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1 for 4
8 November 2012 | by Not a good start for W2LJ in the inaugural week of the 2012/2013 Winter QRP Fox hunt season. I only worked one of the four foxes – Jim K4AXF who was one of the 80 Meter Foxes tonight. I was able to hear Ron KI0II in Colorado rather well for 80 Meters, but could not make myself heard to him.
The 40 Meter hunt on Tuesday night was a complete bust. I never heard AA4XX at all, all night long. I did hear Kevin W9CF in Arizona very weakly; but then W1AW code practice came on and that, as they say, was the end of that.
It’s supposed to go up into the 50s to near 60 this weekend. Maybe I will be able to build and hoist that W3EDP antenna, now that the hurricane and snowstorms have passed. Maybe I can make the weekend “a twofer” as we say in the Fox hunt world – antenna in the air and leaves off the ground!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
3 Responses to “1 for 4”
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Sorry to be such a noob but how does an HF Fox Hunt operate? I’ve never had it explained to me.
Rob,
Here are the “Official” rules:
http://www.qrpfoxhunt.org/winter_rules.htm
But in a nutshell – let’s take the case of 40 Meters……
There are two Foxes. They operate between 7.030 and 7.050. The “Lower Fox”will find a spot somewhere between 7.030 and 7.040 and the “Upper Fox” will find a spot somewhere between 7.040 and 7.050.
Your job as a Hound is to find the Fox and determine how he is operating – usually split (and of course, what that split is). Sometimes the Fox will operate simplex, but that’s kind of rare.
To secure a “pelt” a two way exchange has to be made of RST – S/P/C – Name – Output power.
Of course, depending on propagation, if you can hear the Fox, you will be competing with a bunch of other QRP Hounds to secure a pelt.
The hunts last for 90 minutes and you might think this would be ample time; but sometimes, it’s not. It IS, however, a ton of fun and is great practice for learning how to work DX as well as training in the disciplines of patience and perseverance.
Join the QRP Foxhunt group in Yahoo groups for e-mail reminders of who is operating when and come and join us! The Winter season has just started and there will be hunts every week until March.
73 de Larry W2LJ
Thank you. I might just give it a try!