Foxhunter activities 11-June-1995

Click the thumbnails and download a larger GIF. I've purposely kept even the "large" pictures pretty small as you'll see from their descriptions.

On June 11th, 1995 the Denver area foxhunters engaged in their obsession, find the hidden transmitter.

Bob Ragain, WB4ETT, was the fox for the day and he and his daughter Colleen, N0QGH, managed to find a difficult to locate spot with their usual flair.

The hunt was to be a cooperative effort, not the usual for us, and all seekers seemed to be quite willing to cooperate.

Bob was hidden just north of Idaho Springs (just west of Denver on I-70. Although I did not get to the transmitter myself, I discerned that he was located on a high spot with a view to the east.

The beacon this time out was the Rocky Mountain Radio League's (RMRL) crossband repeater. Input on 446.000 MHz and output on 147.555 MHz. The repeater has a continuous CW ID on the two meter side and is an ideal target for fox hunters as we could use it's repeater capabilities as an additional aid in determining our range from it.

If you look at a topo map of this area, you will discover that there are many mountains and foothills in the area. This generates incredible amounts of multipath. Thus, the hunt benefits greatly from cooperative efforts of a team.

The hunt began at 5 PM local time and each hunter was to begin from a location of their choosing (home for most of us). I'll give you a rundown from my perspective on the road.

Tom, N0KSR, and I headed out to a high spot near his home and took our first fix. At the same time, most of the other stations did the same and soon we were all on the RMRL's 146.940 MHz repeater sharing our DF information and discussing possible locations for the Fox.

We were appraised prior to the hunt that it would be a difficult one that took us into the mountains. But, possessors of the fox often give out wildly misleading information in an attempt to confuse the hapless hunters and we had to be sure that such was not the case this time out.

Comparing bearings, it was soon obvious that the Fox was indeed hiding somewhere to the west of Denver. And as the city is on the very edge of the foothills and mountains, that essentially meant the fox was up in the mountains.

The initial triangulation seemed to point to Kittredge, a town 15 miles WSW of Denver. And so, the hunt was on.

In order to get into the mountains there are essentially 2 main routes. US 285 and I-70. While we were cooperating with each other by sharing bearings, in the initial stages of the hunt folks were pretty much on their own determining their course into the hills.

Tom and I wanted to try and get a cross bearing of our own and so we motored over to a site in south central Denver. Bearings there confirmed a westerly course was necessary.

By this time several stations had already penetrated the mountains (they had a starting point much closer to the mountains than Tom or I had). These folks were indicating that signals were very weak and sporadic to the south (US 285) and much stronger along the I-70 corridor.

Tom and I volunteered (maybe just I did, I was the driver) to take US 285 into the mountains as it might offer a possibly good triangulation location. However, as we were entering the mountains, it soon became apparent that the FOX was definitely in the Idaho Springs Area.

Marty, WA0GEH, Chris, KB0QQW and Merle, K0YUK were closing in on the signal and I thought that the hunt would be over all too soon.

But, ... , the transmitter was placed in a devious location and the stations in its immediate vicinity were somewhat befuddled and could not zero in to a specific spot.

When in doubt, diversify. Likely locations were determined and hunters were dispatched to the four corners of the earth, well four corners of Idaho Springs anyway. Soon false leads were playing out and other areas were attracting increased attention.

First on the scene was Greg, N0JMH. Greg was ably aided by the team who essentially sent him to the top of "Oh My God" road, hey that's what it's called.

Others involved in the hunt were:

Once the transmitter was found, we decided not to all attempt to meet there but rather, pick a central location to eat and berate Bob for putting us thru heck trying to find that dumb thing!

I tried to get pictures of all but, in a cooperative hunt, some folks have to make a sacrifice and locate in a distant but valuable location for the purposes of triangulation. Such was the case with some stations. For those of you who made it to Beau Jo's Pizza in Idaho Springs, congrats, you got your mug on the internet.

Pictures

HUNTERS.GIF 130k

This is a group shot taken after dinner.

N0NJM.GIF 101k

Here's a snap of George furiously rubbing his hands trying to keep warm in the rapidly cooling evening air of the mountains just south of Idaho Springs (CO Highway 103, just north of Squaw Mtn.)

TOM.GIF 58k

Tom and I teamed up for this event. Here he is saying, "Put the damn camera down and lets hit the road!!"

That's it for this month's hunt. We'll see how this page is received and add to it accordingly.