THE CHICAGO FM CLUB - CHICAGO AMATEUR RADIO

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Tony Levand
ARC AA9CC

CFMC September 2009 Foxhunt Report

KB9DIM & N9VRA FOXES

 I had seen a potential hiding spot while driving to a healthcare facility in the area, on several occasions. After searching on Google Earth for a good spot, and not finding anything suitable, I decided to drive to this potential site, to take a close look, and see if it would be a wise choice. When I got on site, I was pleased to see that it was not a well manicured park area, thus providing decent cover for the fox, and it was not posted as no trespassing. The hiding spot was in a spit of land that was between to large ponds (See pix 1). To a casual observer, it could appear to be a land bridge that completely divided the two ponds, however that was not the case, there was a gap of water. I chose a hiding spot near the southern end of the narrow peninsula, hiding the antenna in a tree, and laying the coax out, along the water line, so the hunters would not easily see it. The hiding spot was 16.3 miles, as the RF flies, from the starting point, with a beam heading of approximately 20 degrees (See pix 2).

The antenna was a 5/8 l J-pole nestled in a tree at 8 feet, fed with 50 feet of RG-58 coax using a Yeasu FT-2800 set to its 25 watt level. The hunt started on time, and all of the hunters reported that they had a signal. It was about 40 minutes into the hunt, when we spotted our first hunter in the area, AA9CC, driving on Deerfield road to the south of us. He was quickly joined by N9CBA, who did not waste time, and drove around to the north, which was the only direction to approach us from. We lost track of AA9CC, until we saw a hunter walking down from the north, it was Tony AA9CC, walking past us to the waters edge, he turned around and started walking back when he spotted Alexis and I laying in the weeds. Tom was next down the path, and it appeared to us, that he had spotted the antenna in the tree, he came further south and quickly scored. We continued to hide, knowing that other teams were in the immediate area, Mike WA9FTS, was having difficulty in a tangle of trees, and I do mean a Tangle of Trees, to our north. Once he had gotten himself out of the mess he was in, he got onto the path that lead him down the strip of land we were on, and was able to score. Don, W9RA, parked his vehicle along Deerfield Rd. and got out on foot. During one of our transmissions, he shown a light on us, and from his vantage point, he was able to see me in the grass. Since there was no quick way for him to get to us, we ended the hunt and went to the RAM restaurant near the corner of Lake Cook Road, and Milwaukee Avenue.

1^st Tony AA9CC

2^nd Tom N9CBA

3^rd Mike WA9FTS

4^th Don W9RA

Info from the fox - Tom N9CBA

Info from the fox - Tony AA9CC

We hid on a hill. It wasn't our primary spot, but on the way to the bike shop we passed it and it seemed good enough, a park with a view. The spot we sought was posted and gated and the contiguous spot seemed to difficult for the hunters to access. We lugged the equipment up the path and set up the ground antenna on top of eight four foot fiberglass sections. Quite unwieldy as we leaned it against the upper branches of a tree. Initial test shown the led still lit and heard an 8 call repeater ID on 146.760. All hunters has a direction on low power, 5 watts and the hunt was off on time. The signal was fairly strong but did not come up in strength as N9CBA drove south on 355. He exited too early on Roosevelt but manage to beat N9LXF and WA9FTS to the finish, but by only minutes. They took 355 to 88 west but drove past the park. W9RA had equipment problems, no front to back on the beam and gave up at 9:30. Charlie was at home hosting Alexi's 13th birthday party. Munches were at the base of the hill at Salerno's Italian restaurant.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=41.759364,-88.231877&spn=0,359.98764&t=h&z=17&layer=c

&cbll=41.760053,-88.232567&panoid=q8h4PulJPc92ioK85Lgz4A&cbp=12,182.54939645942744,,0,5

1 N9CBA

2 WA9FTS and N9LXF

3 W9RA DNF

CFMC Foxhunt - Jan 17th - Don W9RA

Don, W9RA was the fox, and was located 3.5 miles at 22° from the starting point. I hid in a drainage ditch under an entrance road into a parking lot. The concrete drainage tile was 6 feet high and 6 foot wide. I ran a 25 foot RG400u to a 6foot RG58 ¼ wave antenna. The antenna was place on the concrete ledge just outside the opening of the underpass at ground level. The hounds all heard me at the staring point and the hunt started about 8:05 PM. The hounds came in at:

KB9DIM at 16 Min

AA9CC at 42 Min

N9CBA at 50 Min

N9LXF at 1Hr 15 Min

We all gathered at Buona Beef after the hunt for dinner.

