June fox takes hunters shopping

June, ahh June, when graduations abound and summer vacations start and fox hunters shuck their boots, caps, overcoats and sweatshirts for breezier garb. And thus it was that the first hunt of the summer commenced on a beautiful first day of June with the foxhunt team of Charles Ward, KC9MUT and Fred Gengnagle, KC9EZP, the team of Steve and Linda Nardin, W9’s SAN & LAN, the team of Kim & Jim Machamer, KB9’s DOS & DOT, and the team of Bob Dean, KC9UHU & Dave Spence, K9NDU congregating at Buckner Park as the starting point.

The services of the fox were provided by Jim & Annie Pliett, K9OMA & KA9YYI plus Carole & Al Burke, WB9’s RUS & SSE. Jim & Annie served as the high power fox and were ensconced in their van behind the McDonald’s on Coliseum Blvd. near Speedway Dr. while the low power fox was contained in Carole and Al’s daughter’s van located in the north parking lot of Glenbrook Square near the Barnes & Noble store. The high power fox emitted about 20 watts into Jim’s roof mounted Yagi, while the low power fox emitted about one watt using an HT. Both foxes used 146.280 MHz.

Taunting of the hunters started promptly at 13:30 and we believe was heard by all at Buckner Park. Around thirty minutes into the hunt we noticed that Kim & Jim were snooping around the McDonald’s parking lot where Jim & Annie were located, and in fact found them a little bit after that. Then, forty six minutes into the hunt Bob & Dave drove right past our (low power fox) hide, smiled and waved to us. Thus, they were the first to physically find the fox. A little after that Charles and Fred parked on the north edge of Glenbrook’s lot next to Coldwater, dismounted and started hunting on foot, but they stayed on the north edge of the lot. Steve and Linda were driving and walking-hunting much closer to our Barnes & Noble location, and if fact Steve walked past our location, one row over, several times without spotting us.

About this time a minor fender-bender occurred one row over from our location which resulted in a bit of minor confusion and then the arrival of the Mall cops. They were attempting to deal with the situation, and at least one of them appeared to me to be in a not very good mood. While all this was unraveling Kim & Jim found us (at seventy minutes into the hunt) and thus were the 2nd crew to locate the fox.

As it was bound to happen, Steve caught the attention of the un-happy Mall cop while wandering around with his hand-held yagi searching for us. He accosted Steve and informed him that he (we) couldn’t do what we were doing. So with that (at 116 minutes) we decided to terminate the hunt.

As it turned out, Charles and Fred had ID’d the Glenbrook north parking lot three times but didn’t go very deep into it on foot considering it to be private property and thus not a viable hiding spot per Foxhunt rules. We had utilized Glenbrook for hunts years ago and thus considered it fair game, but in retrospect we think Charles was right and thus offer our apologies for using Glenbrook to hide.

Following the hunt everyone proceeded to the Steak-N-Shake on Coldwater Rd. to partake in a re-fueling session. It was yummy as usual.

Based upon mileage traveled and time-to-find data summarized below:

Bob Dean and Dave Spence were the winners of this one and thus will serve as the fox for the July hunt. The Public Safety Academy will serve as the starting point, using 146.430 MHz as the fox frequency.

Statistics for this hunt and year-to-date are as follows: