What is a Fox Hunt?

Every weekend, in cities and towns all across the country, ham radio operators gather on hilltops for a very special kind of contest–the Fox Hunt. A small, low power transmitter is hidden and the rest of the crew tries to find it. Sound simple? It can be very challenging and a whole lot of fun. The direction finding skills learned in this activity can be very valuable in locating a repeater jammer, or a lost hiker.

See ARRL website: http://www.arrl.org/direction-finding

“fox hunting” has spread through many ham radio clubs around the world as a very exciting and fun aspect of the hobby. Fox hunting can take many forms of transmitter hunting, from a person hiding within a few blocks of the starting point with his handheld and periodically making a transmission while others try to find him on foot using directional antennas; to a competition with multiple unmanned automatic transmitters scattered over a course that can be several hundred kilometers long – the entrants being required to find each transmitter in proper order with a minimum number of kilometers driven. Another variation includes jogging or running from one low power fox transmitter to another while carrying RDF equipment.

What makes fox hunting so popular?

• The social aspect of getting together with others with similar interests.
• Anyone can take part – you don’t need a ham license since only a receiver is required.
• The satisfaction of building your own equipment such as an antenna for use in RDFing.
• The fun and competitiveness of the hunt, which also can involve both physical and mental exercise (walking while searching, and the calculations and map plotting required to determine where the fox may be located).
• The outdoor aspect of the sport (sunshine and fresh air).

The “fox” has several basic requirements:

• Be able to move to a location unobserved by those who plan on taking part in the hunt.
• Be able to hide well enough at the location he has chosen so he will not be accidentally spotted. The hunters should have to almost stumble over him in order to find him.
• Be equipped with enough handheld battery capacity, water, lunch etc. for the expected duration of the hunt – it could be one or two hours or more in length, depending on the distance the fox is from the starting point and how well he is able to confuse the hunters as to his probable location.