The Hounds Gathered at the Communications Lab for the first Fox Hunt of 1998 on Thursday the 8th of January. A total of 10 hounds started, forming into 8 teams, 7 in vehicles and 1 on foot. Neil VK1KNP placed the fox around 2 km from the starting point in the grounds of the Canberra University.
Within 20 minutes the pedestrian, Peter VK1PK, was in the vicinity of the fox while almost all the vehicle based hounds were driving in circles around the wrong side of the university. Laeli VK2LO and Paul VK1TEE were next team on the scene joining Peter in the forest in the vicinity of the fox while some of the other hounds were searching garbage hoppers 300 meters away on the other side of the campus.
The Fox had been placed in an open grassy area which had been mowed before the summer, and carefully hidden under the weathered grass cuttings. This location was adjacent to a small forest and so all the hounds had assumed it was in the forest and were busy searching trees on the edge when Neil VK1KNP arrived back at the fox location.
Peter and Laeli spent a good 25 minutes in the vicinity of the fox on foot, until Peter stepped on it and found it. The antenna was a piece of brown wire sticking up out of the grass with some weeds. As Peter was somewhat jubilant at finally finding the fox he sort of gave the game away to Laeli'e team however no other hounds were present. The next hounds to arrive were Simon VK1AUS and Phil VK1ZPL. Our WICEN team's hand held had a flat battery and could only be used in the car. They then took around 10 minutes with borrowed gear to locate the device, again by tripping over it.
Jack VK1JA and Richard VK1SW individually arrived next and wandered the forest and field for another 10 minutes before finding the fox. Finally John VK1ET and Dave VK1DC, who both started late, arrived from different directions. Unfortunately the fox was now visible and was quickly located.
The final Hound never showed up - Tom VK1TS is out there somewhere.
We arrived back at the Lab around 8:30 PM.
To all those who participated, thanks for showing up. Fox Hunts will continue on Thursday evenings for the rest of January and may continue into February also.
The next Fox will be Laeli VK2LO who will hide the Fox on Thursday 15th of January at 7 PM.
Cheers Neil VK1KNP
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