Club Program Ideas: Fox Hunt

In this series on Club Program ideas, I’m providing possible programs for clubs to use in their meetings. You can find a full explanation of the approach in Club Programs – The Series.

Today's program idea: have a club fox hunt.

For those not in radio, this is not literally a fox hunt. Instead, a transmitter that produces intermittent signals is hidden and our amateur radio heroes have to find the transmitter. It is a competition and the first person or team that finds the transmitter wins.

Fox hunting is old school; it is also called "transmitter hunting" or "radio direction finding."

Fox hunting is a true sport within the hobby. In a typical club, most people do not know how to fox hunt -- so this is a perfect opportunity for fox hunt enthusiasts to lead others to show them how fox hunting is done. This may mean that there are only 5-6 teams, but twenty some people participating.

Here's the important thing about a fox hunt: after the hidden transmitter is found by the team, the group savors the hunt at a predesignated watering hole for the "meeting after the meeting."

Extra credit: it may make some sense to have a meeting program about fox hunting (slides), building fox hunting antennas and how it works through pictures with the next meeting being the actual fox hunt.

Have you ever had this program for your club meetings? Let us know how it went in the comments.

Scot, K9JY

Photo Credit: Diamond Antenna