The second VK1 foxhunt for 1998 was again well attended, with 9 hounds and a fox. This week the fox was craftily concealed in a courtyard in the Bruce CIT campus by VK2LO Laeli. It was placed at one end of the courtyard to use the building as a shield, so the hounds at the comms lab in Belconnen would not get any direct signal, and be mislead by the strong reflections.
The initial readings reported by many of the hounds proved very interesting, with some getting strong signals from locations as diverse as Kaleen, Radford College and Black mountain. However these were experienced hounds who had been on many hunts, and they knew the cunning of the fox with it’s false trails. After taking several readings they were able to disregard some of the false readings, and within 15 mins at least three of the hounds, VK1ET John, VK1KNP Neil and VK1DC Dave were in the general vicinity of the fox.
First into the courtyard was John, with Neil close on his heels. It took them around 5mins to locate the fox which was well hidden under some leaf litter. Meanwhile Dave was doing laps around a bush in the car park, saying Its right here... Its got to be right here.” Dave’s biggest problem turned out to be the plastic case on his handheld, which was not sufficiently shielded and was allowing RF into the radio, bypassing the directional antenna. Once in the court yard he loaned some sniffing gear and was quickly able to locate the fox.
The next hounds on the scene were VK1KIP Bernie, and VK1TS Tom, Followed by VK1JA Jack,VK1SW Richard, and Andrew. Our hound on foot VK1PK Peter came in last, understandable given the distance he’d had to walk.
A second quick fox hunt also within to CIT campus, was followed by some antenna range tests, where the relative gain of the assembled hardware was tested. The hounds then adjourned to the comms lab to tune up some radios, and other assorted projects.