Don's hiding location was at the SW corner of 
Devon Rd and Arlington Hts Rd several hundred ft 
west on the south side of Devon. - WM

It has been three months since I was on a foxhunt. I called Tom N9CBA 
who was the fox. I asked him if I could join him. Tom said he would meet 
me at Higgins and East River Rd. Easy? No! Tom got delayed on I-90 going 
through the toll gate. Then Tom went to Cumberland and Bryn Mawr. Tom 
finally found me in the parking lot of the Big 10 HQ at Higgins and 
East River Rd. He transported his radio and car battery to the back 
seat and we took off with 5 min to start the hunt. We found a spot 
behind a Realty office at the NW corner of Devon and River Rd. We parked
next to a large pile of snow, and started the hunt on time. Some time
after the hunt started, Tony AA9CC said he had antenna problems. This
left Don W9RA to find us. It took an hour and a half, but Don finally 
walked in for the win. He overshot us and got involved in the business
center at Cumberland and Bryn Mawr. With the metallized windows, there
was plenty of reflections to drive Don crazy. We met at Giordono's on 
Mannheim after the hunt. 

  
CFMC Foxhunt Report - November 15th, 2008 - Tony AA9CC


After scooping in the afternoon, we decided to hide in the car close to
home and found a spot on Google maps surrounded by bean fields and a
pond (1).  After arriving, I duct tapped the 10 element beam to the
telescoping mast. The mast is made from PVC pipe, 2, 1-1/2 and 1 inch
diameters.  It's floppy over 15 feet high with the weight of the beam
and coax in the wind. The mast was tapped to the fence and aimed  to
the start point in Addison, approximately 19.6 miles away at 19.0
degrees. I could hear KB9DIM, W9RA and N9QDO on the input. We waited
for the new hunter, John N9QDO to drive from the old start point. He
had out of date information from the CFMC web site. I was surprised
that all of the hunters heard the signal, only 5 watts. I used low
power so the hunters would not think I was close. The hunt was off at
8:15. Don, W9RA had a erroneous south by south east heading from the
start and took 294 to I55 south. Tom, N9CBA exited too early on 355, at
Maple street in Lisle, took surface streets and encountered a road
block. Charlie, KB9DIM, had made a faulty repair in the afternoon of an
audio cable in the BMG unit, apparently difficult to access. He and
tossed in the towel on Cass ave near Argonne. We saw a flashlight at
the far end of the pond and by the time it got halfway down the gravel
access road, headlights appeared. They went into a run and I thought we
would see the sequel to the KB9DIM/WA9FTS incident of last September. I
expected the car to drive around the water tank and score, but Don
stopped at the end of the road and got out. John, N9QDO scored for
first place at 9:15 with Tom, N9CBA following. Munches where at Red
Robin near Clow airport. Don, K9VGJ would have joined us if munchies
were close to his house and offered to change it to Portillos in
Elmhurst. Mike, WA9FTS corrected the misleading web information at home
during the hunt. (WM Note: Misleading info was found on another site. 
The info on the web was up-to-date).


 John, N9QDO is from Gurnee, a ham for 18 years and holds a general
class license. He is working to upgrade to extra. He has an HF rig and
several antennas on the car. John has no foxhunting equipment so he
followed Tom, N9CBA on the hunt. Tom is offering a special deal on his
unused and lent out MK4 Sniffer DF unit that requires a 10 kc offset.
(2) Tom, N9CBA hides next week for the 34 foxhunt.


