Operating

The [Bristol County Repeater Association] will be holding its “First (in a while)” BCRA Fox Hunt on Saturday, November 21, 2020.

Check-ins starting at 9:45 am on the BCRA repeater, 145.150 MHz PL 123. Chat and help on the repeater also.

The Fox will activate at 10:00 am on 146.565 MHz FM with a 5-watt signal and will transmit one minute of tone followed by Morse Code ID and four minutes of silence. The hunt will last until 2:00 pm or until all checked in participants have found the transmitter, whichever comes first.

The Fox will be located within a 10 mile radius of the intersection of President Avenue (Rt. 6) and North Main Street in Fall River. ( Latitude 41.7159 Longitude -71.1510 ) The Fox will be in a public place and will be manned at all times. When you have found the fox your time and order of arrival will be recorded and a personalized certificate will be emailed to each participant.

Participants are encouraged to work in teams, and are asked to drive carefully and observe all applicable guidelines, both from the FCC and the state & local governments. Since participants are receiving only (except for radio check-ins) an amateur radio license is not required.

Email questions to Skip at kb1cnb@bcra.club or text to 774-644-3469. After the hunt, your comments, impressions, and suggestions will be welcome!

Join us and have some good amateur radio fun!

As of noon Friday [October 23, 2020], the KD1D Fox is on the air at a Westford Conservation Trust Site.  It will remain there through Monday.

The Site is the Veterans Memorial Complex in the Graniteville section of town. There is an excellent write up of the area at: https://westfordconservationtrust.org/tws_holding/veterans-memorial-complex/ 

Some Hints:

– The site can be approached from at least two directions.   Although one might be tempted to follow a Beacon, greater success may come from finding the Field of Diamonds.  You will know you are near the Field when you see many foxes cavorting.  Do not be deceived – our Fox is not among them.

–  When you come to the table, you will know you are on the right path.

– Like life itself, the trail has several ups and downs.  The wise seeker will carry a staff or hiking stick.

– The hunter must traverse a road made difficult by the presence of many fallen ancients.

– Beware the fortress.  It is deceitful.

Happy Hunting!

73 de KD1D

Alan Hicks, KD1D, writes on the NEMass Fox Hunters List on October 9, 2020:

The KD1D Fox transmitter went on the air again  in Westford MA at 1530 EDT on Friday 9 October 2020.  

It will transmit a voice message on 146.565 MHz for approximately 30 seconds which will repeat at 60 second intervals.  I expect the Fox to be operating through the weekend until at least Tuesday afternoon.  For additional information on our club’s Fox Hunting activities, please visit: http://www.wb1gof.org/activities/Foxing/
 
Some clues:

– It is located on conservation land in the northeast section of town and can be heard from Route 40 (Groton Road).

– You may park at a public playground (with a porta-potty) near the trail entrance.

-The Conservation area has a name similar to that of Tarzan’s family of origin.   

– The name is also a compound word consisting of “neither black nor white”  and a hard natural object.

Once you find  the trail, the Fox will not be far away, but it may be difficult to see.

If you’re unfamiliar with the area, drop me an email at my callsign @arrl.net and I will help you zero in on the location before you go hunting.

Alan Hicks, KD1D, writes on NEMass fox hunters list:

* All the 2-meter FM foxes belonging to PART of Westford members transmit on 146.565 MHz.  

* Currently the KD1D and W1HFN foxes use the Squawkbox module, which typically transmits a short (e.g. 30 second)  voice message and repeats once per minute. The low  power output of about 50 mW allows more than one Squawkbox to be on the air if they are far enough apart.  Often, I have one operating in Westford and W1HFN has one operating in Littleton simultaneously.

* Other two-meter fox boxes operated by our club members (including KB1MGI) use the Byonics module which sends a series of tones for a fixed period (e.g. 30 minutes) when activated by the hunter sending a DTMF ‘2’ for two seconds.   

* Occasionally, Andy Stuart, KB1OIQ, puts out an 80-meter Fox operating around 3.6 MHz.  

[KB1OIQ: It is supposed to be the color burst frequency.  This fox is really a Cricket 80A CW transceiver driven by an Arduino.  Yes, it is a bit overkill but I had fun making it.  It consumes too much power, so when it is out, it is usually only for a day or two.  It has a built-in real time clock so it only transmits during the daylight hours (approximately). I also occasionally put out a 2m fox, which is a Byonics MicroFox, transmitting about 15 mW.  This fox transmits 24×7 for several days until I retrieve it. I have also been accused of hiding a fox inside of a plastic owl, up on a tree branch.  Fox hunters claim to have heard the CW message, “I am most wise.”]

* The operators usually post frequency and activation information, when they announce the hunt.  I’ve gotten a bit lazy on that score and will try to mend my ways!

* Similarly, we usually announce the location (usually conservation, recreation or other public area), although lately I have been providing only clues to add a challenge.

* Some of the foxes use an HT transmitting 1 or 2 watts, in which case, we usually just announce the town it is in to practice long-distance direction finding similar to what we would need to track down a repeater troll.

It’s great to have fox hunters from outside the Westford area participating!  I will try to take that into consideration when doling out clues in the future.

73 and Happy Hunting!

Alan KD1D

Alan Hicks, KD1D, writes on the NEMass Fox Hunters List at 7:51 PM on October 2, 2020: 

I set the fox loose again Friday afternoon around 5:00 pm in Westford.  It should run all weekend and into Monday.

Some clues:

It is neither ingenuous nor ingenious to say that it is an area named after something that is igneous.

It is in an area with a small rocky stream.

It should  be an easy non-strenuous hunt once you locate the general area.

73 and happy hunting!

Alan KD1D