’ZKM and Laurel in the ‘sub, were parked in a boggy paddock adjacent to a new housing development at the the rear of Croydon Hotel (MAP 50 E2). Only two teams managed to successfuly complete this hunt, HDF first and PW second.

For the second hunt, John and David hid the fox in some blackberries (especially for you Adam!) in a hard-to-get-to-spot between some buildings off Elsum ave in an industrial estate in Baywater (MAP 50, J11). We “hyperspaced” there in the turbo Lancer. Off course, it’s red and that *really* helps . TVB was first followed by HDF and then PW. Whilst waiting for Bruce ‘YQN, Ron ‘EHF has us captivated with the finer points of some large steam generating machinery located at the meeting spot. Apparently, you must _never_ let the water run low…. Tell my wife!

All teams found the fox for third hunt, which Graham & Laurel hidden with the transmitter at the northern end of Heathmont golf park (MAP 64 E1). This was actually located in a green bit not shown on the Melways and it was accessible from both Miller Rd and Canterbury Rd. TVB was in first, followed by PQ, YQN third (sterling effort for a crew of 2) and finally HDF.

The fourth hunt was located in a narrow alley way behind a vacant builing off Thornton Cr near the south Eastern end Mitcham Rly station (MAP 48 J9). We were expecting teams to approach from the North side and so I’d jammed the gate closed from the Northern end of the alley. Most seemed to follow each other to Thornton Cr Mt Gambier style. Even so, it took them quite a while to realise that the fox was not hidden in the car park, where we were parked. HDF was first to twig, closely twigging by TVB, PW and YQN who had arrived by this time.

Hunt 5 was another 2 legged hunt. The first Leg was to be found in blackberries (Tee Hee) in a freeway reservation off the end off the Eastern freeway (MAP 48 G5). Thanks goes to Graham for finding this spot. We got quite soggy investigating the previous week.

The fox for the second leg was located with Graham and Laurel in the ‘sub parked in a paddock on the south side of the end of the Eastern freeway on the Western side of Springvale Rd (MAP 48 F6). It was possible to enter via an empty house block off Springvale Rd or apparently, if you work for Telstra and have a key for the gate! Again, HDF was first, followed by PW, TVB and YQN.

For the supper hunt (6) John and David used that bastard leaky coax thing hidden in some especially prickly bushes Adam, up on the railway embankment on the South side of railway line in between Madden and New St Ringwood. It was like watching ants at honey as sniffers each found their bit of radiating coax. As expected HDF was in first, followed by PW, TVB and YQN.

Again scoring for the night was based on order, using raffel tickets attached to the fox. First team gets a 0, second team scores 1 point, and so on. Teams that don’t “get in” will score two points more than the last team to find the fox. We find this much easier to run compared to timed hunts; teams don’t give away the location of the fox and is a bit fairer to the novice teams. Any constructive suggestions welcome.

Summary:
~~~~~~~~

Team    Hunt
        1   2   3   4   5   6   Total   Place

HDF     0   1   3   0   0   0   4       1

PW      1   2   1   2   1   1   8       2

TVB     3   0   0   1   2   2   8       2

YQN     3   4   2   3   3   3   18      3

BTW: Thanks for the positive feedback. We went to some trouble to ensure the night went smoothly. We tried to keep them short and compensate by tricky locations (inspired by previous month). Much thanks goes to John’BLN and Sophie as this was the night of their wedding aniversary! Also thanks goes to Bryan for kindling lending us a second fox.

Regards

dB ‘3XAJ