Results
 
1  N9QDO, N9CBA

2 W9RA

3 KB9DIM (DNF) 


(1) spot: 

 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Centennial+Park&daddr=41.673721,+-88.150123&hl=en&geocode=CU5JxODblRTHFa4LgAId4tDA-iHXnqFXUy4_mg%3B&mra=pe&mrcr=0&sll=42.075291,-87.995682&sspn=0.305804,0.53009&ie=UTF8&ll=41.672912,-88.148117&spn=0.038467,0.066261&t=h&z=14



(2) VK3YNG MK4 sniffer unit: http://users.bigpond.net.au/vk3yng/foxhunt/2m_sniffer/manual.htm

Tony Levand
ARC AA9CC

CFMC Foxhunt Report - October 18th, 2008 - Tom N9CBA

The fox, Tom N9CBA, hid  near the pond as indicated on the map. The
> 3-element yagi antenna was originally set up as horizontal, but it
> did not hit the repeater that way. The antenna was repositioned to
> vertical and driven with 15 watt. The antenna boom was supported by
> some light vegetation about 4.5 feet above the low ground. The
> starting point was 4.2 miles east of the fox.
> 
> First into the area was Chuck KA9KZO. Tony and Joanie reported he
> was driving out of the parking lot that Tony walked in from, as they
> first arrived. The other hunters parked in the Stratford Square
> parking lot to the north.
> 
> 
> Munch was at the Applebee's about 0.2 miles south of the hiding
> spot.
> 
> 1. Tony AA9CC and Joanie 8:43
> 2. Charlie KB9DIM and Alexis 8:58
> 3. Don W9RA 9:18
> 4. Chuck KA9KZO 9:18
> 
> 
> http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=41.944092,-88.112186&ie=UTF8&ll
=41.94492,-88.112175&spn=0.00731,0.011523&t=h&z=16&iwloc=addr
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CFMC Foxhunt Report September 2008 

It was a perfect night for hiding and I found a good spot, except for
one thing, the explosion of mosquitoes that followed last week's rain
forced me back into the car. I drove and found this spot, (Link to Map)
which looks like a slimy green waste water pond, but is actually terra
ferma of recent fill a few feet above the surroundings.  I broke off a
box elder skeleton tree and braced it with several bulldozer mangled
limbs 40 feet from the car and placed in it the Moxon rectangle facing
west, about 8 feet high. This would reduce the signal by 20 dB in the
expected approach direction. Joanie joined me around 7:30 after phone
directions with french fries, a chocolate milkshake and spray on deet
repellent, which worked well when applied around the open windows. I
checked and could make several repeaters including Elgin on low power.
There was some prehunt chatter about a jammer, I could not hear Charlie
in the input which concerned me, but at the start in Addison all four
had a direction and the hunt was off. The hunt was going smoothly but
to our dismay, the car lights we saw poking around the school drove up
the gravel road and right at us during a transmission, it was Tom and
the time was only 8:26. He had made only one overshoot to Park ave. 
Another hour passed with unfamiliar sheep like noises emanating from
the woods before Charlie and then Don asked for a extra transmissions. 
Don drove up and was surprised to find us for second place. Charlie
through in the towel but was persuaded into continuing with access from
the east. Mike and Paul were on foot when Charlie drove in, as in a
wild rodeo, keeping Mike on the far side of the car. It was intentional
interference, Charlie had a laugh, Mike was pissed off whipped the beam
to the ground and skipped munchies at Partillo's. Tom reported the
signal was only level 2 at I-355 and rt56.

Score:

CFMC Foxhunt September 20, 2008

1   8:26  Tom N9CBA

2   9:20  Don W9RA

3  9:40  Charlie with Lex ,KB9DIM 

DNF  Mike WA9FTS and Paul N9LXF

Fox: Tony  and Joanie AA9CC


CFMC 2M Foxhunt – August 16th, 2008
By Charlie KB9DIM

Another beautiful summer evening, with mild temperatures, and clear skies.
Charlie KB9DIM, the fox, chose a hiding spot in DesPlains, just east of the I-294 
tollway, and adjacent to the former Maine North High School.
The hunt started slightly late,  by just a few minutes. All the hunters reported 
hearing the fox's signal.
The fox was using a Yeasu FT-8800 mobile radio, putting out 15 watts, into 50 
feet of RG-8 coax, feeding a 5/8 J-Pole antenna, which was hanging in a tree 
about ten feet above the ground.

1st   AA9CC   8:46
2nd WA9FTS  8:47
3rd  N9CBA  8:54
4th  W9RA  9:05

We went to TGI Fridays in Glenview, for dinner.