College Station, Texas, U.S.A. • Brazos County • EM10tp
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In December 2001, we restarted the W5AC tradition of holding foxhunts. A foxhunt is when one operator hides the "fox" (a radio) somewhere in College Station, and everyone else tries to find it with direction-finding equipment before another team does.
Current W5AC Foxhunt Rules:
The frequency of the fox is usually 146.55 MHz. The frequency is fixed, in that if the hider goes to flip a switch to change frequencies, the competing teams will see them! The current fox uses a 2 meter transmitter, donated by Dick Zimmer W5DZ, in a housing with a PICCON built by Lance KJ5O.
We usually meet at Statue of Sul Ross. Everyone is encouraged to come and it is free to participate.
Normally we will be doing foxhunt every Friday afternoon from 4:00 to 6:00 at Sul Ross Statue. Information on our next foxhunt(s) will regularly be posted on the announcements page and announced on the Monday night net or the listserv.
In the past, the club has only had one fox. Both Doug KD5USF and Mike KZ5M have built additional PICCONs, so we can now have multi-fox hunts. We could have a higher power fox to get teams to the general location, then several 50-150 mW foxes that the teams actually have to find. Stay tuned for further develoments.
Know a story from one of the many foxhunts that aren't yet listed here? Please send it to the .
More foxhunts coming soon!
04-December-2015 - Last foxhunt of Fall 2015 semester. We tested our self designed 80 meter transmitter with April's antenna with 12V power supply. The propogating radius is about 200 meter which is quite impressive.
W5AC Foxhunters - Left-to-Right: April, Diego, Yucheng, Mark
4-September-2015 - First foxhunt of Fall 2015 semester. We tested 80 meter transmitter and receiver that Yucheng KG5GDV brought back from China. It was indeed a successful event. We hid and located several hidden transmitters - both 2 meter and 80 meter.
W5AC Foxhunters - Left-to-Right: Becca with 2m Yagi and receiver; April with 80m receiver; Dave W5QZ with 80m receiver; Marty W5MHN with 2m HT; Yucheng KG5GDV with 2m Yagi and receiver
Our new signs! Thanks to Dave W5QZ, people are more likely to stop and ask us what we are doing.
Can you see the hidden transmitter in the picture below? This one was hidden by April and Becca.
2-May-2015 Last Foxhunt of Spring Semester. Dave(W5QZ) made new fox! We run some experiments instead of foxhunting. Having a new fox is really great!
24-April-2015We had our foxhunt again from 4:00-6:00 in the afternoon.
10-April-2015 Today we encountered a visitor, Therese KD5HDR who's job is doing foxunt to track tagged animal.
27-March-2015There were three spearate foxhunts in total. each time takes less than 15 mins. It seems that our club members become better at foxhunting
22-Nov-2014We had a big group of people attending our foxhunt today. Whoop!
5-February-2011 - One day after snow was on the ground in BCS, we met for a nice back to back group of hunts.
13-February-2005 - A fun, two-transmitter hunt with great weather.
14-November-2004 - This foxhunt was cancelled after a power outage on campus earlier in the day.
10-October-2004 - The weather was nice and cool for the teams on this hunt. Kevin hid this fox in a location with several reflections, relatively close to the EOC. KZ5M maintained his reputation of getting there very quickly.
12-September-2004 - This was the first of our 2nd-Sunday-of-the-month series of hunts. Several teams participated, finding the first fox near powerlines and just out of plain view, and the second in a poorly-mapped area of town.
21-August-2004 - Beautiful but humid weather marked this two-fox hunt. Unfortunately, there were only two hunters. Our new huntmaster doesn't hide foxes on really busy streets... but Mike B. didn't think about that at first. Look forward to even more interesting future dual-fox hunts.
3-April-2004 - We originally planned to have fun after our work meeting by running a foxhunt this day, but due mostly to time constraints, we decided to forgo the hunt after the post-meeting lunch.
4-Mar-2004 - Foxhunt #2 for the week also cancelled due to more bad weather rolling through Texas.
29-Feb-2004 - Foxhunt cancelled due to approaching bad weather and the possibility that W5AC might be activated with Skywarn or TAMMSSDA.
8-Feb-2004 - This was a Sunday afternoon foxhunt. One team found that recent rain does indeed make the ground softer...as a result, vehicles get stuck in this stuff they call "mud." After being pulled out by some very friendly passers-by, they found the fox rather quickly.
31-Jan-2004 - Two Saturday afternoon foxhunts separated by a late lunch. This day marked the beginning of really sneaky on-foot hiding places for the fox, rather than the (equally challenging) roadside foxhunts before it. The first hunt ended in the forests of Bee Creek Park. The second hunt... let's just call it "the decoy hunt" - thanks to the creative thinking of KD5VVZ.
26-Jan-2002 - Lance Cotton, KJ5O, built a fox for us. Ramiro, KD5MMJ, Gabe, KC5OED, and Mike, KZ5M took only 54 minutes to locate the transmitter in Central Park from the start position at the College Station Fire Station. It was frustrating as the signal kept reflecting off the Aparment buildings near Wolf Creek Park, but both groups found it within minutes of each other.
Dec-1973 - We know from old records that W5AC held a transmitter hunt this December - we love our traditions! The "fox" was hidden near the power plant in Bryan (which today would be out of bounds). A non-licensed foxhunter found the fox first on this day.