September fox hides in urban lair

September’s foxhunt occurred on Sunday 10 September, again with a reduced number of hunters in the game because that Sunday was also the date of the Findlay Hamfest. So the hunters that participated consisted of the team of Linda and Steve Nardin, K9’s LAN and SAN and their grandson Alex, the team of Charles Ward, KC9MUT, Fred Gengnagle, KC9EZP and Phil Hooper, AB9IZ, and individual hunter Clarke Derbyshire, KG9FM.

Serving as the fox was Don Glick, K9LI, who situated himself in Reservoir Park (now known as Ivan Lebamoff Park) on the corner of Creighton Ave. and South Clinton St., a few blocks south of Parkview Field. Don used a 5 watt hand held to taunt the hunters who were initially situated at Cobin Memorial Field. He emplaced the microfox within a metal birdhouse on the grounds of Reservoir Park and both he and it squawked on the usual foxhunt frequency of 146.430 MHz.

The hunters heard Don’s initial transmissions despite his use of the 5 watt handheld, most likely because he transmitted from a high spot at the Park. Since I was not at the hunt (being in Findlay drooling over used Collins gear), I cannot specifically attest to all of the gyrations that the hunters went through, but sufficed to say the Nardin and the Ward/Gengnagle/Hooper teams eventually localized the hide location, with Fred first to find the microfox. Unfortunately, Clarke experienced equipment problems as was not able to finish the hunt.

Given the order of finding the microfox, the Ward/Gengangle/Hooper team will serve as the fox for the October hunt (which will occur on 1 October). Rumor is that Phil’s going to dress up like a pumpkin and hide out with the microfox in a patch somewhere around Leo.

Points earned for the September hunt and cumulative points to date are as follows:

We have two remaining contests this year. Why don’t you join in on the fun?