If you want to find out what it takes to learn a little about Radio Direction Finding so you can get started in Amateur Radio “Foxhunting”, you’ve come to the right place.
Whether you call it “Foxhunting”, “Bunny Hunting”, “T-Hunting”, or just Hidden Transmitter Hunting, it really doesn’t matter. You can hunt from your car, bicycle, airplane or on foot. And because there’s no need to transmit while hunting, you don’t even need to have an Amateur Radio license to participate. What matters is that there is one common goal: To determine where a hidden transmitter is located. For this you need some way to tell the direction from which the transmitter’s radio waves are coming. Then it’s essentially a matter of proceeding in that direction until you reach the transmitter. That’s a bit of a simplification, of course, but not by much. Although you can use some pretty sophisticated electronic equipment to make finding the transmitter easier, it doesn’t take a lot to get started. We’ll leave discussions about the “High Tech” equipment for another time and focus on the basic essentials. That’s what you’re here for, right?
W9UVI Fox Hunting
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- All hunters (includes teams and individuals) must gather at the designated starting spot and sign in.
- No transmitting on the Fox frequencies
- All hunters must obey the traffic laws when in the hunt
- All foxes will be located on public accessible land
- Each fox transmitter will have another fox’s transmitting frequency attached to the transmitter
- Take the top consecutive number from each stack of numbers attached to the transmitter box.
- No APRS beacons from the hunter will be allowed as this will aid in the transmitter location.
- Hunter with the lowest point total and shortest elapsed time will be declared the winner.
Details to come soon for the next planned Fox Hunt.
If you are interested in a tape measure beam, you can build your own by getting the supplies at your local building supply store or you can purchase a kit.
There are several kits available, and you can do a search for them and see the different ones that are available and decide which you prefer.
Instructions for putting the antenna together can be found here: Tape Measure Beam
WB2HOL Tape Measure Beam
The WB2HOL Tape Measure Beam is one of the standards for transmitter hunting. The beam as built in the instructions is good for 2M but it has also been successfully scaled for use on other frequencies including 121.5MHz (used for ELTs.)
A choke balun consisting of 6 – 8 turns of coax around the beam will help reduce the pattern skew significantly. It is not shown on the plans for the WB2HOL Tap Measure Beam, but should still be added to the antenna.
The parts you will need are:
| Qty | Description |
| 1 | 7″ Schedule 40 PVC Pipe |
| 1 | 11 1/2″ Schedule 40 PVC Pipe |
| 2 | 1/2″ Crosses, Schedule 40 |
| 1 | 1/2″ Tee, Schedule 30 |
| 2 | #12 Stainless Hose Clamps |
| 1 | 1″ Tape Measure Reflector |
| 2 | 1″ Tape Measure Driven Elements |
| 1 | 1″ Tape Measure Director |
| 1 | 5″ Wire (hairpin match) |
| 4′ | RG174A cable w/ crimped on BNC connector |
| 18″ | Gaffers Tape |
| 6″ | Gaffers Tape (for element ends protection) |
Note: If your radio has an SMA connector, a BNC to SMA adapter will be required. We have seen a couple of problems with bad BNC to SMA adapters (center pin not making contact) so double check that you need to buy one.